5/28/10 - 5/31/10 Pine Valley Camping

This Memorial Day Weekend we went camping with Misi, Marci, Marley, Macey and their extended family in Pine Valley, UT.

We were about 3/4 mile from Pine Valley Reservoir and took several hikes to the scenic (though fisherman infested) reservoir. Apparently the area is a big summertime destination for the St. George/ Las Vegas folk. There were more Nevada license plates than there were Utah license plates at the campgrounds. Being Memorial Day Weekend, we were lucky to get one of the last available campsites in the whole valley! We ended up at the Equestrian Campground, which was not the best for Lori's horse allergies, it didn't have the best campground amenities, and was much less forested than the other camp areas. But since most of the group was interested in doing little more than sitting around the campground relaxing, and since we had a total of 17 people and 6 vehicles, the extreme roominess and privacy of the campground was ideal for our group.

CAMPGROUND - Pix of hanging at the campground:


THE KID CORRAL - a huge benefit of using a horse camp:


THE KID CORRAL - video:


HIKING - THE LAKE - Between the 4 of us in various combinations, and with various company along, we took a total of 7 hikes to the vincinity of the Pine Valley Reservoir:


HIKING - THE LAKE - videos:




HIKING - THE MEADOW - Unfortunately, the lake was typically infested around it's entire shore with hundreds of fisherman, practically standing shoulder to shoulder, who do not take kindly to rocks thrown in the water, splashing about, giggling, and general horseplay as is typical of small (and not so small) children. So Lacey and Ron did a little exploring and found a great fisherman- free meadow with the stream running through it where we were able to enjoy pine cone races, rock throwing, stick fencing, toe dangling, and various other activities on multiple occasions:


JEEPING - Forest Service Trail # 31040. Ron and Lori bribed a Marci and Rae with ice cream to watch the kids for awhile while they went exploring in the Jeep. Armed with the most recent Dixie National Forest MVUM (Motor Vehicle Use Map), we went to check out a road that showed on the map as legal only to ATVs and motorcycles. However, when we got to it, the sign on the ground stated that the route was open to ALL motor vehicles! So we took it. It was a nice short trail (about 2 miles long) that was fun, but not very difficult. There were a couple of places where it was certainly more suited to ATV-sized vehicles, but was still easily passable to a carefully driven full- sized 4x4. Other than a single incident that involved breaking a large tree branch to clear the trail, sliding face first about 20 feet down a steep hill, and a couple of bloody scrapes, it was a very enjoyable ride ;)


5/28/10 - 5/31/10 Pine Valley adventure stats:

adventure days=3.0
work vacation days used=0
highway miles=687
off-highway miles=12
hiking miles=12.0
average lodging cost per night (3 nights)=$5.00