Home Care In Hanksville, UT

Fremont River: The Fremont River travels along Scenic Byway 24 and adds opportunity for trees and other vegetation to grow in the canyon near Capitol Reef National Park. The beautiful red rocks can be seen for miles as you travel the route. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

By GARY WARREN Photographer Formerly of Los Alamos

We have spent about three weeks “roaming” around Southern Utah. With no specific route or plans, we entered Utah via Interstate 15 at St. George, Utah and moved around the southern part of the state. To say that Southern Utah displays some of the most magnificent landscapes is an understatement. There seems to be jaw-dropping views around every bend in the road.

This post will feature one of several Scenic Byways that are found in this part of Utah, Scenic Byway 24. A simple name for a beautiful drive of about 75 miles from Loa, Utah to Hanksville, Utah. Our “basecamp” was in Hanksville, and we explored from there.

The drive that we took from Hanksville to Torrey covers the majority of the Scenic Byway. As you leave Hanksville, the landscape is nice, high desert, but vegetation is not the star of the show, there just isn’t much of it!

However, driving westward on Highway 24 the scenery begins to change and the magical geographic wonders make their selves the reason that this highway is a Scenic Byway. Beautiful rock formations of several colors begin to show but the dominant color is red. This is red rock country.

Scenic Byway 24 really takes on magnificence as you drive through the canyon toward the farming community of Fruita, Utah. Fruita was settled by the Mormons over 100 years ago. They built some structures and houses and planted over 3,000 fruit trees in the valley near the Fremont River which still exist today. The primary entrance to Capitol Reef National Park and the park’s visitor center are the next landmarks just past the orchards at Fruita.

After passing the entrance to Capitol Reef, the landscape opens up a bit into the Fremont River Valley. While the canyon has opened up, the views and landscape are just as impressive as you drive along the red rocks and formations for a few miles into Torrey.

Torrey is a small village that has a few restaurants, stores and offers good camping at an elevation of almost 7,000 feet. Torrey can be a great escape from hot desert temperatures in the summer as the climate is much cooler due to the elevation. Torrey is also the point where Scenic Byways 24 and Scenic Byway 12 meet. As you travel westward on Scenic Byway 24, you drive into the Fishlake National Forest.

We took a break at Torrey for a while and then began our drive back to Hanksville. Driving the same road but from west to east revealed many additional fabulous red rock landscapes and vistas. This is just one of several scenic drives that we enjoyed while roaming around Southern Utah.

This entire scenic drive offers a variety of outdoor recreation opportunities. Hiking the many trails is an obvious example. Other activities such as photography, bird watching near the river, biking, and camping are just a few of the outdoor opportunities as you travel and admire this amazing and beautiful part of Utah.

Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.

The Castle: This formation just west of Capitol Reef is known as the Castle. The formation does look like a castle as you view it from different angles. Again, the colors of the rock formations create an incredible view for visitors. The lower red layer swirls around in every direction and then levels out to horizontal layers as it progresses up toward the Castle which is made up of very vertical spires. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

Torrey: The landscape near Torrey changes a bit as the valley opens up but the red rock formations continue to amaze viewers. The elevation has risen, and Torrey becomes juniper and pinon country before changing to pine, fir, and aspen in the forest higher in elevation. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

Fremont River Valley: This scene is part of the Fremont River Valley looking toward the red rock cliffs. The river is in the distance behind the photographer and is not visible in this view. The multi-colored rock cliffs and formations with the pinon and juniper in the foreground are a sight for the eyes! Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

Twisted Trees: These twisted trees along the Fremont River and adjacent rock wall appear to be battling for attention as their dark trunks and branches move about in the new spring growth. The trees were not that small but are dwarfed by the huge red rock canyon wall. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

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HANKSVILLE, Wayne County — It started with a simple idea: Why not live and work where you love?

Daniel Cahoon has been visiting Hanksville and the surrounding area for nearly 30 years.

"There's something about this place that got in my blood," he said.

Now, he's making Hanksville his permanent home.

He is even moving his family to the small Wayne County town from Kansas City because he's starting a business. Cahoon and his brother own Muddy Creek Mining Company, where they will be renting luxury cabins and showing off the area's history.

"We're putting in what we think is going to be an amazing destination for folks who want to visit this part of Utah," Cahoon said.

Lake Powell and Goblin Valley State Park are nearby, as well as Capitol Reef National Park, Robber's Roost, Factory Butte, and plenty of room to explore.

"I got to tell you, Hanksville is in the middle of everywhere," Cahoon said with a laugh.

However, just last year, Hanksville was in the middle of one of the worst floods anybody here can remember. The Fremont River went over its banks and flooded most of the town.

"It devastated the town. I think everybody in town was affected by it in some way or the other," Cahoon said.

Roads, homes, and businesses were flooded. It seemed like the water would never stop or go away.

"I look back at the pictures and it just made me cry. I can't even believe it," Lisa Wells said. She is Hankville's town clerk.

She said the town is still waiting for federal money that was promised to clear out channels, fix roads that were damaged, and repair the town's water and sewer system.

"We've got engineers and we've got the plans, but we still haven't gotten the funding yet in place," she said.

Thanks to residents and volunteers, the town dug out and repaired what it could. Businesses slowly started to reopen.

And new businesses, like Cahoon's, who started his plans in February, are investing in Hanksville's future.

"The fact that I can be part of that recovery, and we think we can do something even more than what was here, is really exciting to me," Cahoon said.

Maybe the next flood will involve tourists. Wells, who has lived in Hanksville for most of her life, thinks it's possible.

"I do. I really do. Some people don't, but I'm like, yeah," she said with a laugh. "I think it will. We've got enough people in this town that are trying to make it happen."

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Mesa Farms is renowned for its farming methods and for giving back to the community.

| Updated: 9:41 a.m.

Every year, Randy Ramsley replaces his nanny goats with kid goats and raises these herds like he would children. And when the Sept. 1 floods sank his farm and took 11 goats, it was a financial loss, but also a personal one.

Ramsley’s farm is located near the banks of the Fremont River and when it swelled over its banks after a monsoon storm, the waters rose too fast for the goats that make his signature cheese and they drowned. Now the culinary community all over Utah is raising money to help him rebuild his 50-acre Mesa Farms and Market.

More than six feet of water flashed through the towns of Hanksville and Cainesville over two weeks ago, impacting the livelihoods of hundreds of people. With no official state or federal emergency relief money to assist these towns, locals have relied on online fundraisers to cover the millions in damages the floods left behind.

“Randy works as hard as anyone I’ve ever heard about or met, and he is very far from wealthy,” says Matt Caputo, CEO for the market and deli Caputos, who buys cheese from Mesa Farms.

Caputo added that Ramsley operates a farm that has helped many people and organizations who value regenerative farming techniques, which focus on growing food and raising livestock without harming the land. That’s partly why he sells his cheese at Caputos.

“He does it for different reasons, and in this capitalist world, doing something for those reasons is really hard to do,” Caputo said.

Ramsley’s passion creates incredible, high-quality cheese, according to Caputo. Caputos ages the cheese from Mesa Farms and sells it for $25 to $32 per pound.

“Randy’s cheese tastes natural, and it tastes like a place that it comes from,” Caputo said. “You can taste the vibrancy and the health of his animals in his cheese.”

Since the fundraiser was launched, donors gave about $13,000, enough to help him restock most of his lost herd with the help of other goat farmers in the Salt Lake Valley. Any extra money will be used to help with the upkeep of his fencing and the hay he will need to buy this year.

Before the floods, Mesa Farms offered help to local communities, including the Navajo Nation.

Cynthia Wilson, traditional foods program director for Utah Diné Bikéyah, says that Mesa Farms partnered with the nonprofit to give 18 goats to Diné sheep producers in San Juan County during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wilson, who is Navajo (Diné), says Mesa Farms became a food resource for many Indigenous families from the Four Corners region.

Wilson added that Mesa Farms is a leader on food sovereignty — making healthy foods with the most environmentally sustainable methods for the nearby community. She thinks many of Mesa Farms’ methods could help farmers and ranchers in the Navajo Nation.

“For someone like Randy and Mesa Farm and Market, it is an example of what we are trying to restore here in our communities, among Indigenous Peoples, restoring Navajo churro sheep and reconnecting back to the holistic use of an animal,” Wilson said.

For Ramsley, the outpouring of financial support is getting him back on his feet. “Having lost those 11 would have set me back a year in being able to keep my herd genetics and productivity up, but because of the fundraiser and because of sheer luck, I’ve been able to locate some replacement yearlings,” he said.

EYE on UTAH: Individuals from across the planet Earth participate in weeks-long missions at a facility in Wayne County, Utah, designed to mimic the conditions found on Mars. The Mars Society's Desert Research Station acts as an analog for the fourth planet from the Sun in an effort to advance technology to use when the Earthlings on the Blue Planet eventually travel the nearby Red Planet. (Photo: Amanda Gilbert, KUTV)

HANKSVILLE, Utah (KUTV) — Researchers from as far as France and Canada are in southeast Utah for a Mars simulation.

Past the Goblin Hoodos and through the town of Hanksville - with a population nearing 200 - and miles further off the less-traveled roads, is an area of the state that sure feels like Mars.

On Wednesday, Eye on Utah showed you the Mars Desert Research Station in Wayne County, where a crew is participating in a nearly two-week mission at the remote location, chosen because of its similarity to the Red Planet's terrain.

Founded by the Mars Society, a nonprofit that gives people a taste of what it's like to live on Earth's next-door neighbor, the facility is home for the seven-member crew as they conduct futuristic research over their 12 days at the site.

That research includes 14 different experiments.

Cécile Renaud, Greenhab officer and crew biologist, is using blue-green algae to help grow plants in harsh environments.

"This soil was developed by NASA to mimic Mars soil," she said. "And we have one seed that sprouted here."

Over at the Musk Observatory - named after Tesla founder and Twitter owner Elon Musk, whose foundation provided a grant to the Mars Society to establish the facility - the crew closely observes the sun. The equipment allows them to see sunspots and forecast the weather on the solar system's central body.

The mission is one that can take a toll, the crew members said.

"Even if you exercise two hours a day, which is what the astronauts in the (International) Space Station do, they still see bone loss," said the crew's medical officer, Audrey Derobertmasure.

Outside the facility, you'll spot a Mars rover prototype.

Erin Kennedy, the crew's engineer, is trying to get an internship with the NASA team that works on the Mars rovers. In that effort, she built her own.

It's designed to be powered by the wind.

"(It) would look for interesting geological activities on Mars," she said. "So, eruptions on Mars."

NASA is hoping to send people to the Red Planet within the next 15 years or so.

Get more information on the Mars Society and the facility in Wayne County at marssociety.org.

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HANKSVILLE, Utah — “Within an hour of being trapped, I knew I had to cut off my arm,” Aron Ralston said.

The world’s most famous canyoneer had just landed in Denver. He was talking with me on his cellphone, and his voice sounded positively jovial.

“Of course, my knife was so dull I couldn’t saw through the skin. It took me until Day 4 to figure out that the only solution was to stab myself.”

He paused to laugh. You might even describe it as a guffaw.

“That’s what you call a lightbulb moment,” he said with relish.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Ralston’s story (as related in the 2010 movie “127 Hours”), here are the facts: During a solo canyoneering trip in southern Utah, he was trapped by an 800-pound boulder. To free himself, he was forced to amputate his right arm.

“I’m no more or less equipped for something extraordinary than anyone else,” Ralston said. “We’re all just waiting for that boulder in our lives to bring us to that same point.”

I was flabbergasted by his positive attitude, given the trauma of his experience. I was also appalled by his story. After all, I was about to embark on my first canyoneering trip to southeastern Utah, just a few miles from where Ralston had spent his five-day season in hell.

I had signed up for a three-day technical canyoneering course in Robbers Roost wilderness, one of the most remote areas of the United States. The oddball sport involves moving up and down steep-sided slot canyons using a variety of methods, including climbing, crawling and rappelling. And, in my case, praying, cursing and regretting my decision to leave Los Angeles.

Canyoneering has gained popularity in recent years. Strangely, “127 Hours” seems to have encouraged more people to try it, especially in Utah. After landing in Salt Lake City on a clear September day, I made a last call to my wife before picking up my rental car and venturing into a cellphone service abyss.

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I did have one important advantage though. My instructor, Christopher Hagedorn, has been leading classes and expeditions in this area for upward of 10 years. His company, Get in the Wild Adventures, has thrived throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Not surprising, I suppose. Canyoneering is by its very nature a socially distanced activity.

“I spent a good part of my life following the dream of being an astronaut,” he said the first day at our training camp, about 20 minutes’ drive from Hanksville, Utah.

“When I realized that wasn’t going to happen, I figured this was the closest I’d ever get to being on another planet.”

I could see what he meant as I scanned the extraterrestrial topography around me. The rust-colored rock formations were straight out of the 1990 sci-fi classic “Total Recall.” Arnold Schwarzenegger’s classic line — “Get your ass to Mars” — flashed briefly through my mind.

Hagedorn’s gentle voice shook me from my daydream. I and 10 other would-be canyoneers were hunkering down on a sun-warmed cliff, attempting to grasp the fundamentals. Terror has a way of focusing the mind, and I hung on his every word as he spent the first morning explaining the basics of roping and climbing.

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Without getting caught up in technicalities — and there are plenty of technicalities to get caught up in — here is a brief glossary of terms:

Stemming: crawling crab-style along the slippery sides of a yawning chasm

Cairn anchor: a hastily constructed pile of rocks from which you will shortly be dangling

Fireman’s billet: holding the rope tightly above your head to stop your classmate from tumbling to almost-certain death

Free-rappelling: hanging in open space, then descending to the canyon floor while trying not to cry

These definitions may not be entirely accurate. But this is how they sounded to me, sitting in the glaring sun with cottonmouth and sweaty palms.

I was relieved when we finally left camp Friday afternoon. All this talk of 100-foot free rappels was enough to give me a heart attack. I was ready to face a bona fide canyon.

It turned out to be a relatively easy start: “a PG-13-rated canyon,” in Hagedorn’s words. There were no cliffs in this section of the gorge and no need for ropes. We clambered up the narrow sandstone walls for perhaps two hours, then clambered back down.

There was a pleasing rhythm to this arduous process, and although our knees and elbows took a beating, we finished the day without any catastrophes, our limbs miraculously intact.

Saturday was more testing. We were to visit the so-called Stairway to Heaven, a deep gulley that included several 90- and 100-foot rappels. We started on the Angel Trail, “the only path in 6 million acres,” Hagedorn said.

This outrageously isolated corner of desert was once a hideout for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But even those fearless outlaws weren’t foolish enough to tackle the landscape with ropes. As I leaned over the side of a jagged sandstone ledge, I spied a gap in the cliff like the crease in a giant’s elbow.

Reluctantly, I pulled on my harness, which felt like an ugly, cumbersome garter belt.

Travel & Experiences

April 29, 2021

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As Ralston had told me during our interview: “In Robbers Roost, even by the shortest line, you’re 30, maybe 40 miles from civilization.” For a city boy like myself, this was a terrifying prospect, especially considering what I was about to do.

I grasped the rope, then unhooked myself from the safety binding. I could scarcely breathe. But once I’d hiked my leg over the ledge and was able to see the wall of rock in front of me, I felt oddly calm.

The journey to the canyon floor was clumsily executed — I even managed to rip my T-shirt in the carabiner — but it wasn’t entirely unpleasant. I let loose a mini-whoop of joy when my feet touched the sand on the canyon floor.

Rappelling was not as repulsive as I’d imagined. The second and third tries were easier than the first. I even found myself eager for more. On Friday morning, I’d been a canyon virgin. By Saturday afternoon, I was something of a canyon floozy.

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My final dangle over the desert floor felt almost casual. With fear at bay, I was able to absorb the landscape and wonder at its scale and beauty. As I peered at the otherworldly rock formations for the last time, I was reminded of my interview with Ralston.

“There’s a boulder for each and every one of us,” he had said when we’d talked a few days earlier. “If it’s not a chunk of sandstone, it’s cancer or it’s divorce. We can choose to turn that trauma into a tragedy or we can turn it into a triumph.”

I wasn’t in the throes of a divorce. And thank goodness, I didn’t have cancer. But I’d made it through the weekend unscathed, and for that I was glad, perhaps even a little triumphant.

As my feet touched the “Martian” sand, I was grateful for gravity and for all the good things I took for granted in this short, alien and wholly miraculous life.

Get in the Wild Adventures, [(818) 381-9453, getinthewild.com] in Hanksville, Utah, offers a three-day technical canyoneering course with a focus on climbing techniques, trip planning, problem solving and team building. From $445 per person. One-day trips are also available, including a “127 Hours Adventure” in Bluejohn Canyon, the location of Ralston’s five-day ordeal. Prices start at $289 per person. Trips are offered year-round.

Where to stay

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Whispering Sands Motel, (435) 542-3238,; 90 S. Highway 95, Hanksville, Utah. Doubles from $89 a night.

Red Sands Hotel & Spa, (435) 425-3688; 670 E. Highway 24, Torrey, Utah. Doubles from $110 a night.