Several of the people who had expressed an interest wimped out, probably because of impending bad weather, and did not show up (you know who you are!). You missed a great time. We won't know how photographically successful we all were until all the film is developed, but the day was a success since it was filled with camaraderie of a few people who share a passion for photography no matter what we have to go through to get it. In fact, the harder it is to get the shot, the more rewarded we feel.

We departed from Salt Lake at 6:30AM, in two vehicles. The first stop was "Richville", because, according to the book I was going by, the "Knitting Mill" was one of the most picturesque buildings in all of Utah. Well, as it turned out, it was actually the "Grist Mill" which has been restored. Although restored, it is still a beautiful building (complete with a new water wheel), but everyone had their hearts set on "ghost" towns, so we headed to the next one on the map.

Iosepa (pronounced Yo-say-pah, and named after Joseph Smith) had a big "No Trespassing" sign on the gate by the dirt road entrance. I volunteered to ask permission for entrance, and was greeted by a man and his dog. Being an animal lover, it was easy for me to schmooze the guy and tell him his dog was cute (actually the dog WAS cute) and he said we could go on in. Of course we took the wrong fork in the road at first and ended up at a dump yard complete with a freshly dead long-horn steer. We eventually found the graveyard, and it was a delight. There were leis on graves which were not very old (someone pays respect to the dead here regularly), a wonderful Polynesian headstone with lei and palm frond hat at its foot. Since the wind was pretty bad at this time of the day, only 2 of us (Ed and John) took out cameras. They probably will end up with the prize-winning pictures! Up on the hill were 2 metal painted sculptures (a pineapple and a scorpion) that would have been photographed if the wind wouldn't have made my 4x5 into a sail. There was also a cement pad and rolled up camo netting cover - maybe they have some sort of celebration here regularly. I'm going to look it up.

We decided to take the scenic route over to Ophir, Stockton and Bauer. But we took a couple of hours detour when the other car spotted a wonderful dilapidated barn and several other farm buildings. Everyone found lots to occupy their time here, from weathered wood to interesting windows to tumble weeds to a great horned owl.

On this road, we even found a service station with a bathroom and fresh coffee!

We next wound our way over Johnson pass and enjoyed the scenery complete with a new dusting of snow. We decided against Ophir because it was probably under snow. We stopped at the much photographed and barely standing barn at Rush Lake and conferred with the other car to see if anyone wanted to shoot. The other car unanimously stated "But there's not much there". (I won't mention names, but you know who you are). Driving through Stockton, we realized the one building that had interested the one of us who had been there previously was the falling down barn at Rush Lake. The neat set of buildings that was supposed to make up Bauer had been demolished. There was nothing left, not even foundations. So much for the "Ghost Towns" I had picked out of the book "Ghost Towns of Utah".