We spent several days in the Cedar City area of Utah. About 35 miles from here, in a community (Newcastle) so small there are no stores, my dad had a ranch, the Bar V Ranch. He drilled wells for water and turned a fair amount of desert acreage into farm land with cattle, alfalfa, and eventually a pellet mill. We spent several summers here during my high school years. I was able to find it, especially when we saw a road sign that said "Bar V Rd" and the old pellet mill, now abandoned. We talked with an older couple still on the property who remembered stories about my dad, saying he was known as a progressive farmer with some of the things he did. Since my dad died last year, it was good for me to get stories about him.
Even though I never enjoyed the Newcastle area much, I did love going camping and fishing in the mountains nearby. John and I found out we really do like Cedar City. It is high desert, with red rock and views of hills with snow still on them.
We drove about 45 minutes up into the mountains to a lake to go fishing -- a wonderful way to spend a Sunday. It was a beautiful drive, with snow everywhere at the 9000 ft summit. We felt like we finally had winter! The lake was lower, with just a little snow. There are so many outdoor sports people do here -- year round.
The best part -- we caught about 12 rainbow trout between us. The worst part -- we had to throw all but 3 of them back because they were over 15". And even worse than that? We didn't know exactly how to measure them correctly, and when the Fish and Game Warden came by, and measured our fish, one of them was 16". So now I have a criminal record in Utah! I have to call the court to figure out what my fine will be! And on top of that -- he took the 16" fish away and gave it to someone else! But we did enjoy two fresh-caught trout for dinner, even though it turned out to be an expensive dinner!
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