Topaz

When I was 12 year old scout I went to Topaz Mountain.  It was the first time I'd been camping without my parents and it was a chance to experience the outdoors on my own.  My memories of Topaz were of a desert in the middle of nowhere, down miles of dirt roads and where it seemed like we had the whole mountain to ourselves.  I recall sleeping out under the stars and trying to make it to 3 am to see Haley's Comet make it's way through the night sky.  Topaz Mountain held treasres waiting to be uncovered and it was the perfect spot for a young scout.

Over my teenage years we kept going back to Topaz.  We didn't worry about panning for stones after a while, but we loved heading back to the desert to explore.  One of my favorite memories was heading out west with Brant, Tyler, and Mitch for another one of our adventures.  As time passed, I never seemed to go back to the mountain and it seemed locked away in my past.

Last weekend my relationship with Topaz continued, this time as a scout leader.  We packed up our gear and headed out to the desert - with a whole new group of boys ready to explore.  Our troop had a great time.  There was plenty of hiking, cooking, investigating, mining, panning, and very little sleeping.  It was fun to rekindle a part of my past and good just to get out and go camping again!  Here are a few of the highlights:

• Waiting in a traffic jam on the only road heading southwest out of Nephi.  The boys took advantage of a few minutes of road repair and pulled out their skateboards.
• Watching scouts be scouts.  It doesn't matter if they are 17 or 12, when you get boys together they do some pretty crazy things.
• Early morning hiking with Dave and Charlton.  One of my favorite parts of the camp was getting to know some of the guys in my neighborhood.
• Jacob's discovery.  Jacob "found" a perfect trilobite in the middle of the night.  Everyone was impressed, even more so when he told us that he brought it from home.
• Mining the stones.  I don't know that this is my favorite part of camping at Topaz, but you've to spend a few minutes looking for some Topaz, right?