From Green River, head east on Interstate 70. After 22.4 miles on the interstate, take exit 187. Head north through the town of Thompson Springs. Ancient rock art is located on both sides of the canyon about 3.5 miles north of town. After viewing the historic rock art, head north on Sego Canyon Road. After half a mile, take the right fork into Sego Canyon, which quickly leads to the old cemetery. Make sure to stop here and find the intriguing grave markers in the southwest corner. The ghost town of Sego is one mile further into the canyon. The company store still partially stands in the center of town. House ruins are scattered throughout the canyon along with coal mine remnants. The best way to explore the relics is by foot. Hike around, but beware of mineshafts and other hazards. Navigation for this route is easy and all sites can be accessed in good weather conditions. The Sego ruins and rock art sit on private land, so please be respectful.
Activities
Drive or bike through the variegated canyon.
Explore the ruins of the ghost town.
View the incomparable ancient rock art.
Facilities
Thompson has a gas station with expected amenities. Once in the canyon there are pit toilets.
Looking for more to do in and around Green River? Check out the Destination Green River website!
Official Green River Day Trip #1: Black Dragon Canyon
This route takes you west of Green River to the wild and tortured landscape of the San Rafael Reef. Cut through with deep, sinuous canyons adorned with ancient rock art panels, the Reef is the spectacular eastern cliff line of the San Rafael Swell. Within the Reef lies the deep Black Dragon Canyon, named for the flying dragon pictograph located on its wall. From Green River, drive west on Interstate 70. Carefully turn right on to the dirt road at mile post 147. One mile after the gate, turn west towards the canyon. Once in the mouth of the canyon park your car. An old jeep track provides a level walking surface for most of the hike. Walk 0.2 miles into the canyon to view several ancient pictographs and petroglyphs at the base of the high wall on your right behind a wooden fence. Many believe the illustrations on this panel are an early calendar. Up the canyon wall are more pictographs, one of which is the flying dragon. At your own risk, hike along the rockfall to find a secret cave rumored to be the dragon’s lair. Beyond the panel, after less than two miles the canyon forks. The south fork heads back towards Interstate 70. The north fork offers more fascinating canyon walls. Carefully return to I-70 when you’re finished exploring the canyons.
Activities
Leisurely hike the easy canyon trail.
View ancient petroglyphs and pictographs.
ATV, horseback ride, or bike through the canyon.
Facilities
There are no facilities of any kind in or near the canyon. Contact the BLM with any questions (435) 636-3600.
Looking for more to do in and around Green River? Check out the Destination Green River website!
As mentioned earlier this month, we’re honored to be a part of this year’s Association for Community Design Conference. Maria Sykes will be speaking on behalf of Epicenter on Saturday, June 9th at 1pm in the Salt Lake Public Library.
Featuring a range of community-based practices from Salt Lake City and beyond, this session will give you the opportunity to engage in some of the local flavor of community design in Utah and see some innovative approaches to engagement.
Each panel member will do a brief presentation of their organization’s work, mission, etc. and then the floor wil be open for discussion or Q&A time.
You can get more information on the ACD Conference here.
Four Frontier Fellows Emeritus: From left, front to back: James Herman, Charlotte X.C. Sullivan, Ali Osborn, Nicole Lavelle. All together in the same room for the first time ever at the Shattuck Hall Annex, Portland State University, Portland, OR.
Photos from Screen Printing 101 at Green River High School
Thanks to Mr. Simmons, GRHS Art Teacher, for letting Maria take over two art classes for three days in a row to do some screen printing! And, thanks to Chris and Lindsay (both PACT staff) for helping out. The students had a really great time designing, cutting out, and printing their own shirts. One of the coolest moments while teaching the class was when Maria overheard three students talking about how this was their “favorite art project they’d ever done” and “how cool would it be to have your own screen printing set-up at home?” Mission. Accomplished. We hope we’ll be able to do something like this at least once a school year with the High School.
Superlatives
Most Prints (3) and Patience: Corbin (see Avenged Sevenfold above)
Raddest Shirt: Cassi (see striped tank above)
Best Scissor Skills: Remington (see Pikachu above)
Biggest Design: Sabra
Yep, apparently May 20-26 is National Small Businesses Week!
The conference is being held all the way over in Washington, D.C., but you can watch the event live from your computer! Additionally, the website does have an list of small business resources that we recommend exploring.
Epicenter is infested with these right now. “Infested” might be too strong of a word, but we’re seeing 5-7 of these a day inside our office. Luckily, they’re harmless (minus the 5-7 mild heartattacks we have daily when one of us sees one scurry by our desk and we instinctually think, “Snake!”). We’re looking at the bright side, though; less spiders and other bugs.
The common sideblotched lizard, Uta stansburiana, is a common lizard found throughout much of the western United States and northern Mexico. It is one of the most abundant lizards in the semi-arid and arid regions of its range, where it inhabits areas of sandy or rocky soil containing scattered brush or trees. This lizard is primarily a ground dweller that may remain active year-round in warm southern regions.
Females in northern areas of the species’ range lay one to three clutches of one to five eggs from March to August, whereas females in warmer southern areas have a longer breeding season and consequently may lay additional clutches containing more eggs. The common sideblotched lizard eats mainly small invertebrates, but adult males may cannibalize young lizards.
And, there you have it: We have cannibals in our office. Happy Wednesday!
Melon Margaritas
Do you have a great appetizer, drink, or dessert recipe that uses Green River melons as a main ingredient? We’ve love to try your recipe, and we’re even considering making a cookbook! There are over 30 varieties of melons, so we’ll take cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, winter melon, canary melon, honeyloupe, galia, casaba, Persian, Crenshaw…. ok, we’re not going to list them all. You get the idea.
Email us your recipe, it’s history, and your permision to share/reproduce your recipe at info@ruralandproud.org.
IS IT MELON SEASON YET?!?! These hot afternoons are sure making us think its got to be melon season soon…
Today, Maria Sykes (Epicenter Designer & Strategist) and Lindsay Toman (PACT Co-Manager) went to Green River High School’s two art classes to teach screen printing basics. The students drew their designs, explored figure vs. ground, and learned about the materials used in and the process of traditional screen printing. Due to time and money constraints we were unable for each student to burn a design onto a screen. Instead, the students drew and cut their designs out of parchment paper (it’s kind of like a heavy or fancy wax paper). On Monday and Tuesday, the students will place their designs on the screens and screen print their designs onto t-shirts! Stay tuned for photos of the final shirts next week…
This first screen printing class is part of a new initiative at PACT (the Epicenter & Community Center branches, most specifically) to better focus on teens in Green River. Current and recent high school students who may struggle in math and science, for example, do not have an adequate or concentrated opportunity to develop their artistic skills; this marginalization may in fact cause students to not see their own potential in developing their future options. We want to to nurture these natural gifts into expressive and self-affirming talents. The nearest artist development programs are sixty miles away, in Moab or Price, or over 100 miles to Grand Junction and the Wasatch Front. However, the distance to these programs prevents most students from participating. So, by teaching classes at the high school we’re able to encourage teens to turn natural talent or a hobby into lifetime career in design or art, and maybe even learn how to apply “design thinking” to other fields such as science or math. In the future, we’re even planning to have an internship program at Epicenter for local Green River young adults and hold more workshops for all ages!!!
We’re not one to promote businesses outside of Green River, Utah, but we just have to give a shout-out to Peczuh Printing out of Price, Utah.
The first time we stepped into Peczuh, we were greeted with a smile and introduced to the Erin Peczuh herself. She gave us a tour of their impressive printing facilities, and she even went our of her way to indulge Maria’s analog fascination by allowing us to see their old letter presses and wood type collections. Once we began our first printed project with Peczuh, they continued to impress us with timely and knowledgable responses, constant courtesy and patience, and even hand-delivering our hard proofs (a big deal when you live in Green River!). And, today, the beautifully printed final product (our day trip leaflets and Green River brochures) was delivered to Epicenter by the friendliest delivery man ever. We’re so impressed with Peczuh Printing!!! We highly recommend them.
Today, the entire Epicrew (plus Meg Deal!) are in Castle Dale and Huntington presenting our recently completed Green River Town Assessment. Our first presentation was for the Emery County Economic Development board. It was such a success that representatives from Huntington asked us to present the study at their City Council budget meeting tonight. Wish us luck!
Also, we’re attending the Emery County Business Chamber’s Lunch & Learn in Castle Dale. The County Commissioners will be presenting today.
