castle trip today #3

I got done working in Provo on some drywall patches around 7:30pm. Enough time these days to head up the mountain a bit and view the sunset. I surveyed the work I did on my last visit making use of the softening light to aid viewing the castle from all directions. I spent 45 minutes moving some rock around. I made the sitting area to the north of the fire pit much more suitable for sitting. I found and used on that part one of the two good sized light weight rocks Wade T. and I hauled from Rock Canyon's riverbed some 16 years ago. I remember the German hitch hiker we picked up in Price on the way home from Moab with Anne C., Christian from Hamburg, was with us that day.

Those two rocks have fragments through out the walls since they broke up easily. I set a large tan rock that I rolled last week from around the back of the castle. It has a nice flat seat to it and was set perfectly next to the large whitish rock on the south side of the fire pit. I moved the rocks I'd placed between the front wall and rock floor, they had been placed there to get an idea of what an expansion of the rock floor would look like leading over to the front wall. This time I made the attempt to see what a dirt trail would look like sloping as it already does down between the large tree and split rock.

I also moved some smaller rocks around a small tree on the edge of the rock floor to allow for it to successfully grow a wider trunk. The wire hanger is still holding its three main branches together in hopes of it growing up rather than outward. I've now realized the the walls need to made taller than they have been in the past at the same time being safe to walk on. The image in my brain of my first summer time visit to the castle is reoccurring with a longing for that tall bowl feel. I thought the two large boulders on the back wall where better off being the tallest part of the back wall. But maybe having a foot above them along the very back would add some interesting feel.

I've also been envisioning a gathering of 30 souls for a concert of sorts. I think the rock floor makes for a good stage and the rest of the castle could easily seat a gathering. Thats part of my reasoning for the walls to be taller, to try and hold in the sound. The front wall is being envisioned more as a cresent moon with nice large stairs/seating on the southern third. Having the front wall taller above the fire might make for a walking path along the middle of the west side of the wall a needed asset. That way the rocks would stay put above the fire and used as a railing of sorts. I always hated to see someone right above the fire when they didn't know better.

It would be nice to have a castle building day once a year. Employing a handful of people with the legendary but as of yet unconstructed boulder carrier would be nice. The area to the north west of the castle has plenty of large rocks that could be used to raise the height of the walls. The lower rock castle to the north of main castle is in ruins at the moment thanks to a boulder rolling though it in '05. I think its time to build it up a little in an attempt to leave the floor open but then decide which rocks could be sacrificed for the Rock Castle.

I noticed some new signs of falling rock while I was heading up there. It appears that there was another large boulder that made a crater on the shoreline trail near where the castle's trail starts. It wasn't there last week. I've figured out that if a rock fall is observed above the castle then one should run south towards the red rock slides, that is if the rock fall is grey rock. Looking over the land it appears that is the safest direction to run out of the range of rolling grey rock. If an earth quake is felt at the same time then one is pretty much screwed. I haven't figured out any safe place to hide in such an occasion.

While I was there the thought of how nicely hidden the castle is came to mind. Then before I was to leave two guys in their late 20's came strolling up. One wanted to talk too much and the other had a backpack with no words other than to shut his dog up. For some reason the dog was freaking out a bit over me being there. I had to wonder by the way the one was talking whether or not they where cops in plain clothes. He kind of had that look to me. But the other was looking like he just wanted a beer out of his backpack. The one talker claimed to have never known about the place and said well maybe the other guy had known about it. Kind of sketching on me or something. Kind of bugged me and made me laugh at the same time. About that time the last of the after glow was going and it was getting dark. I bailed the other way and didn't see where they went. Always someone showing up.

I also took a stick to the fire pit and found a lot of smaller rocks in with the ash and charcoal. Can't wait to get that thing cleaned out and reshaped. I took the end of the stick dirtied by stirring the ask and traced over the etching in the boulder. It made it less pronounced but still showed clearly thanks to the modeling of the sunset's light.
Good times.