Elsinore, Utah

First timer?  In this formerly once-a-day blog (and now more-or-less a twice a week blog), I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48).  I call this “landing.”  I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near.  I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location.  To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean in the first paragraph), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.

 Landing number 2061; A Landing A Day blog post number 479.

 Dan –  The misery continues as I’ve landed in five OSers in a row since I broke 150, with this OSer landing in . . . UT; 73/57; 5/10; 151.9.  It’s unbelievable that I followed up the 5/5 USer string (that I needed to break 150) with a 5/5 OSer string . . .

 If you haven’t a clue what the previous paragraph is about, click HERE for an explanatory post.

Here’s my regional landing map:

 

My local landing map shows that I landed out in the boonies, quite a ways from the nearest towns:

 

Here’s a streams-only map that shows I landed in the watershed of Birch Creek; on to the Three Creeks Creek; to Pole Ck; to Clear Ck and finally to the Sevier River (10^th hit).

 

 The Sevier drains internally, and ends up (if it’s flowing at all) in Sevier Lake.  Here’s what Wiki has to say about the Sevier:

 The Sevier River, extending 383 miles, is the longest river entirely in the state and drains an extended chain of mountain farming valleys to the intermittent Sevier Lake.  The Upper Sevier is used extensively for irrigation, and consequently Sevier Lake is now essentially dry.

Here’s my Google Earth (GE) shot, showing no roads and a semi-arid landscape:

Zooming back and looking west, here’s another GE shot:

I checked out each of the four nearest towns, looking for my hook.  I couldn’t find anything of particular interest about Sevier, Joseph or Monroe.  They were all founded by Mormons.  No hook there.  Funny thing about Joseph . . . the town was named after one Joseph Young.  Given Joseph Smith & Brigham Young, I can’t imagine a more Mormon name.  No hook there.

 But Elsinore.  Well, OK, it was also founded by Mormons, but there could be some interest in the name “Elsinore.”  Here’s what Wiki has to say:

The area was settled by Danish converts to Mormonism, and named after Kronborg Castle, known as Elsinore in Hamlet.

Sounds like a hook or two, eh?

Here’s what Wiki has to say about the castle:

Kronborg is a castle in the town of Helsingør, Denmark.  Immortalized as Elsinore in Shakespeare’s  play Hamlet,  Kronborg is one of the most important Renaissance castles in Northern Europe and is a World Heritage Site (per UNESCO).

Here’s Wiki’s picture of the castle:

 

And an aerial view (from Marinas.com):

 

OK, it’s time for a true confession.  I have a pathetically skimpy (nearly non-existent) knowledge of Shakespeare. 

 Here’s a synopsis of Hamlet from Wiki:

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark [mostly at the Kronborg Castle, referred to as Elsinore in the play], the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius’s brother and Prince Hamlet’s father.  Claudius then takes the throne and takes Gertrude (King Hamlet’s wife and Hamlet’s mother) as his wife.  The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness—from overwhelming grief to seething rage—and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.

 My Denmarkian geography is almost as deficient as my Shakespearian play fullness.  It turns out that that the city of Helsingor (“Elsinore” in English, where the Kronborg Castle is) is a mere 2.5 miles from Sweden!  If you’re sailing from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, you might as well dock in Elsinore for lunch.

 Here’s a big-picture map (Google).  You can see that part of Denmark juts north from Germany, but part of it (that includes Copenhagen and Elsinore) is on an island:

 

Here’s a more local view showing that the island that contains Copenhagen also contains Helsingor (Elsinore):

 

I’ll finish up this segment with this GE shot looking past the Castle over to Sweden:

 

Near Monroe, I stumbled on Mystic Hot Springs.  It’s a funky resort/campground/music venue centered, of course, on soaking in hot springs.  Here are a couple of pictures lifted from the Mystic Hot Springs website:

 

Check out the website HERE.

 I came across a Yelp review of the place (by J.M. from Boulder CO) which is definitely worth the read.  Here ‘tis:

Quite possibly the strangest place on the planet…  If you are looking for a commercialized, sanitized, corporatized, overpriced hot spring experience, do not come here.  If you are looking for a unique hippy dippy soakathonic adventure with the kindest of staff, head here at once.

Mystic Mike (the owner who stumbled upon and bought this place 17 years ago while following the Grateful Dead across the country) defies all common sense logic with his hot springs business plan, yet it seems to work.  As far as the “junk and scraps” lying around the facility, Mike doesen’t view these items as “trash,” instead valuable materials he will reuse on a future project such as the geothermal heated greenhouse made with reclaimed wood and tent parts used in the Viet Nam war.  Maybe we can all learn a lesson from his “reuse” mentality.  Additionally, he has befriended many amazing world class bands over the years that routinely stop here while on tour to soak and play music for you in the most intimate of settings.

For those reviewers who say this place “could be great if…,” I say Mystic is already a great place.  You either “get it” or you don’t.

 I’ll close with a couple of GE Panoramio shots.  Here’s a shot along I-70 just south of my landing by 2fingers:

 

And this, by CRichardD of Clear Creek narrows, about 5 miles southeast of my landing:

 

 That’ll do it.

 KS

 Greg

 

 

© 2013 A Landing A Day