Saint George, Utah, Sept 30 to Oct 6th Part 2 Hurricane Cliffs

 Monday morning we woke to clouds and wet roads. It rained pretty hard all night. Fortunately it quit around 6 am and by 9 am it's another beautiful day. After our usual morning, we hit the road at 9:30 am and headed towards Hurricane, Utah and the Hurricane Cliff area.

First up, driving into the Hurricane Cliffs BLM Recreation Area. I'd read there is good boondocking spots in this area. They sure have beautiful views.

A "far away" view of the BLM land

After driving down the road as far as we would take our motorhome because of a fixed culvert washout we turned around. We made our way back to the little side road to Falls Park along the Virgin River. The road is a "goat track" and we needed to be careful with the shale rocks to not pop a tire again. Surprisingly at the end of a short dirt road is a large parking lot, pit toilet and a few concrete picnic tables. What a lovely little spot.

The river is really muddy from the rain the past two nights.

Back in the car and off to Hurricane Mesa. A very windy paved road up to the top. Fabulous views. Ray wanted to take pictures towards Hurricane from the top. Turns out there is a locked gate as this is a military site. What an absolutely stunning drive up though.

Apparently Hurricane Mesa is also known by locals as “Flying Monkey Mesa.”

The mesa played a very important role during the Cold War as a testing site for ejector seats. Prior to the use of jets, military pilots made emergency escapes “manually” by climbing out of the cockpit onto the wing and leaping off. As jets began reaching speeds above Mach 1 (767 mph), ejector seats became an answer, but the technology was far from perfect. Only 20 percent of pilots who ejected from planes between 1949 and 1956 made it safely to the ground.

Knowing things had to change, construction began on the Hurricane Mesa Test Facility, also known as Supersonic Military Air Research Track (Project SMART), in 1954. It was used by the United States Air Force for testing rocket ejection seats by means of a supersonic sled on a track. Coleman Engineering held the contract to build and manage the 12,000-foot test track. Known as the longest of its kind in the U.S., it was constructed of continuously welded heavy-duty crane rails aligned to within ±1/10 inch.

But why is it called Flying Monkey Mesa?

Prior to the construction of the Supersonic Military Air Research Track on Hurricane Mesa, chimpanzees were often used as test subjects by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) as part of the Air & Space Research program. Tests on the Mesa used crash-test dummies instead.

These parachute-clad dummies were strapped to the rocket sled to test the effects of high-speed flights and ejections, which we needed as air travel was reaching Mach speeds. If you recall, we were also in a space race after Russia launched Sputnik in 1957.

The most famous dummy was known as Hurricane Sam, a highly instrumented anthropoid simulator. Sam was strapped to the seat connected with electronic equipment and a radio, and hurled down the track at 1,050 mph. At the end of the track the seat was ejected, the parachute opened, and Hurricane Sam floated 1,500 feet to the Virgin River Valley floor below.

As a nod to past practices of using live chimpanzees and apes as test subjects, the dummies were called “Flying Monkeys.” Stories are told that one series of tests did include live apes to determine the effects on live beings.

This carried on until 1961 and then the track was sold to a private company.

Here are the views towards Zion NP from the Mesa.

Coming down off the mesa Ray took a shot towards Leeds and Silver Reef.

Back down to the bottom and into Hurricane. We decided to eat lunch at the Stagecoach Bar and Grill in Hurricane. Amazing decor which drew us in. Unfortunately lunch only so so. 

After doing a little shopping for near beer for Ray we spent the afternoon sitting outside enjoying the day. Of course, another hot tub.