dolari | Stupid Jenn Fact: Chuck Barris was a CIA agent.

So other than the decision to do the OSHA filing, I decided, since I had nothing better to do today, I decided to try and take a trip. Not a big one, and a very local one, but one that is very historical that no one really knows about.

Back in the 1850s, Mormon Bigwig Lyman White (I think I got that name right) came to Austin looking to found a Mormon settlement. he stuck around Austin for a while, putting up a mill at the corner of Bull Creek and the Colorado River. In order to get to the mill, the Mormons he led created a road from the mill to Austin, and from the mill to the Burnet/Lampasas Road.

This road is now Scenic Drive -> Mt. Bonell Road -> FM 2222 -> Lakewood Drive -> Loop 360 and possibly Spicewood Springs road...not too sure about that.

Spicewood Springs Road out past Loop 360 is a very nice drive, very rural and woodsy and follows along several creeks like the other Mormon roads, so I'm sure this part is possibly part of the road the Mormons built to get to the mill. I've driven it a bajillion times, so we'll skip it for now, mainly because I didn't drive it today.

Loop 360 is considered the most scenic highway in Texas and it's a gorgeous road. But only a bit of it is part of the Mormon Road...and that part has spectacular views of the hill country and Austin. It's also very woodsy but also more expansive. Bigger views of the woods and the flatland beyond. Gorgeous stuff.

Lakewood Drive is a very short very tiny road. nothing really stands out here other than Bull Creek follows the road very closely and there are parks everywhere on this road. One of the signs, though, that this is a Mormon road is the drop offs. Many of these roads are leveled off with a HUGE drop off on one side leading to houses, developments and parks.

FM 2222 aka Bull Creek Road is a very large highway, but still maintains that Mormon Road Drop off. The road is a seven lane highway clinging to the side of a sheer cliff, with wonderful views of the Colorado river HUNDREDS of feet below the cliff. It's hard to find a spot on the cliff to view the river, but there ARE areas to do it.

Mt. Bonell Road winds from Bull Creek road between Mount Bonell and Mount Barker towards the Colorado. I'd been wanting to see Mount Bonell/Barker since I found out they existed. I mean, this is Texas, not Pennsylvania. What are mounts in Texas? Anthills? So I found a wide area marked off as a parking spot for Mt. Bonell. I climbed up a very steep set of stairs and at the summit - BOOM. Mount Bonell. Holy cow. Holy holy cow. The mount itself isn't too too high from the road...the secret is that the road gently climbs up more than you think it does. Mt. Bonell comes to a SHEER cliff, where HUNDREDS of feet down are houses and the Colorado River. SHEER DROP. Holy cow. If you jumped off from here, depending on the wind shift, you'd either hit a house, the river, or a radio tower.

Mount Barker wasn't near as much fun. It's higher than Mount Bonell, but has been turned into a housing development...the peak of Mount Barker is a house. I bet it's prolly a big expensive one, too.

Scenic Drive hugs the Colorado and is literally the Alley for huge expensive houses. One house actually had a bridge built from it's second story, OVER the road, to a small park on the riverbank. Some of the road was kinda scary, in that there was barely enough room for the truck to drive, but the views from the riverbed of the Colorado were worth it.

After that, I went home, played Doom, researched my options and wrote this.