This weekend Lex and I went to check out an exciting spot at Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon near the historic haunted paper mill. We had a fantastic evening and night of adventures planned out! We arrived to a particularly beautiful day at the lake so we took some pictures first thing.
We brought a headlamp and a powerful little flashlight along with an easter basket lined with wax paper to collect our specimens. While hiking some people asked us, "Are you looking for Easter eggs?!" ...No madam, we are looking for mushrooms!
It's a little dry now for most mushrooms here but I knew I had a chance at a couple useful species that can be found throughout the year. Particularly Chaga, a highly sought after specimen that is ground up for use in medicinal teas and other herbal concoctions.
Chaga Mistaken Identity
At first glance this seemed like a lucky find! Unfortunately Chaga only grows on birch, an aspen look alike, and these are just knots! Birch has bark that can easily be peeled and serrated leaves. We'd have to travel north and to a lower elevation to find the birch forests where Chaga grows!
Looking for a stick to knock down the supposed "Chaga"
There were quake and pine forests spread intermittently between each other, so we had several biomes to explore along with a nice flood plain due to the lake rising and falling. Conditions here are usually perfect for at least one species of mushroom. Though it's quite rocky and we'd probably be better off checking the flat pine forests, it's always worth coming here to explore all the rich ecology the Wasatch Mountain Range has to offer.
There are also a lot of Native American ruins and artifacts scattered throughout most of Utah. It's clear even to amateur fossil hunters that Utah was once densely populated with natives over a huge span of time. You can find arrowheads and pieces of broken pottery almost anywhere if you keep a keen eye, especially in the red rock canyons.
Here are a few we found in Southern Utah in Huntington Canyon a while back
The pendant is something my brother made for me out of a carved piece of ivory he found and a shaman stone that was a part of a pair we found as children. I wear it whenever I travel alone.
After some searching we ended up finding this strange little species of basidiomycota we often see near Silver Lake growing on large fallen pine trees.
This one was extra ripe
They're hollow inside and grown of a kind of squishy material that puffs back up after being pressed in. Earlier in the season they are a little more fresh, and smell nice like cologne. Most of these went full cycle having released the spores contained within and were now drying out.
One more fungi form for my catalog of mushrooms found in Northern Utah!
It was beginning to get dark and we were losing light fast. After getting split up while searching we had to whoop and call out to find each other again.
Even though the air is dry this part of the season it's always a blast to go on a foray, and we were lucky to find the little orange basidiomycota! It's a gift to see this place during such a beautiful time of year. All the sunny days here will stay with you forever.
But wait! There's more!
It just so happened we were near a historic sight that became notorious online for being the most haunted place in Utah. It was on the way home and we couldn't leave without checking it out! The building is known as The Haunted Paper Mill and it's built like an old fort. It was erected in the late 1800's and burned down once in the early 1900's. Legend has it that two people and their dog died in the fire and now curious teenagers can hear ghostly barks and slamming doors from within the structure.
When we got there we heard a car pull up so we decided to hide and scare whoever was coming. I went in the court yard a little afraid myself hiding in this unfamiliar and creepy place. When they got close I jumped out and they hardly flinched! They were a young couple doing the same thing as Lex and I so we explored together! Every way into the building was barred and bolted shut. It was definitely creepy, but I don't know about haunted. There was a little bit of graffiti and some of it added to the effect.
We found another group of about a dozen Youtube Vloggers investigating the site as well! We laughed at how busy this "abandoned" building was. You can see their flashlights shining off in the distance.
A tire screeched far away in traffic and half the group started freaking out saying they heard a scream. I wish I would have scared those guys instead. Here's everything else we captured for the night!
It was a magical evening filled to the brim with adventure and discovery! We were happily exhausted at the end of it and ready to plan next weeks foray! Though the weather was dry, the beauty of the day, the basidiomycota, and the haunted house adventure were all great consolation prizes.
Thanks for reading! It's a long article and I thought about breaking it up into two posts but it all happened in the same day so I packed it all in!
