Southern Utah hiking is great fun!

This past week my wife and I had a chance to get down to southern Utah for a bit of relaxation. She has been disabled enough that we haven't been able to go out on the road overnight for around a year and a half. Over that time, she has been gradually improving and we decided to give it a try. I wrote about the rest of our trip in another entry, so I'll just tell you about the hiking I was able to do.
From our lodging in Hurricane, I could see a trail on a nearby mountain. We were staying at an Airbnb place, which was nice and described in more detail in my other post. We were only going to be there for two nights and that trail was nearby so I thought I'd give it a go. I asked Paul Maag, one of the owners of the rental, about the trail. He said something like, "Oh yeah, that trail goes all the way up to the top of Molly's Nipple. This is a good time of year to go as the snakes won't be out. I wouldn't go up there once it gets past ninety degrees. They come out then." I had looked for a place to park the night before near where the trail began, and so that morning as it was getting light, I parked there. The sunrise was awesome!

My arrival at the trailhead, perfect sunrise timing!

In between the parking area and where I could kind of see the trail, there is a wash that comes out of a slot canyon that needs to be crossed. I crossed the wash looking for where the trail began and it looked like it went up some really steep stuff right at first. I began looking for another way up, because the way I saw at first looked like a good way to slip and get hurt. After ten of fifteen minutes of scouting around further up the canyon, I decided that I wasn't going to make it up that slope on that day and instead decided to follow a trail up into the slot canyon. The thing was, it was looking like rain and I didn't want to be in there if it really started coming down. The little pockets of water I was seeing from a previous storm, and the dark clouds above made me nervous. I only got up in there about two hundred yards before turning around. Ann likes me to bring home some cool looking rocks on my outings to put in the yard and so part of that little side trip was hunting for something cool to take home. I found a couple of rocks and headed back down the canyon, then back to the van.
Once back at the van, and in the better light, I spotted a gate, about fifty yards further to the west of where I had crossed the wash. I bet that's where the trailhead is, I thought. Once through the gate, I knew that was where I needed to go to climb that peak. I headed up the trail.
It was still early. I had a deadline though because we needed to leave at about 11:00 in order to make it back home for a viewing for my aunt who had died. I decided that I would hike uphill until 9:00, then turn around. It was a steep climb and a lot of the trail was made out of that chalky, white dirt that turns very slick when wet, while other parts of it had a lot of loose rock on it. I knew that if it started raining hard, it was going to be an extreme challenge getting down in one piece. I modified my original plan of turning around at 9:00 to include unless it starts raining.

The first item on my agenda was to make it to this outcropping of rock.

I made good time. The lower elevation than I was used to in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains made it seem much easier to hike without getting out of breath, and the stairclimbers I'd been doing hadn't hurt my ability to climb in the least. Within about 45 minutes though, I began feeling drops of rain. About two hundred yards above me there was a rocky outcropping and I made that my goal before turning around.
The views from there were amazing, and I could look down into the slot canyon and see what looked to be actual pools of water.

To the southwest, a Beautiful array of farmland.

The view to the northwest included Pine Valley Mountain

The slot. Down in the bottom about mid-pic was what appeared to be pools.

I stopped for a moment, took some pics, and headed back down. It wasn't yet 9:00, but it was time go go back because of the oncoming storm.
As I descended, I was thankful that my experience as a hiker had warned me to be careful. The steepness and looseness of the trail was treacherous enough, and I was glad that it was only lightly raining at that point and not enough to turn the trail into extremely slick mud.

Just to prove I was up there.

When I made it back down I drove away, stopping to look back and take some more pics of where I'd been. I could tell that in another half hour, I'd have made it to the top of Molly's Nipple.

I made it to the second "hump" in this photo. Molly's Nipple still isn't visible from here.

From another angle: I had made it to the top of the prominant cliffs before turning around.

From a distance, the trail and the peak.

Like many more trails that I hadn't completed, there would be a time to come back, should I desire. I'm thinking I will. Those unfinished trails always call me back sometime.