Hurricane Test Mesa...

Ever since I was a little girl, I've had a fascination with the Hurricane Mesa Test Facility out by Virgin, UT.  What do they do up there??  I've always wanted to look around but it's privately owned and you can't get in unless you know someone.  Luckily, I know the man who knows everyone!!  *wink*  One of the guys on Search and Rescue (Chris Woodbury) works full-time up there and Merril arranged a tour for us!  I was ecstatic for days!!  I invited my Dad because I thought he would enjoy it too!  This is at the end of the mesa, looking down into Virgin.

This is the test track.

This is the end of the test track, obviously.  

There's a lot of petrified wood up there so the kids wanted their picture taken.

The bros.

The girls.

You can see these towers from below in Virgin and I always wondered what they were.  I guessed they were radio towers.  Actually, they're water towers.  They've mounted cameras on them to take high-speed-camera footage of the rocket sleds as they cruise down the test track.  

The mesa tests ejection seats and parachute deployment mainly.  I found the whole thing super interesting and was grateful for the opportunity to check an item off my bucket list!  This is a link about what the test site does.  http://finaldesigngroup.com/public/hmtf