Mollies Nipple

The Famous Mollies Nipple in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

The Bingham County Idaho Mollies Nipple is the destination of our one-night Road Trip May 14-15, 2014.  There are three Mollies Nipples in Idaho, seven in Utah, and one each in Nevada and Arizona.

We both were smitten forever by The Famous Mollies Nipple in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument when we first saw it in April 2001.  It is a long-familiar landmark for all those who travel Utah's Dixie.

The quest of our Road Trip lies not far from Idaho Falls and only a mere 17 kilometers from Blackfoot.  However, it's going to be quite a long and winding road to get us near enough to summit Mollies Nipple.  Hopefully, the faint two-track routes will be dry enough for us to approach Mollies Nipple for a Thursday morning climb to the top.

In the above photo: 1 = Idaho Falls, 2 = Blackfoot, 3 = Rexburg, 4 = Pocatello, 5 = Palisades Reservoir, 6 = Greys Lake NWR and 7 = Blackfoot Reservoir.  Mollies Nipple is very centrally located.

 Here's a close up of Mollies Nipple from Acme Mapper.

 Here's the coordinates and the distance relative to other major landmarks.

 Here's a Google Earth close up view.

And here's a longer view of Mollies Nipple.  That's Grey's Lake on the horizon.

There are many, many stories, rural legends and fanciful, fictional accounts about the why and how Mollies Nipple shows up in so many places.

Here is a generic overview of the topic:

"The repeated use of the term "Mollies Nipple" or occasionally, "Mollys Nipple" in the naming of geographic features (specifically summits) in the western United States has puzzled many observers. The discovery that there are actually several identically named western summits with those same monikers has puzzled local residents, travelers, writers, cartographers, and those with any interest in toponymy for many years. So, just who was this Molly? Did she really travel so far and wide in the early days of the Wild West? Were her physical attributes really so remarkable and widely known?

Molly was not, in point of fact, a single individual who was known throughout the early West. The term Molly (as well as Molley and Mollie) was slang for a harlot, or a prostitute going back to at least the early 1700s. The origin for most of the summits listed below is this early slang usage of the name. Anyone with an ancestor by the name of Molly who was an early settler in these areas might assume it was named for their pioneer relative. So, family stories handed down over the years may claim just such an attribution. But this is rarely ever the case.

Although the use of the term Nipple for mountains, buttes, lakes, and creeks is most common in the west, there are a few in the eastern U.S. as well. Those responsible for naming cities, towns and geographic features in the east were often far more refined and puritanical, than in the early, rowdy days of the Wild West."

Source: http://factreference.org/GeographicFeatures-MolliesNipple.html

Here is perhaps the most exaggerated, totally far out fictional narrative as to the origin of Mollies Nipples.

All about Molly

by Klenke

Molly was born in Logan County, CO. She had a twin sister Mable. Right from the beginning, Molly became fixated on prurient activities and this distressed the squeaky clean Mable to no end. Mable decided to purge herself from Molly's purlieu and the two haven't played together since. 

Dejected but undeterred, Mable left Colorado at an early age. Actually, it was her parents who sent her away. They hoped to wring out her sexual desires by sending her to a wayward girls camp in Appalachia. But even the poor Virginia camp couldn't ebb the tide within her. At 12 she was beginning puberty and she noticed something happening with her chest. She soon found herself revealing her new treasures. Though they were far from large, she charged the camp's boys two bits to see just one of them. She had to be discreet in the camp so a nearby hilltop provided the venue.

For the next six years Molly bounced from camp to camp and back home again. All along her desires grew. When she turned 18 she decided to become a proprietor of her impropriety. Those formative years had taught her well and she made good money. But she was always on the run from the law and the religious right. Her first place of business was not met kindly with the Tennessee Tetotalers Committee. They didn't mind the prostitution so much but zealously declared that alcohol and sex do not mix. Forced out, Molly then moved to New Hampshire with fellow harlot Bet. The two set up a new place of business near the aptly named Merrymeeting Lake. However, quarrels regarding revenues and who was stealing whose clients caused them to build their own hilltop brothels. Customers had the opportunity to either mount Bet or mount Molly.

But Bet bit into Molly's customer base too much. After six hard years of sweat and wax and perfumes and powders, Molly was beginning to see that competition in the East was a pain in the backside. On a lark and in the middle of the night after secretly taking back what monies she thought were rightly hers, Molly took the train out to Washington. The state had just joined the Union and more of her kind were no doubt wanted by its menfolk. The foothills west of Olympia seemed like a good place to set up "shop." Eager Washington men jumped at the chance to mount Molly there. Those were the best years of Molly's life.

Yet life inexorably marches on and Molly got old. With each passing year, less and less men came calling. She found herself wandering the mountainous West looking to make a quick buck. But no one wanted her body anymore. Her life came full circle: she was back to making a cheap buck by exposing her nipples to the worst or most incapable of society. Three years exposing nipples in Utah were followed by two more years in Idaho.

After Idaho, Molly simply faded away. Now she struts her stuff across the Great Nipple in the Sky.

Source: http://www.summitpost.org/heading-down-idaho-highway/95938

Below you'll find a list of the various "Mollies Nipple" and "Mollys Nipple" geographic features in the United States.

Mollies Nipple, in Mohave County, Arizona (summit - on the USGS Whitmore Point SE map)

Mollies Nipple, in Bingham County, Idaho (summit - on the USGS Long Valley map)
Mollys Nipple, in Jefferson County, Idaho (summit - on the USGS Market Lake map)
Mollys Nipple, in Power County, Idaho (summit - on the USGS Rockland East map)

Mollys Nipples, in White Pine County, Nevada (summit - on the USGS Bullwhack Summit map)

Mollies Nipple, in Beaver County, Utah (summit - on the USGS Milford Flat map)
Mollies Nipple, in Kane County, Utah (summit - on the USGS Deer Range Point map)
Mollies Nipple, in Utah County, Utah (summit - on the USGS Spanish Fork map)
Mollies Nipple, in Utah County, Utah (summit - on the USGS Two Tom Hill map)
Mollies Nipple, in Washington County, Utah (summit - on the USGS Hurricane map)
Mollys Nipple, in Davis County, Utah (summit - on the USGS Antelope Island South map)
Mollys Nipple, in Uintah County, Utah (summit - on the USGS Ouray SE map)

Other landmarks with the "Nipple" name are listed in the source below.

Source: http://factreference.org/GeographicFeatures-MolliesNipple.html

Mount McCaleb

For anyone who knows Mackay, Idaho, and US Highway 93 up through The Lost River Country, Mount McCaleb is a touchstone, a visual benchmark, indeed, a Spiritual Anchor. There are higher nearby peaks but none looms as large in the area psyche as McCaleb.

Ever since we laid eyes on McCaleb ten years ago, it has always been a dream of ours to climb to the top of McCaleb. Our dream probably won't ever come true but we continue to harbor and nurture the fantasy.

Due to the "Long & Winding Road" of the internet, tonight we found this awesome 30-photo album of climbing the West Ridge of McCaleb.

Enjoy!

http://www.summitpost.org/climbing-the-west-ridge/290440/c-152718

Here's a view of the west ridge route from someone who climbed it in 2007. The green line is the preferred route. And so it goes...with our McCaleb Fantasy.

 Well, this whole escapade tonight is leading us in ever more esoteric tangents. We just found this spring which looks like is has to be a relatively easy hike not far from Mackay. Clearly, it's one that The Locals definitely don't promote or advertise.  Here's the YouTube video link: 

http://youtu.be/ctNa_MSuVYo

The two red dots are for Lower Cedar Creek Spring. The Yellow dot is the probably beginning point for the McCaleb Route. The blue line is probably the west ridge route.

Anyway, now we have a very good idea of how people climb McCaleb.  It's up to us to try to put it together and make this fantasy a reality.