West Desert Adventure 6/22 - 6/24

[scoutabout]

Posted from UtahOffroad.com:

Kurt, Tom (Kurt's bro-in-law), and I had been planning for months to head down Skyline Drive and into the Swell this weekend. However, we got word that the road was still blocked by snow in some spots, so we changed plans and headed out to the West Desert to meet up with GREand do some exploring.

We left on Friday afternoon, and started bombing down the Pony Express Trail from Vernon. We moved quickly, and made it to Fish Springs by around 6:30.


My Scout and Tom's 80 in Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge

Just east of Fish Springs, we headed over to some springs just off the main road. Kurt was leading the way when his new Tacoma was consumed by mud hiding just beneath the thin crust surface.

A few pulls from Tom's winch, and a tow from the Scout had the truck back on solid ground.


Kurt's "car" stuck in the mud

We kept heading west, and met up with Carilyn and Corey from GRE at Callao. Still itching for some wheeling fun, we headed south to look for trouble. We never made it back to the group campsite as we got too far away and too tired before pitching our tents in Granite Canyon.

On Saturday morning we came back to meet the group, and check out some stuff in the area. Our first stop was a little Indian cave, and then we were on to the mine at Gold Hill. We spent some quality time in the mine (some more than others!) where we literally stumbled across some sticks of dynamite. Being responsible citizens, someone packed out the dynamite to a safe distance from the mine opening. Once there, several attempts were made to detonate the explosives by shooting at the sticks with various types of firearms.

The mine was very cool (figuratively and literally!), and it was a lot of fun to explore it with the folks from GRE.


Dynamite in the Gold Hill mine


Kurt on a very unstable series of ladders


Tom pretending that he has enough guts to go into the deepest part of the mine

We parted ways with GRE, and headed west of the Deep Creeks to hit the trading post at Ibapah. Gas there was 3.41/gallon, and the little store was well stocked with a wide variety of items to supply the nearby Goshute Indian Reservation.


Deep Creek Valley

We headed through the valley baja'ing at speeds above 100 (ok, Kurt was going that fast, I only got the Scout up to 80). We headed up Tippet Canyon, and then back into Utah via Pleasant Valley. We headed down to Gandy where we luckily spoke to some locals and got the lowdown on a local spring.


Kurt's "car" in front of the metroplitan area of Gandy

We found the springs, and spent over an hour relaxing the crystal-clear water. The water temp was PERFECT for soaking after a hot, dusty day of driving.


A perfect little spring near Gandy

After we finally got enough motivation to get out of the spring, we continued east and crossed the Confusion Range at Cowboy Pass. We kept going through Tule Valley, and started up Marjum Canyon towards Delta.

We took a quick break to check out an old cabin up an unnamed canyon. By "we" I mean Tom and Kurt hiked up to the cabin, while I lounged around in the shade. We were going to camp in the canyon, but finding a baby rattlesnake near the firepit motivated us to keep going.


Heading up an unnamed canyon to "The Hermit's Cabin"

We kept moving, and ended up camping above Sinbad and Wildhorse Canyons near around 7500 feet. It was windy and exposed, but a perfect campsite to keep the bugs away.

Sunday morning we packed up, played around with Kurt's SKS, and headed down to Delta for some badly needed fuel. We baja'd down, and made it into town with the Scout running on fumes.

After filling up with gas and slurpees, we had lunch before heading out north of town to check out the WWII Japanese "Relocation" Camp. It was very interesting to drive between the blocks of the old "camp."

After that, we headed north towards Desert Mountain. We made a quick stop at Baker Springs, but it was not what we were hoping for, so we kept going. We cut around Desert Mountain, then up Cherry Creek to Vernon Creek and Vernon Reservoir. We ended up back at the "Silver Sage" where we started on Friday afternoon.


Baja'ing near Desert Mountain

Total dirt mileage on my odometer was 441. It was a great trip! Big thanks to Kurt, Tom, and the crazy lady at Silver Sage for making this such a fun trip.



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[Alex]

looks like a fun little adventure, thanks!

[Sombeech]

That's pretty cool. I love finding stuff like that.

Did you grab a stick for any July 4th celebrations?

[scoutabout]

That's pretty cool. I love finding stuff like that.

Did you grab a stick for any July 4th celebrations?

It wasn't any good. The label said 1935 on it. We even wrapped a few sticks around a bottle of tannerite, and shot it. The tannerite made a nice little explosion, but the dynamite didn't explode it only blew into pieces.

[MY T PIMP]

Great report, this is an area of the state I'd like to see more of. I am really into Spanish symbols and ancient rocky symbols and art. Did you see any around the area?

[scoutabout]

Great report, this is an area of the state I'd like to see more of. I am really into Spanish symbols and ancient rocky symbols and art. Did you see any around the area?

Didn't see any, but we weren't really looking closely. I've found a lot more of that type of thing up in the Uintas rather than the desert.

[JP]

Nice trip