Thursday Feb, 19
I was
up early and caught up on some typing before lee woke up. We had some coffee
and he showed me around his place. I really liked his house and lifestyle. Lots
of pictures from traveling and things he found along the way. He also has
chickens in the back yard for fresh eggs every day. Lee made it a new year’s resolution to go to
the grocery store as least as possible. So they have been dehydrating and
canning everything they can get their hands on from friends and family. One of
lees hobbies is making stained glass pictures. He showed me his work shop and
everything involved in that process. After that I drove about an hour south to
the village of Sundance. Here I did a lovely hike out to a frozen waterfall.
This hike was also on the list of life changing hikes in Utah. But after
hiking, this list was clearly not made but an experienced hiker. It was nice,
but not life changing. It takes you through several aspen groves and pine
forests around the side of a mountain then down to the falls. The falls were
very nice to see partly frozen and sparkling in the sunlight. I hiked back to
the car and talked to my dad on the drove back to Lees. They planned a great
dinner for me in thanks for the drive. They call it hot pot. It’s near boiling
water and broth then you add in thin strips of meat and fresh veggies. You
simply cook everything to taste and eat away. It was a very long meal full of
conversation and good music. While lee cleaned up Natty and I went over some
maps and she planned out a great weekend trip for me through western Utah.
Friday Feb, 20
In the
morning I headed straight to Antelope Island located in the Great Salt Lake.
The lake is extremely low right now and it’s almost not even in island. I
walked around the visitor center then drove around the island. There are
buffalo scattered all over the place! I also was able to find a few prong
horned antelope. I didn’t want to do any of the typical trails so I decided to
just free hike to what looked like a cool spot. I parked and headed off. I
thought it would be really cool to bring home a buffalo skull, if I could find
one. When I started walking I found a small creek and decided to follow that.
Almost right away I found a large buffalo bone along the creek. I picked it up
and continued on. Then I hit the gold mine! I found a full buffalo skeleton,
everything except the skull. It was scattered across about 30 yards but I was
able to pick up several interesting finds. Including the hip bones and
vertebra. I gathered my treasure and set it aside. I continued hiking around
until I couldn’t go any further up the ravine. I went back for my horde and
started back to the car. I had to hide from several cars on the road, but they
would just take a few pictures and turn around. I stashed everything in my car
and drove up to a spot called Buffalo Point. This gives you a great overlook of
several bays and islands around the lake. After that I decided to get the kayak
wet one more time. I left from the marina with an island destination in sight.
After an hour or so I realized I was not getting any closer. I checked the gps
and I have gone 2 miles. They island was still 4 miles away. This wasent
happening so I headed back. The Great Salt Lake is incredibly salty. The ocean
is about 4% salt, this lake is about 27% the max water can hold. I was covered
in a thick layer of salt and had to wash off. As I was doing this another
gentleman was washing his car. We started talking and I had a question. The
whole day there has been smoke in the distance. It was strange to watch. It
would go straight up then stop and spread out at the same height as the
mountains. He told me there is a storm coming tomorrow and that is when the
farmers are allowed to burn their fields. He also told me about a kayaking spot
called the Little Grand Canyon. I looked it up and it wasn’t flowing right now
but I would like to get the chance to see this in the future. After I washed off the car and kayak from all
the salt I drove to Park City Utah. My cousin Joephine just moved out here for
work and I was really looking forward to seeing her. I didn’t think I would get
the chance to, but with this detour in the trip to SLC it worked out. I met her
at a coffee place and we hung out talking about our adventures. From there we
walked over to the High West Distillery for a lovely bourbon and scotch. I
dropped her off at the house she is staying at and made my way back to lees for
a much needed shower. I made some tacos and took care of laundry. Natty came
over and we talked more about the trip she planned. Lee got back around 11 and
we all watched tv.
Saturday Feb, 21
I
packed up in the morning and said my goodbyes. It truly added to my trip to be
able to meet these people. Natty packed me up some snacks and I left with some
coffee to go. My first stop was the artesian well located in town to fill up on
water. Next on the list was the army surplus store for some supplies. Natty and
Lee are big into rock hounding and we generous enough to share their spots with
me. So I needed to pick up a shovel and a few other things. From here I headed
west out of the SLC. This is where my adventure begins. Over the next few days
I saw many things I never expected and spent about 400 miles down dirt roads. A
good part of this weekend adventure was along the original pony express. So one
of the stations was the first stop. Really just an old open room house that has
been refurbished. As I continued on I came across 3 wild mustangs right next to
the road. It was really a sight to see these beautiful animals in their natural
environment, not caged up. I spent the rest of my daylight digging around for
geodes. I think I managed to find a few but it’s hard to say. Then I drove over
to a space called Fish Spring. It was dark but the place didn’t seem all that
interesting, so I headed on. I ended up getting lost on some of the back dirt
roads but I finally made it to the place where you can find topaz. But I knew I
needed to gas up at some point, so I headed to the nearby town to fill up. After
that it was back to the topaz. It was dark but I threw on a head lamp just to
see what I was getting into tomorrow. As I was walking around I realized the
ground all around me was sparkling! There was topaz everywhere! I started
collecting. I went a little over board and spent several hours crawling around
until I was frozen to the bone. I made it back to my car and clean off my
finds.
Sunday Feb, 22
This
morning I got to actually see where I was located. Turns out there was an
abandoned mine shaft right in front of me begging me to explore. But first I
cooked some breakfast and found some more topaz. The night before a few other
stones really caught my eye but I didn’t think anything of them. They were faceted
spheres. When I saw them today I started to pick them up. Turns out they were
garnets! After breakfast I hiked through the mine shaft, at least until I came
to the cave in. Then I was off again. I drove around looking for another type
of stone on the list called Wonderstone. But never ended up finding it. I used
up more gas then I expected so I headed back to town, everything was closed on
Sunday. But I figured I would be ok if I came back first time in the morning.
So it was off to the first hot spring. Baker Spring consists of 3 manmade
concrete tubs and you adjust the temperature by using rags to divert hot water
into your tub. They also have a valve that lets in cold water from another
spring nearby. I had that tub cooking in no time! At this point I can say I’m
well experienced in hot tub temperature and I’m guess I had it at about 110
degrees. The sun was shining and I was loving it. Lots of people left garbage (beer
cans) laying all over the place. I figured I had the time to clean up the area
a bit. From here I headed further west, just about to the Nevada border. This
is where I wanted to try my luck fishing for the illustrious Bonneville trout.
I was losing day light fast but I thought I had enough time. I walked across a
small creek, about 2 feet wide and then followed it through a farmers cow
pasture. As I was walking I noticed something in the woods. Sure enough 2 huge
white cow skulls just sitting there! I set them aside and kept walking. I was
hoping the stream would get wider as I followed it up. I came to where it
forked and the stream was still very small with trees lining the sides. I had
no room to cast and I saw no signs of fish. With the day light fading I threw
in the towel and headed back with skulls in hand. Here I had a choice, either
stay here and move on to the next hot spring in the morning. Or go back and get
some more topaz. I knew I could do that at night so I drove back to the topaz
spot and hunted the rest of the night.
Monday Feb, 23
I found
some more topaz while making food, but I was done with that. The next thing I
wanted to find was obsidian! Also known as black glass, you can make some the
sharpest tools from obsidian. I have a
project in mind to break them open then insert a LED light into the back side
of the stone and hopefully get a little light to shine through. But I knew I
needed a lot to be able to attempt this. Luckily for me there is a spot called
Obsidian Hill. And sure enough it was covered with it. I filled my bag with the
largest pieces I could find in about 2 hours. Then I had to gas up. From there it was west
on the main road until I turned off on the dirt again. This took me to Swazy
Peak. Another spot on the list was the trilobite mine. It’s a place you can pay
to smash rocks and look for ancient fossils. The first one was closed but I saw
the gate open for the second place. I was guessing that was closed too so I
continued driving up to the top of Swazy. As I climbed up the shitty rock and
dirt road I started seeing something I haven’t seen sense I left Wisconsin, SNOW!
It made me laugh a bit that I was snow free up until now on the trip. This is
one of the few places that the ancient bristlecone pines grow. I’ve been told
they are the oldest trees in the world, but I’ve been told that for about 3
different trees so who knows? Either way a very pretty sight! After making it
to the top I headed back down and stopped at the trilobite digging area with
the gate open. I pulled up and honked but no one came out. Sure enough they
were closed. I had no idea what I doing, I don’t know what I’m looking for or
how to find it. So I walked around and started hitting pieces of soft shale
rocks. After doing this for about 20 minutes I really felt stupid. Then it
happened. I threw a rock down and froze. Sure as shit, that’s exactly what I
was looking for! I continued for about another 20 minutes and ended up finding
about a dozen fossils, one was a really nice one. The others were mostly
parcels. I was slightly concerned about someone coming down that road and I
knew I wasn’t supposed to be here. So I gathered my findings and took off. I
had one last thing on the list. Gandy Hot Spring. I started driving and got extremely
lost several times! But I always figure your never lost if you don’t have to be
anywhere. So I was loving the crazy little roads twisting and turning through
the bottoms of these beautiful canyons. Eventually I found my way and was
headed in the right direction. I figured why not celebrate! Lee sent me on the
way with a 6 pack of local beers so I cracked one open. It worked out nicely,
when I would finish a beer I would just go out the window and put it up in my
kayak. Once I made it the Gandy area, it was extremely confusing to find the
spring. Which turned out be very easy. This spring turned out to be one of the
highlights of my entire trip. It’s actually considered a warm spring, only
about 75-80 degrees. But the incredible feature was that it was an underground
cave spring. There is moss covering the entrance so not many people know about
it. It was freezing cold and very windy outside so I changed, grabbed my
underwater flashlight and goggles. After hoping in I was ready to explore. I found
the moss and made my way back to the end, then dived down. The scene was
incredible. It used to be a regular cave so it’s full of stalagmites, stalactites
and columns. But underwater it looked incredible! I found a few places to pop
up for air and went back as far as I thought I could, about 30 yards. But the
sun was going down outside and I was in the middle of nowhere, 100 miles from
anything. So I didn’t spend a ton of time inside but it will always be engraved
in the top of my memories. From here I drove back through Swazy Pass just
trying to imagine the first people to walk through here and how they possibly
did it. Back on the main highway I drove south. I still wanted to go back to
Zion and do a few trails I haven’t tried. But once I hit the highway that storm
that guy was talking about finally hit me. It was a frozen blizzard with cars
all over the ditches. I felt comfortable enough and made it to the town just
outside Zion, called Hurricane. While I was on the way I saw one of my friends
from high school was in Vegas, about a 2.5 hour drive from here. I got in touch
with her and found out she was in town for a work convention. My hiking idea
was ruined by this blizzard so we made plans to meet up tomorrow when she was
finished for the day.
Tuesday Feb, 24
With my
hiking plans put on hold it gave me time to get something’s in order. I got a
car wash, after that long on dirt road dirt was stuck everything on that thing.
Next I picked up some containers to hold all the stones I collected and try to
keep them protected. Then I needed to strip out the entire car and go through
it top to bottom. I moved the bones from the front seat up into the kayak. I
had my hiking boots under the bone and grabbed them. That’s when I found my
little friend. A black widow was hanging out in my car! I think it came in on
the bones, 3 days ago. Not to mention I sleep in that same car, while that
black widow is active. It creeped me out a little to think about. But I found a
jar and made her a nice little home. The temperature continued dropping and it
was much warmer in Vegas, so I made the drive over. I cooked some food and
watched some movies waiting until Anny was done. I meet her at the Aria Hotel
and we grabbed a drink. I haven’t seen Anny in a long time, so it was great
catching up with an old friend. After that we hit the town. She looked up a lot
of different fun places to see here and it’s the most fun I have had in Vegas.
And I believe on the walk home someone ended up climbing a statute or 2.
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