The West Desert

The West Desert

Dry.  Lonely.  Dead.

If you don't dare to dig a little deeper and actually jump into the desert, that may be what you think of the West Desert in Box Elder County.

Digging just a little bit will show you the vast amounts of beauty this place has to offer.

Even though it is a desert, there is still water.   Here is a picture of the Great Salt Lake at sunset.  It was taken in the winter. Many broken pieces of ice floating at the water's edge.  

With blue skies, the desert flowers blooming and the bright orange lichen growing on the rocks it makes the desert a remarkably colorful place.  

But of course we would never make it there without of trusted choice of transportation:

Igloo Sportsman Cooler

With our trips getting longer we were looking for a cooler up to the task of keeping our food cold for up to 5 days without replacing the ice daily. After looking over all of our options in our price range we decided to try out the relatively new Igloo sportsman cooler. For around $200 at Sams in A Desert tan color or White, It was a bargain compared to the other brands. I was alittle worried it would not perform as well as the other brands. I was wrong. I freeze about 12 bottles of water and line the bottom of the cooler, This eliminates water getting into our food. Then the last thing i put into the cooler is a Arctic ice Tundra freezer pack. Warning, Anything you put in direct contact with the Tundra will freeze. My frozen water bottles lasted 5 days before thawing and i did not have to replace with ice until day seven. 

Newfoundland Mountains, A trip to Miners Basin.

We decided to take a little trip out to the Newfoundland Mountains, We loaded up our gear and hit the road early in the morning.  We knew it would be a long day trip possibly a cold overnight stay in the desert. The road to the Newfoundland mountains is a pretty easy drive for a vehicle with moderate clearance, however once you are off of the "main roads" a high clearance 4x4 is recommended. Be warned though that some of the stretches are impassable when wet.

There are quite a few Mines in the area to explore. I do not encourage people to go and explore the mines.  Here are a few that i know are there within a mile or so. There are a few prospect holes as well that i have left off of the map. We poked around the mines a little but we had some camera Trouble and did not get very many pictures this trip.

It is hard to see but the saddle in the middle is where the trail leads to, It is a trail more suited to a Jeep or a ATV.

This is from the end of the trail, For the Dodge. It was just to narrow to go any further so we hiked to the top to check it out and it definitely turned into an ATV trail. 

On our way to the border of the Test and Training range we came across this old Dodge, or what was left of one.

We ended the day as usual with a fire and some food.

German Shepherd vs  Hawk????

Yep, you read that correctly! Only, it wasn't what you might think. The dog going after the hawk (well, that did happen, but that's a little later) but rather the hawk going after the dog.

Who would have thought that a 3.5 lbs bird would try to snatch up a 80+ lbs dog?  Well, turns out it happens more than you would think.  Although they don't usually pick them up and carry them away (like you see in the movies), rather they knock them off of ledges or other high up structures so when the wingless animals hit the ground, dinner is served for the bird.  

The aftermath: A broken dog box, some scared dog owners and a hawk that CIRCLED AROUND AGAIN to move in for another go.   So if you hear the strange silent but heart pounding "Whompth. Whompth.  Whompth." of a hawks wings as they approach a victim... beware... they might be there to take your beloved pet (or child) away.  

Lil Red Step Side

I only managed to get one picture of this Beautiful old truck, The older gentleman that was driving it was clearly enjoying the afternoon ride.