The Zettler gang went at it again this past weekend. After doing a little exploring online of the possible places to go that might be a bit warmer this time of year, we decided to head to Skull Valley. This place has so much history. Skull Valley, Utah is home to a few of the remaining Goshute tribal members. It only comprises 30 square miles of land and borders the Cedar Mountain Wilderness Areas and Dugway Proving Grounds used by the US Military. Skull Valley is also the future home of spent nuclear rods or radioactive waste. Energy Solutions recently received the license from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build the site, however, the US Bureau of Indian Affairs and US Bureau of Land Management has not granted the permissions to build or to run a railway to the proposed site. Cedar Mountain Wilderness was partly created just for this reason.
We were headed to a place called White Rock. Loaded up in our usual vehicles, we drove out Friday afternoon in the direction of the setting sun. We turned south at State Route 196 which cuts through Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation. This road was made into a state owned road in order to thwart the shipping of hazardous nuclear waste without permit into Skull Valley. 98 miles later we were arriving at an outcropping of rock that seemed alien to the landscape; White Rock.
White Rock was an old ranch back in the 1960's. In 1968, a mysterious death of several hundred sheep led to an investigation which revealed government testing of biological and chemical weapons testing. Vx gas had killed the sheep. Even though the military denied that Dugway Proving Grounds, which was only 0.5 miles from one of the sites of the dead sheep, had anything to do with the deaths of the animals, they agreed to properly dispose of the carcasses. Hush money is even said to have been paid to local farmers. Read more details here: http://www.corpsfuds.org/reports/INPR/J08UT1100catx.pdf . These sheep are still buried there to this day.
The road from SR 196 to the campsites was populated by open range cattle and a few antelope. Into the setting sun again we turned, large dust plums raised into the air behind our SUV's. Gabe attempted to do a bit of offroading and ended up high-centered on a small sand embankment. The Jeep was unstuck easily with just a bit of pushing and we were off to the West side of the rock outcrop where we found a suitable camp site (on the way in I gave Lindsay and I a shot of adrenaline by taking a very very steep trail that almost resulted in us tipping over!).
Camp went up quickly, a roaring fire to get cooking coals ready slowly burned down. Gabe and I threw the first shoes of the season, but we were just warming up. Dinner was a new concoction: Hobo Stew Burritos. They were delicious and will most definitely be a regular at future campouts. We all hit the hay, fat, tired and smelling of camp smoke! Just the way we like it.
That night an owl hooted us all to sleep nearby as the Big Dipper rotated around the North Star.
Fresh coffee, eggs, and bacon in our gullets, we headed out for some exploring. The peaks of White Rock were calling and we answered. We did a little bouldering at the top of the peaks, took some gorgeous photos and took in all that White Rock had to offer us up there. It was good to be camping again!
It seems that this area is a hot spot for paintballers as we could see leftover paintball shrouds all around and as we were descending the rocks a group pulled up and started to play. Everywhere we looked, remnants of soapy paintballs lay. Not sure what impact they have on the environment, but I do know they make it ugly. Probably not as bad as what Dugway has done in the past.
Back at camp, we all loaded up into the Rover to drive out to the Dugway Geode Beds. "Approximately 6 to 8 million years ago (Miocene epoch), volcanic activity occurred in western Utah and deposited an extrusive igneous rock called rhyolite. Trapped gasses formed cavities within the rhyolite, and millions of years of ground-water circulation allowed minerals to precipitate into the cavities. The result is geodes with spherical shapes and crystal-lined cavities." - http://geology.utah.gov/utahgeo/rockmineral/collecting/rkhd0500.htm . On the way we stopped in at Dugway for gas and some refreshing drinks. (This took approximately 30 minutes as I had to get a vehicle pass from the security guards, if you are a civilian don't even try this). We used the restrooms and asked for some quick directions as we knew the general location, but weren't exactly sure. The older lady behind the counter looked at us and squinted her eyes as if she was thinking real hard, "That's far! I don't remember how far since I ain't been out there for over 20 years, but it's far". A full tank of gas and an adventurous spirit got us there just fine.
We finally figured out that it was 40 miles from Dugway to the geode beds. On a washboard road, this makes for a rough ride. Along the way we passed through Simpson's Springs, one of the old Pony Express stations. Even though the Pony Express was in operation for 18 months it is often thought as part of the great history of the West. Simpson's Springs was used long before the Pony Express as a fruitful watering hole in Utah's west desert. Read more about it here: http://www.utahoutdooractivities.com/simpsonsprings.html .
Along the way we also noted a herd of feral horses that seemed to be attracting an audience. Feral horses, or Mustangs roam the 480 + square miles of the Utah west desert and frequent the BLM water holes that were built for those especially dry springs. They were a nice sight, and brought a feeling of rudimentary wilderness to the overall trip.
We finally found the geode beds and started to look for the tell-tale soft light soil that is indicative of where geodes are to be found. Patience has a lot to do with finding geodes, as we soon found out. Digging and sifting, digging and sifting and finally we found a few smaller geodes.
Mark Twain once said, "There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure." We fulfilled this desire.
After such a bone jarring ride, it was time for a game of horse shoes and some cool drinks. Back at camp we threw shoes as the sun settled again into her bed and gave way to the sliver smile of a moon. Bean and cheese and rice burritos were a filling dinner and we all gazed at the vast amount of stars in the sky as we warmed our bums by the fire. We all knew that a storm was on it's way in the next day and that we would have to leave early, so we waited for the last bit of flame to die out and crashed.
Coyotes lulled us into the night this night. As the temperatures dropped and the winds raised into the morning, the cold front came down. We all awoke to gale force winds and frozen rain. Luckily we had prepped the campsite the night before and it was a quick pack-up. Frozen fingers packed bags and zipped packs. We drove out of the camp site just as it started to dump on us.
It was a frozen drive home, an amazing site to see the storm coming at us across the desert. All the animals on the plain had their backs turned into the wind as snow started to coat their hides. We stopped for breakfast and toasted our coffee mugs to the first camping trip of the season. Game on!
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