A while back Scott at
http://www.scottsadventuresandworld.blogspot.com/ tipped me off to a sweet camp site in the west desert. It took me a while, but I finally made it out to camp in the alcove for myself. He calls it cave camping. I'll go along with that- the alcove is huge enough to drive up into. It is also shallow enough that you don't need a flashlight at the back of it. Cave camping sounds a whole lot better than alcove camping.
My boss let me leave work early on Friday. We had had a busy few weeks and had turned in several projects, so about 2:00, he said to go home. Sweet! (I have an awesome boss.) I rushed home and we loaded up the final few things we needed. I had packed everything the night before so we could leave right after I got off work so we were on the road pretty quickly.
We drove and drove, and after turning down a few wrong roads, we finally found the right ones and made it to the campsite. It's big enough to drive your car into it, but I didn't because of some nails and glass that were in the dirt. The west desert is NOT a place I want to get a flat tire at!
We set up camp, cooked dinner, and had a relaxed evening. The kids were thrilled.
I looked around the nearby cliffs for some petroglyphs, but didn't find any. A sign nearby said that it was an archeological site, so we looked but didn't find anything interesting. Supposedly the petroglyphs are there, we just didn't find them.
The sunset was spectacular. The west desert is beautiful. I took a few more photos, then headed in for the night.
After breakfast in the morning, we drove around a little bit looking for a way out to the Great Salt Lake Pumps, but because we didn't have an up-to-date map and had just over a half a tank of gas we decided to come back out another day.
Nearest City: Grantsville, UT
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: Overnight
Difficulty: Moderate
Kid Friendly: Yes
Additional Info:
Awesome. There's a ton to see in the W desert, I guess. The pumps are on my list as well. Have you been to crystal peak?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of flat tires in the desert, I've been toying with the idea of getting a satellite phone. Any thoughts on that? The problem is they're expensive. Remote desert trips with kids (especially with only one parent) feel kind of risky to me. Moab / Capitol Reef no problem -- but in some of these other places you might not see a passing car for weeks.
ReplyDeleteLocation Please!
ReplyDeleteAmeilia-
ReplyDeleteI refrained from posting the location because Scott asked me not to. To quote: "No problem. Just don't post the location on a public forum and remember every person you tell will tell 2 more people and then we will end up with lots of people going there and it all goes downhill from there :)"
Any chance I could get you to email me the location of this cave? My son is big into caves and this would be a dream come true for him! smamshaw@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteA little bit of research and a lot of looking at maps and you can find this place on your own. Makes it that much more satisfying when you do finally get there.
ReplyDelete