west desert

For a while now I have wanted to spend some time on the Pony Express Trail. About two weeks ago I finally made it out to the west desert. Friday evening we met up with some family in Delta, then headed north towards Fish Springs Wildlife Refuge. Driving in the dark we pulled off the road to camp...

My wife and I woke up early Saturday morning, hopped in the Jeep and headed west, to the Grassy Mountains, to hike to the high point of the range, which I will call Grassy Benchmark. The Grassy Mountains are located in the west desert roughly 70 miles due west of Salt Lake City. The range...

I took the day off from work to head out to the Cedar Mountains in the west desert to hike up Tabby's Peak before the weather turned south here in Utah. Tabby's Peak is located in the southern portion of the Cedars, and the easiest access point is from Rydalch Canyon. It took us a couple of...

If you say the word "notch" to me, my mind goes to the Uintas. To the gap on the skyline above Wall Lake. To Ibantic Lake in its shadow. Utah has another notable notch, one nearly as high and perhaps more dramatic: Notch Peak. Sitting on the southern end of the House Range in the West...

Preparation I need to lose weight. I say this every time I step on the scale. I feel it every time I ride uphill. There I said it we shall see if I can do anything about this spring/summer. Goal for this trip is not to take too much food or unnecessary clothes. Expected temperatures mid 60’s in...

My oldest son is studying Geology at Weber right now. So two weeks ago on his spring break we did a little Geology tour near Delta. First stop Paul Bunyan's wood pile. No sign on highway 6 for the turn off. I read on another web site that it was between mile marker 125 and 126. Dirt road on the...

The Silver Islands are desolate and very rugged and feel remote, but actually they're easy to access due to the graded loop road and proximity to I-80. The loop road, however, stays on the flats and isn't very interesting -- to see the good stuff you need to hike or else drive up some of the...

Dirt bike trip for the weekend 2002, some West Desert scenery:

What do you usually do on a New Year Day? Recover from Hangover? I decided that I will start my day off with a bang and do something I never done. I reviewed my bucket list and I had decided to take road trip to Salt Flat, Wendover and Sun Tunnel. While driving toward Salt Flats, my hiking bud...

This was our 2nd attempt hiking Notch Peak. The first time was in April and we got caught in a blizzard. Notch Peak is a lonely peak. Twice when we went there, we did not see another person. Notch Peak is a distinctive summit located on Sawtooth Mountain west of Delta, Utah. It is considered to...

The seed for this trip was planted in my mind last August. When I read that a legal settlement had resulted in the re-opening of several historic routes in the Deep Creek mountains. A snippet of the press release: “Under the settlement announced Monday by officials for Utah and Juab County and...

Wanted to get away over Easter and explore someplace new. The Newfoundland Mountains fit the bill perfectly. Again it was the two boys and I. There are three ways out to the Newfoundlands. From the North via the Hogup Mountains. From the East along the rail road grade via Lakeside. Or from the...

A simple idea... Drive from Wendover, straddling the Nevada/Utah border on I-80, to St. George in the SW corner of Utah, near the Arizona border. Drive from Wendover to St. George… on dirt. When a friend mentioned the idea asking if I could plan a route, I knew from previous travel that the...

Last weekend I went on a two night trip to the Newfies with some of the guys from expeditionutah. We had eight rigs total starting out. Cut over 100 miles of new tracks in the old snow, nobody had been out there very recently. Great time, great folks, great scenery, great weather, great food...

Taken from my blog at www.livevicariouslythroughus.blogspot.com You may or may not have heard about Story Rock. Here are the pictures. We had about a 2 mile (roundtrip) hike to see the rock. I'm debating about how much info to put here, so let me know if I should add more or less. The rock is...

Posted from my blog at www.livevicariouslythroughus.blogspot.com A while back DOSS 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...

Friday night my friend Mason and our eldest girls (Maci and Kahlan) went for a short trip to Lakeside just to get away from the world. We spent Friday night in a large cave while avoiding drips from the roof. Saturday morning we woke up early and for the first time ever Mason was out of his Jeep...

once again it was time to get out of the house and spend some time in the hills. We headed back to where we went a couple weekends ago but this time to do some camping. In our groups email correspondence it the trip was often referred to as Beer, Guns and Campfire. All three were the essence of...

On Thursday May 14 My friends Mason (and his Daughter), Steve (and his son) and Chad (with his son and father) met up at my house in Tooele at 9AM to begin a 4 day 3 night circumnavigation of the Great Salt Lake with Me and my eldest Kahlan. The basic plan was to head west on the pony express...