Desert Adventure

Since I am a boring person who has too much homework, I don't really have anything exciting to write about. Most of my posts have been about cars so I thought I would switch it up and tell you about a recent trip we took - in the car.

Because the mountains around here have been covered in snow, we decided to head out to the west desert to see if we could find ghost towns and good views of the salt flats from some mountain peaks. We packed a lunch and met up early with some friends and then off we headed into the middle of nowhere, not too far from the Bonneville Salt Flats.


We left the freeway and headed across the desert into the distant mountains. It seemed like the only other living things within sight were cows that liked to stand in the middle of the road, especially around corners. As we headed into the mountains, the air got colder and the roads muddier.


As we exited a corner, there it was. Could this be the ghost town we were looking for? Nope. Well, it was what was left of this supposed ghost town. The lone house was definitely in shambles but based on the sheet-rocked walls and tiled floor, it was far from ancient. Still cool to look at.


A little further up the road, the hillside opened up into a huge open pit mine - quite an impressive sight. We played around in the snow for a little while, looking for some more ruins from the mining days. Unfortunately, the old house was the closest we got to a ghost town, but we did find some interesting signs of life...


We ate lunch in the canyon, overlooking the valleys west of Salt Lake City and then decided to head out and see what else we could find.


After some bumpy roads and more obstinate cattle, we got back to the freeway. As thoughts of heading home filled our minds, we saw it. Just across the freeway, a tall hill with a narrow gravel road heading straight up the side of it. A steep gravel road, and a good view at the top for some photo ops proved to be more tempting that being back at home and up we went. As my sister's face shows, it was actually kind of a lame hill.



Finally, at the top - Amazing Views of the surrounding desert. With the rays of sun breaking through the clouds. This is what we were looking for. Of course, the car wanted to be in the pictures too.


All-in-all, it was a fun trip. Close enough to home to be reached in a day, but far enough to feel as though we were light years away from anything - including school. We have a couple other adventures but I'll save those for another day - or another blog when Kandis changes her password to this one and doesn't tell me.