Water Makes a Difference

The classic view of the desert and water is the river that runs into the ocean. This stream is obviously in a desert, but it also has no chance of ever running into the ocean except by evaporation. It is in the Great Basin of North America where all the streams and rivers are captured by the mountains and ultimately end up as part of several large salty lakes including the Great Salt Lake of Utah. But it is amazing to see these naturally occurring springs.

A Marble Slot Canyon

Slot canyons in Utah and Arizona and usually associated with sandstone. The iconic photos are of Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona. Apparently, the conditions that create slot canyons are not unique to soft sedimentary rocks. This is an impressive, but very short, slot canyon where the rocks are marble composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals usually calcite or dolomite. Most slot canyons are well known to "canyoneers" and listed online. This particular slot canyon is called Devil's Gate which happens to be a surprise and ends up being in Nevada. There are no border markings out in the West Desert.

An Old Sawmill

From time to time, you see old abandoned equipment, especially in the western part of the United States. In this case, this is an old custom-built sawmill. You can see that it hasn't been used for years. Cut lumber is much easier to obtain than it was a few years ago. I have seen a number of these jury-rigged type of machines around the country and I enjoy taking photos of old equipment. From the construction, I would say that this was probably filled in the 1940s.

Barbed Wire

The good news is that the dry climate of the desert preserves old artifacts, some of them ancient. The bad news is that the dry climate of the desert preserves virtually everything. I cannot remember all of the times I tore my clothes or got cut by barbed wire while I was a child. As children, we developed a method of crossing barbed wire fences almost at a run but sometimes we got caught. I know I hit a barbed wire fence that someone stretched across a bike path and cut my leg. I also remember a panic stop in my car when a barbed wire fence had been erected over an old abandoned paved road. Barbed wire has always made my life interesting.

The Fate of Technology

The fate of this old hay rake is symbolic of the fate of all technology. We can wring our collective hands about how technology is constantly changing, but who is ready to go back and use the technology represented by this hay rake? The interesting thing about this hay rake is that it was abandoned where it probably broke for the last time before it was repaired and re-used. Because of the dry conditions of the desert Southwest, there are probably thousands and thousands of such items of abandoned technology lying around on old farms.

Old Barbed Wire Fence

Beginning as a young child, I was extensively familiar with barbed wire fences which we called "bobbed wire." Everything about this image is part of my childhood from the tumbleweeds along the fence to the old abandoned car in the distance. Even though I have lived most of my life in large cities, I can still relate to barbed wire and tumbleweeds.

An Old Cabin

This was one of the first cabins build in Gandy, Utah way out in the Western Desert of Utah. Because the weather is so dry and there is so little vegetation, structures like these last forever. When I walked over to look around, I was almost instantly transported to my younger years and felt the years melt away. It was an interesting experience.

A Rare Utah Opuntia

I found this very spine covered opuntia way up on a steep hillside in the Western Desert of Utah. I am positive that I have never seen the likes of it before. After doing some research, I am guessing that this cactus is so rare that it is not found in any of the lists of cactus in Utah. If you are a botanist or knowledgeable about cactus in Utah and you haven't seen this cactus, make a comment or send me an email and I can tell you about where it was found. If you are a plant collector and just want to dig it up, forget it. It could be a Mohave Prickly Pear or Opuntia erinacea. But this one was found a long way from the Grand Canyon National Park.

A Distant View

Once you begin to climb into the hills out on the Western Desert of Utah, you can really begin to see the grandeur of this supposedly empty country. What you cannot see in this photo is that we are walking up the trail to a fabulous cave full of extraordinary formations. Much if the treasure found in the Western Desert is only available to those willing to spend the time driving through clouds of dust to see the gems.

The Silence of the Desert

While living in the forests of the East it is almost possible to forget that the real world is the grand vista of an endless desert. Each place has its own beauty. But the beauty of the desert celebrates the long view of life at the edge of survival. Why do I have a desert heart in the midst of trees?

The Fort at the Canyon Station Pony Express Stop

There is a not a lot of romance about the historic Pony Express when you begin to understand what riding across the country entailed. This is an old fort that was built out on the Pony Express Trail in the Western Desert of Utah. This photo was taken in the very early Spring but the country doesn't change much as the Seasons progress. This fort never had a roof, it was mainly used for providing some cover if there was an attack by Indians. This station was also called Burned or Burnt Out since in July of 1853, Indians killed the Overland Stage agent and four soldiers and burned the older station at a location down in the adjacent canyon. The station was then moved to this location.

Traveling Dirt Roads

What do you see in this photo? What don't you see? I would venture to say that few people in the eastern part of the United States have been anywhere where you could see this far without a tree or a structure or anything except a dirt road and one small sign. This is my kind of country. If you would like to know where this is, it was taken from Canyon Station of the Pony Express Trail in the Western Utah Desert. Here is an explanation about the stations from Utah.com's article entitled "Pony Express Trail."

The Canyon Station was located northwest of this site in Overland Canyon. Built in 1861, it consisted of a log house, a stable, and a dugout where meals were cooked and served. In July 1863, Indians killed the Overland agent and four soldiers, and burned the station. The Overland Station was built in 1863 at the present marked site, which was a more defensible location. Stone outlines of the 1863 station are still visible.
There are remnants of a round fortification built just behind the station which served as a lookout and place of refuge. It probably never had a roof so defenders could speedily climb over the wall and begin firing through the rifle ports. The depression on the south side of the parking lot indicates where the corral and blacksmith shop were probably located.

Water in the Desert

Finding areas with water and marshes in the middle of a very barren desert is quite a treat. You can see the contrast between the water in the foreground and the desert in the background. Believe me, there is a lot more desert than there is water. These amazing areas are in the Western Desert of Utah. If you like to drive on dirt roads, this is the place to be.

Blue Lake, Western Desert, Utah

There are always fabulous places that I didn't know about and have never seen. This is Blue Lake the scuba divers destination in the West Desert of Utah. I would like to go back there when the marsh greens up in the summer. These lakes are a series of warm springs that are about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This one is about 50 feet deep in the middle. Always some new place to go and something to do.

Marsh around Blue Lake, Western Desert, Utah

You normally wouldn't associate water and mud in a marsh with the Western Desert of Utah but here is proof positive that marshland does exist in the middle of the flat areas that would otherwise be dry and dusty. This marshy area is adjacent to Blue Lake, an attraction for scuba divers from around the entire Great Basin area. Part of our family group went snorkeling and we watched two scuba divers organize their gear and go for a dive. Obviously, this was not where the scuba diving was going on, but you will just have to wait a while until I get through with my preliminary photos to see the actual lake.

The Salt Flats, Utah

You have to remember that the Salt Flats used to be the bottom of a huge lake. Seasonally, the Salt Flats remember their origin and fill up with a few inches of water. This preserved the surface of the salt and makes it almost perfectly flat. The Salt Flats are just one of the unreal places in the vast Western Desert of Utah as it is locally referred to. The official name of the desert is the Great Basin Desert. Here is a description of the Great Basin Desert from Wikipedia:

The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife Fund, and the Central Basin and Range ecoregion defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and United States Geological Survey. It is a temperate desert with hot, dry summers and snowy winters. The desert spans a large part of the state of Nevada, and extends into western Utah, eastern California, and Idaho. The desert is one of the four biologically defined deserts in North America, in addition to the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts.

Thunder Clouds over the Bonneville Raceway, Salt Flats in Utah

The Western Desert of Utah is one of the most dramatic places you can visit. Of course, you need to love driving on dirt roads with lots of dust, no GPS or phone reception, no services for 130 miles including restrooms, mostly no people, and a lot of distance between anything you want to see. This is definitely my kind of place.

Under Water at the Bonneville International Raceway

Note: More than one photo.
We took a trip recently to one of the cumulatively strangest places in the United States: the Western Desert of Utah. To start our journey we stopped off at the world famous Bonneville International Raceway on the Salt Flats of Utah. This is was the view at the location of the Raceway. Yes, the entire area had reverted to is prehistoric state of being covered by water and I should add very salty water. This photo begins a series of photos that show some of the unexpected, wierd, and always beautiful locations that highlight a 400 mile trip on dirt roads with no phone reception. Here is another photo taken from the same location in a different direction.

If you visit the Western Desert area of Utah other than by freeway, you will begin to notice that the horizon is flat and there are always mountain ranges either near or far. During my many visits to the area that consists of the western 1/3 of Utah, I am always surprised at the grand vistas and unexpected details. Here is another view. You probably should know that this salty water is only about 6 inches deep.

Mud Cracks

My fascination with the way that mud cracks when it dries began as a child. Now, I think they explain a lot of things about the geophysical world we see around us. They are also a classic example of chaos and ultimately the opposite of fractals. We have been poking around in the West Desert of Utah and have had an ample opportunity to see mud cracks after the Winter rains and snow.

You Never Know What You Will See

During a recent visit to a local art museum, we saw this. You never know what some people consider to be art. I should have kept my art major and become an artist. I have a shop vac and a broom in my garage. Maybe I should open the garage as an art museum.

An Afternoon Break with Friends

This is a common scene in the Arizona desert. We get used to sharing our drinking fountains with bees and wasps. Of course, this is usually only a problem with drinking fountains that leak. Here is an appropriate poem about bees.

Like trains of cars on tracks of plush
I hear the level bee:
A jar across the flowers goes,
Their velvet masonry


Withstands until the sweet assault
Their chivalry consumes,
While he, victorious, tilts away
To vanquish other blooms.


His feet are shod with gauze,
His helmet is of gold;
His breast, a single onyx
With chrysoprase, inlaid.


His labor is a chant,
His idleness a tune;
Oh, for a bee's experience
Of clovers and of noon!

The Bee by Emily Dickinson

Cholla Fruit

Many of the common cactus plants of the desert Southwest have edible fruit. Mostly, this fruit gets eaten by birds, bats, and other fauna of the desert but potentially, it can be eaten by humans. If you see cactus jelly or candy for sale at a tourist-oriented store in Arizona, the cactus fruit used will almost always be from the Opuntia family with Prickly Pear fruit being the most common. One reason for this is that the fruit is fairly accessible for picking if you use a pair of salad tongs or similar items. However, cholla cactus also bave edible fruit and as you might guess, it is smaller, has less juice and better protected with very sharp spines.

Here is an appropriate poem.

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost

Yes, they are cactus

We all have the propensity to judge people, animals, and even plants as groups. This is especially true when we know little or nothing about the group. Each of these cactus plants is an individual. But collectively, they don't even look much like cactus. These cactus are Tephrocactus articulatus v. strobiliformis. They really are cactus. Here is an appropriate poem on the subject.

Walking in Beauty

With Beauty before me, may I walk.
With Beauty behind me, may I walk.
With Beauty below me, may I walk.
With Beauty above me, may I walk.
With Beauty all around me, may I walk.
In old age wandering a trail of Beauty,
lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering a trail of Beauty,
living again, may I walk.

Attributed to the Diné