Last weekend a friend from work, Scott Seal, and I paid a visit to Utah's West Desert. The West desert is part of the Great Basin, and one of the last truly open spaces in the lower 48.

It's not exactly a tourist destination, though. There's a whole lot of nothin' out there! People only really go out there for three things; minerals, fossils and solitude (one can spend weeks on end out there and see nary a soul). We were after a little solitude, and a few trilobite fossils if we could find them.

We took highway 6 ("The Lonliest Highway") about 30 clicks past Delta, into no man's land. From the 6 we turned right onto a dirt road marked by a U-dig Fossil sign. We followed this road for something like 20 miles, until we reached antelope springs, and the U-dig fossil quarry. Instead of paying to dig on their property, though, we found our own little outcropping of the Wheeler Shale a few miles away and began our search there. Within a couple hours we had found some pretty nice trilobites and decided we had done enough rockhounding. So we hopped back in the truck and headed for Marjum Canyon.


Here's a view from Antelope Springs as we left. In the distance you can see the wind pushing huge clouds of salt across the sevier dry lake bed.

Marjum Canyon is a deep gorge seperating the lower and middle house ranges, and one of Utah's lesser known scenic wonders. From the bottom, huge limestone cliffs tower 400 to 500 feet above you. If it weren't in the middle of ruddy nowhere, I suspect Marjum Canyon would be much more popular. I'm content, however, keeping it a secret (nobody really reads these blogs, right?).


Marjum canyon in the early evening.


One of many cool limestone features in the canyon.


Another limestone cliff at the western end of the canyon.


A view of the Tule Valley, and the Deep Creek range some 70 miles in the distance. I wonder how close the nearest living person was from us at this point?

From Marjum Canyon we found our way to a little spot called Painter Springs. This place is one of the coolest in all of utah, and an incredibly delicate ecosystem. For this reason, I won't disclose the exact location of the springs...if you want to visit, I'll happily take you there.

Painter Springs owes it's existence to a huge body of granite that made it's way through the earth's crust during the time of the dinosaurs. This Granitic rock makes for great aquifer material. Storing water in it's fractures and fissures, it trickles out year round. Aside form being wetter and greener than the surrounding landscape, Painter Springs is spectacular because the pink/orange granite has weatered into so many bizzare and dramatic shapes.


Like this.


And this.


Looking into the basin and range from Painter Springs.


It was getting late so Scott and I had to hit the road. We passed to the west of the lower House Range, and Notch peak on our way back to highway 6. Here is Notch Peak as the sun was setting. More to come...