West Desert V

Posted to the WDTL on 3 May 2009:

We drove toward the Gap with a huge storm brewing. A few drops spattered us as we passed the southern end of the Little Salt Lake. The deluge hit as we entered the Gap. Ellen said we had an ocean on our windshield. We did, but it was gone by the time we reached the Minersville Highway. From there we drove straight to Lund. Lund has a population of five. Maybe. But it has two little abandoned (and now vanalized) railroad houses that we like. Valerie wants to move one home for a studio. We turned north past the pig farms and, by the time we hit Jockey Road, Ellen was asleep. She didn't miss much but, after we'd passed the road to the mine, I wasn't really sure where we were going. We passed some hand-carters and finally stopped at an old corral, but we still had nowhere to camp. We turned around and went back to an abandoned gravel pit. It wasn't very picturesque, but the girls were ready to quit driving. We were probably 80 miles from Parowan, but it had taken us about three hours to get there.

After erecting camp, Ellen and I took a walk down a little wash nearby. We were in a pinyon-juniper forest and it showed signs of heavy cutting, even half a mile from the road. Most of the fence posts between there and Minersville must have come from that forest. Nevertheless, there were plenty of trees and they collectively blocked our views of the surrounding area. So, we had just ourselves and our little wash. Which was quite enough. We were out of the wind and the temperature was just right for walking. The air smelled of pinyon and sage. Ellen chattered on about the flowers she found—penstemon, indian paintbrush, and some little native snow-in-summer type plants. We found coyote tracks and scats; we found old horse poops; we heard the call of a crow; and, where the wash entered a little meadow, we startled a grazing cow elk. On the way back we found a couple of resting rocks; we sat there while Ellen dumped the sand out of her shoes. A few minutes later we arrived in camp—just in time to open a bottle of two dollar wine and start cooking dinner.

In the morning, we left Valerie to paint and we drove over to a spring just below the Tetons—three or four little knolls with a grand sounding name. From there I hiked to the crest of one of the, well, Tetons, while Ellen sat on a rock about half way up. I had unimpeaded views across Pine Valley and all the way to Indian Peak. Ellen started to call, so I went down and we drove back to camp. I got Ellen a snack and we packed up the camping gear. The sun was out and it was hot. With the windows open, we turned back down Jockey Road and drove to the confluence with Blawn Wash. We turned there at the old windmill and continued down the wash. Blawn Wash Road was in very good shape and within minutes we were in front of Broze Knoll. We set up Valerie to paint and made lunch. After a while it was time to go and Ellen went to sleep on the seat as we drove back to Lund. From there, it was a straight shot back to the Gap and Parowan beyond.