Sheldon

We found a small patch of snow in the middle of the sagebrush desert and went skiing.


My home for the summer.

It's been raining/snowing for the past week. In the desert. It makes doing dishes interesting, working difficult, and showering something we don't bother with (too cold outside).


Our ground squirrel which lives near Badger Cabin had babies, and they are pretty cute.


Storm rolling in over Sheldon as seen from the Bog Hot hot springs.

Travels

Before starting the drive to Nevada and Sheldon NWR, Michelle and I met up in Moab and immediately set off to Potash Road to go rock climbing, setting up topropes on slabs overlooking the Colorado River.

We were fortunate enough to run into some climbers from Colorado who let us try the crack climbs they had set up – climbs out of our reach to set up as we lack both the thousand dollars needed to buy cams and the knowledge to set them. The climbs were awesome – and by making it up this one (below) I won a bet and two of the climbers took us out for dinner.

The next two days were also spent climbing, with breaks at noon to hide from the desert heat and take naps. And then, onward to Nevada and summer jobs. We drove out of the sandstone, up into the Wasatch mountains, foolishly did not stop for gas in Salt Lake City, and headed past the Salt Lake into the Bonneville Salt Flats. As we drove west, the ground turned to a hard, flat crust of salt, and my gas low light came on. The towns marked on the map turned out not to be (as is often the case in the west).

We walked out onto the salt flats, onto the perfectly flat crust of salt covering the valley. Despite the heat of the day, it was cool there, the white surface absorbed no heat. We stopped to see the sign regarding land speed records (no mention of motorcycles, only cars), then continued driving, and were lucky enough to find a gas station before I became stranded in the desert. Below: modern art in the salt flats.

We camped in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada, as the national forest promised free camping. But… the mountains were still snowed in, and we were forced to pitch our tent by the side of the road. We ate a pack of bacon and a half dozen eggs in order to have energy to stay warm and not get hypothermia, and amused ourselves watching the silly turkeys at our campsite.

The next day we made it to Sheldon NWR and Badger Cabin, home for the summer.

Canyonlands

I can’t seem to make a move in less than a week. Just too many interesting places to see in between everywhere, even when the distance only crosses one state line. After my lease ran out, it took me a full six days to leave Utah. After leaving St. George, I drove east, over two plateaus, the San Rafael Swell, over the Colorado near Moab, south past the sandstone buttes of Indian Creek Canyon, and finally into the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park. Over Thanksgiving we had been snowed out backpacking here, and I still wanted to see more of this park (this district gloriously bereft of scenic drives and paved nature trails, but well endowed with hiking trails over sand and slickrock).

I took the trail to Chesler Park, and as it passed through narrow clefts in the sandstone, I encountered one of the most whimsical places I have ever seen on a hike. In a cave the trail passed through, generations of hikers had used the flat rocks littering the floor to build cairns. Hundreds of them. Teetering rock piles covering the ground, perched on ledges and boulders.

The trail then swung through a joint in the rock several hundred yards long and not an armspan wide, before emerging on the Needles’ most photographed area, Chesler Park, where spires of white and red sandstone stand over a grassy meadow. This area is remarkable not only for the scenery but also for the flora. The grasses in this meadow are all native, a rarity in the west where cattle have carried seeds from Asia and Europe all over the rangelands. The cliffs, canyons, and vast expanses of slickrock in this area are difficult to navigate on cloven hooves, and so, many isolated areas of the canyonlands have never seen cattle, or the foreign seeds and grasses they carry.

Onward to Nevada

So now I am done saving Virgin River Native fish, and will be moving on to a bird job at Sheldon NWR in Nevada. My last few days in Utah were spent doing a mix of fun things (climbing, pizza party, running a half marathon) and not fun things (trapping agricultural drains, taking the GREs).

My training program for the half marathon consisted largely of "I'd rather go climbing than run," and "seining the river all day at work counts as training, right?" So after this, I found myself at the start line, with roadside campfires (6am start, it was cold!) behind, and 13.1 miles ahead. I finished under two hours, so clearly blowing off hill runs to rock climb is an effective way to train for distance running...

The next few days I will be in Moab/other Utah locations, living in my car/tent, and then on to Sheldon on the 8th or so. Still no pictures, have not replaced camera.