19 Monday May 2014
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I needed to drive into St. George to pick up a friend that was joining me. To simplify the logistics, I reserved a camp site at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park campground. The campground was as one expects, paved loop roads and camping neighbors. After too many days with sponge baths the highlight for me was a hot shower.
The camp site
17 Saturday May 2014
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I stopped at the BLM office in Canyonville, Utah to get my free camping permit and to enquire about boondocking sites. The woman at the office was efficient, helpful and dutifully gave me a location to boondock. I think they give everyone the same location when asked. The highlight of the information center was finding a road guide geology book written for the Cottonwood Canyon Road. Anyone that has any interest in geology should stop at the center and buy the book.
My camp site
16 Friday May 2014
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My next adventures were near the Hole in the Rock Road east of Escalante, Utah. Driving to that location from the east was a bonus, somehow in my hours of trip planning I didn’t learn how incredibly scenic Highway 12 is east of the Hole in the Rock Road. Driving along I found myself on a hogback with sandstone canyons on both side. “Oh my, oh my,” escaped from my mouth as I drove. I slowed down trying to keep my eyes on the twisting road but I also wanting to see every inch of the scenery and miss nothing. It was a challenge.
View looking eastward at Hwy 12. The snowcapped Henry Mountains are in the far distance.
11 Sunday May 2014
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Ah, a perfect example of nowhere in Utah. Camping on the edge of a canyon showing the ribbons of stone and no one within miles of me. I was driving the Burr Trail and had heard that there were boondocking sites west of Long Canyon. I found the best site in the world on the north side of the road just before the road heads down into Long Canyon.
After a day of exploring I loved sitting in my comfy camp chair, drinking a cool beer and absorbing life.
10 Saturday May 2014
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After enjoying the San Rafael Swell area I moved southward. In Utah you don’t have to travel far to find new adventures. My first stop was at the BLM office is Hanksville. It was enjoyable to talk with the man working the information desk when I arrived. He was a local that loved the land and suggested over a week’s works of activities. Such enthusiasm for the land is fun to experience and share.
A highlight for me was a visit to the Hanksville-Burpee Dinosaur Quarry. I knew no one would be working at the quarry, but the thought of seeing an actual dinosaur quarry was exciting. Off I went following the BLM directions – turn north onto Cow Dung Road about three miles west of Hanksville. The drive to the site was gorgeous.
Road to the dinosaur quarry
06 Tuesday May 2014
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When I started planning my trip I kept reading references to the San Rafael Swell. Slot canyons, historical mines, wild horses, pictographs, goblins, BLM land that will allow the dogs to run around, hikes, and lots of land for boondocking. It sounded like my kind of place and it didn’t disappoint me. I had allocated three days of my trip for exploring the area, I could have spent over a week and not seen everything.
View of the San Rafael reef from the Goblin State Park
04 Sunday May 2014
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Off I drove to Utah with my goal of camping at The Wedge that night. To get there I traveled south through the Salt Lake valley on Highway 15. It took me a couple of hours driving to get through the urban setting of a many-lane freeway, lots of traffic, and general unpleasantness. But I knew the results would be worth it and it was. I had read a lot about The Wedge. What I had read was that the canyon located anywhere other than Utah would probably be a national park, but in Utah with so many incredible sights it was just simply BLM land. I turned east off Highway 10 onto the Green River Cutoff at Castle Dale.
Really? There is a big canyon ahead?
03 Saturday May 2014
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I’d planned and researched about everything one can find on the internet regarding visiting Utah and now I’m off starting on my trip. I left work early to get the final loading of the trailer done with the goal of leaving by 7:00 that night. If I left by 7:00 I could make it to a state park in Yakima and not arrive too late in the evening. However, 7:00 came and I wasn’t ready to leave. Although I was still at home, I opened a beer to toast the beginning of my too-cool-to-be-defined vacation. I was going to see some of the coolest geology. Continue reading
25 Wednesday Sep 2013
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My trip plans were turned upside down with an early winter cold front coming through eastern Oregon. Low clouds and three days of rain in the valleys and snow at the top of the Steens. I saw a pickup truck with globs of mud everywhere, a warning to not travel on dirt (now muddy) roads. My planned backroad travels had to be canceled. Unsure of what to do; with choices of staying at the Page Spring Campground or traveling north, south, east or west; I went to eat breakfast at the Frenchglen Hotel. Not surprisingly the restaurant was full of people just like me, mulling over what to do. Swapping stories about where we had been, one couple sang the praise of the Owyhee River and the Lake Owyhee State Park campground. With paved roads the entire way, that was where I chose to go next and I was glad I did.
![OVERALL_VIEW_UPSTREAM_OF_DAM_AND_OWYHEE_RIVER._VIEW_TO_EAST._-_Owyhee_Dam,_Across_Owyhee_River,_Nyssa,_Malheur_County,_OR_HAER_ORE,23-NYS.V,1[1]](https://searchingfor.blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/overall_view_upstream_of_dam_and_owyhee_river-_view_to_east-_-_owyhee_dam_across_owyhee_river_nyssa_malheur_county_or_haer_ore23-nys-v11.jpg?w=529)
Owyhee dam Photo credit. Wikimedia Commons Clayton Fraser
23 Monday Sep 2013
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campground, Diamond Crater, Oregon, Page Springs Campground, Riddle Brothers Ranch, Round Barn, steens
I was excited to see the Steens, a fault-block mountain of the basin and range geology, not like the volcanoes of the Cascade Mountains by my home. I had driven from the Hart Mountain Antelope Reserve and when I reached the valley rim above Frenchglen the Steens looked like a huge gentle giant of a hill that just kept going skyward. There was no clue that the backside abruptly drops to the Alvord valley.
I was headed to the BLM Page Springs campground; a campground that my boondocking brother had recommended. It must be nice if he recommended it. It was centrally located for exploring the vast area with a nice amount of space between each campsites. I found the campground a happy place with a comfy camp site that I settled into for a three night stay.
searching for the middle of nowhere 