TEAM JCAT

This is a story about our 3 day camping trip with my sister, her husband and their two boys. It happened to start the day after our anniversary so it also became our anniversary trip. Warning this is going to be a long post.

Camping in the Great Basin

Our camping adventure started out in the little town of Delta, where we filled up our cars and gas cans with gasoline and bought some last minute supplies (it took going to 2 stores to find one that would take my brother in laws card). We were finally on our way. The first stop was to see this old school house that was built in the 1890's, I don't remember the exact year.

Just a little bit away from the school house we stopped at the Desseret Fort. It was made out of Adobe mud and most of it is still standing.

Finally, we were one our way for the real reason for this trip. Taking my nephews fossil hunting. We stopped at Sunstone Knoll and everyone collected quite a bit of labradorites. After about an hour at Sunstone Knoll. We got to our cars and my nephew Abe no longer had the car he had been playing with in the dirt. So off my brother in law goes in search of it, but don't worry, the car was found in their car. And off we go.

We next drove up North Canyon in the Saw Tooth Mountains, where we had lunch and searched for more fossils. There we found brachiopods called Acrothele, but my brother in law did find a trilobite. Once we all had our fill of lunch and fossils, we were once again on our way to a new location. The next site we went to was the Tule Valley Hard Pan. It's a dried up lake bed. The ground is so hard that you can actually drive on it as fast as you want. It was fun to run around on and Joe had fun driving as fast as our little Geo Tracker would go. Yes, I did ride around with my head sticking out. I was taking pictures and video of my sister's car.

Once again it was time to move on. I had forgotten to bring the camera with us at the next spot, but there Joe showed us sinistral archeogastropods called Matherella and Stromatolites. The sinistrals are a very rare find, so I couldn't find any good links to them. They are a type of snail shell one the shell coils the opposite way the the snail shells now days. Then we were on our way to camp at the base of Fossil Mountain. While Joe and my brother in law went in search of firewood, they came across a bunch of broken beer bottles and found a Jeff Harnar CD among them. Which we soon decided that it was a cursed CD. More on that later.

In the morning during breakfast my brother in law told us of the crazy dream he had, which we all decided that it was because of that CD we had picked up. After packing up camp we hiked up Fossil Mountain and found more fossils. Since I couldn't hike very far, I spent it watching Abe which was lots of fun. He also lost his car again, but was once again found. We next went to Conger Spring where we found small crinoids, brachiopods, and horn corals. It was an easy hunt for all you had to do is sit or lay on the ground and they are all right there at your finger tips.

We then headed off to Marjum Canyon for lunch and to see the hermits cabin. As we were on our way Joe had turned on to a different road and my brother in law didn't see us change directions. It was a scary 10 mins. Here we are in the middle of no where and we have lost part of our group, but luckily we did find each other. (Maybe we should get rid that CD.) We then had our lunch in the canyon and everyone but me (I was feeling sick) went on a little hike to the hermits cabin.

As we were pulling away my brother in law hit a big rock and put a nice big dent in his front bumper and about 10 mins later we blow out a tire. Good thing we made sure our spare was in good working order before we left. Once again we blamed it all on the cursed CD.

Finally we made it to our final destination for the night, Topaz Mountain, but that wasn't without a few more bumps in the road laterally. We hit a wash in the dirt road pretty hard sent some of the stuff in the back of our car to the front (talk about a very big pot hole). I got hit in the arm by the lantern case. Also, this was the first time I'd ever seen a road sign showing a curved road and underneath it had another sign that said "Danger". It wasn't a joke. A very sharp turn with a major drop off the road only wide enough for one car. We did make it all in one piece and enjoyed a nice dinner and the full moon.

Can't go camping without roasting marshmallows.

In the morning we packed up once again and my sister was the one who had a weird dream the night before. (You'd think we would have gotten rid of the CD by now.) We then went on a hunt for topaz. It was very windy and we all kept getting dirt in our eyes, but still manage to find some good topaz crystals. Soon our trip was coming to an end. But first we all relaxed at the Baker Hot Springs. A nice way to end our trip.

Before we parted ways we stopped shortly at Topaz. The internment camp from WWII. I recommend anyone who is in Delta to take the short drive to Topaz and see it. We didn't get any pictures, but I wish I had.

Over all, I had a great time. It was fun learning more about the geology of Utah with such a knowledgeable guide. I'm glad my sister and her family were able to come with us. It was fun spending time with them.

Beware of Jeff Harner CD's!

Especially ones found in the middle of no where. (I believe my brother in law still has the one he found.)