Not much to say for the actual site, except it does have nice vistas of the desert. Dugway is directly to the north a few miles, Skull Valley further north. The Onaqui mountains are to the east of us, the Pony Express Trail to the south and the Dugway Proving Grounds directly west of us.
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| Utah Desert looking toward the Dugway Proving Grounds |
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| Looking east toward the Onaqui Mountains |
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| Looking directly toward Dugway which is just over the hills. The "road" we traveled on.... |
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| Dugway Camp view - one plant changing colors for fall? |
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| Wild? Horse Field |
We did an informal survey and found about 9 native plants. That's it. And 3 of those might be the same plant, just in different stages. It was hard to tell for sure. Here are some samples
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| Yellow Flower |
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| Beautiful tiny flowers on a fat, yellow-green plant |
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| Only saw a few of these plants with tiny fuzzy leaves |
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| The obligatory weedy grass with shallow roots |
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| Tufted Grass |
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| Small green succulent |
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| Plant Mixture - spikey red and fat yellow-green |
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| Fairly spikey plant - very inhospitable! |
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| Spikey Green and Red plant. Some plants are all red, some green, some mixed. It's hard to know for sure if they are all the same plant or not, but they are definitely similar. |
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| Spikey Red plant |
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| Tumbleweed caught up in some small sagebrush (artemesia) |
We had gone to bed early - quite dark outside with no moon. After a while, I could hear some horses neighing. We had seen a few horses in the distance when we arrived, and there was horse scat everywhere. We were lying on our cots in the tent, when suddenly we heard hoof beats - lots of them. Horses screaming and neighing and RUNNING....... right toward us! Stampeding horses came over the small rise behind the truck/tent and scattered on either side of us. We were worried they'd hit the truck or tent, but they saw well enough in the dark night to avoid us. They went screaming by further into the field. Just when we were breathing a sigh of relief, we heard a few more run by. I had the tent window open but could not see anything. A little bit later, I heard a coyote call, but it only sounded like one animal. I wouldn't have thought a coyote would scare horses, but don't have a clue what else would either. This land is barren and there are no people or any bigger predators near (at least that we've heard of). In the morning, I counted about 20 horses. It seemed like more when they were running by the tent - and it could have been. The area had several hills and valleys which could hide the horses from our view. But out of all the dangers I could have foreseen on a camping trip in the desert, being trampled by a stampeding herd of horses never crossed my mind! Unfortunately, I have no photos of the horses in question.
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| Ant Hills everywhere you looked - a regular network! |
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| Pronghorn Antelope - they start herding together in the fall. |
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| Jim with some pronghorn antelope in the distance |
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| Macy - perched on one of the only rocks in the area - my ROCK HOUND |
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| Our camp with the tent and truck combo |
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| Jim and Macy doing a rain dance |
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| Dugway UFO. Nearby is an army proving ground where we've seen everything from a ULO (unidentified lighted object) to ordinance being fired. |
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| Entertainment - enough of a breeze to keep in airborne for a while! |