Desert Destination: Ibex Hardpan

Located adjacent to the Ibex Crags is the Ibex Hardpan, also called the Tule Valley Hardpan. This is a dry lakebed (well, most of the time), suitable for events such as golf practice, observing the dark night sky, setting land-speed records, doing wheelies, plane fly-ins, and biking.

I took the above photo biking no-hands and not worrying where I was going. It's really fun to bike on a hardpan. 

We wanted to explore some parts of this hardpan, and a bike is a perfect way to do it without expending too much energy yet going slow enough to enjoy the scenery.

We also found a dirt road going up aways from the hardpan and took it for a bit.

We saw some more neat rock formations. But then it was time to go back to the hardpan.

Because we were in search of something unexpected...

...like water! Someone had used bulldozers to dig shallow pits on the lakebed, where the water gathered and cattle and wildlife could come and drink it. As soon as we found it, Desert Boy wanted to play in it. So we took off his shoes and pants and let him go at it.

It was slimy, with a high clay content. But that didn't stop him.

He wandered in and out of the puddles, miraculously not falling down. I say miraculous because we didn't have any extra diapers with us.

But then the cracked surface of the hardpan called to Desert Boy. The texture is fascinating, and it seems to go on almost endlessly.

He ran away from us before we had a chance to take off his helmet. We let him run as far as he wanted (after all, we had bikes and could catch up even if he decided to run forever).

Sometimes it almost looked like he was walking on air.

We also decided that the reason that aliens all seem to look like squat little beings with big green heads is that the first artist saw little toddlers running around with their green bike helmets on and didn't know what to make of them.

If you want to see what a little bobble head flapping his arms looks like, take a look at the video below. There's no soundtrack to it, so turn up your favorite music--or listen to how quiet it is out on the desert.

Desert Destination: Ibex Crags

Located in the West Desert of Utah, about an hour west of Delta, is Ibex and the Ibex crags. This area at one time was home to Jack Watson, a storekeeper who supplied sheepherders in the early part of the twentieth century and even ran a hotel for a time. Nowadays, no one lives there.

People do go and visit, though. The most common visitors are rock climbers, because the cliffs at Ibex provide some good climbing challenges.

We figured our visit would mainly be to enjoy the scenery. But I was secretly hoping I might get to climb a little too.

We set up our tent on the hard pan (aka playa) that is near the base of the cliffs. The hard pan provides a nearly perfectly level sleeping platform, albeit a little hard.

We also watched a guy practice golf. We had never thought of golfing on a hard pan, but I guess you wouldn't lose many balls.

We got out our chairs, and Desert Boy thought he was hot stuff sitting in a bumblebee chair. But he wasn't too keen on some of the other parts of camping, like going into a tent and so much darkness around him. He tossed and turned all night long.

Nevertheless, when the rays came up the next morning, I wanted to get up and photograph some of that early sunshine hitting the rocks. Ibex cliffs are made of sedimentary rock, Eureka and Watson Ranch Quartzites. That hardened sandstone just seems to glow in the morning light.

When I came back from shooting some photos, Desert Boy and my husband were awake, and after breakfast we went for a walk in the boulder field.

We even found a cool hole in one of the boulders, and Desert Boy was willing to give it a try.

After that, it was time to look for more climbing opportunities. Or more appropriately, bouldering opportunities. There are plenty of climbs at Ibex Crags, many of them described in the book Ibex and Selected Climbs of Utah's West Desert by James Garrett. I knew this wasn't the trip to try any of those climbs. But there were other possibilities...

...like this huge boulder.

I took Henry and Desert Boy over for a little fun.

Desert Boy gave climbing a try.

Then it was my turn.

Desert Boy is getting the idea.

Next time--the big cliffs!

For Desert Boy, some of the boulders were quite tall.

Finally it was time to head down.

We got to see a lizard on the way.

And then it was time for the next activity...coming in the next post!

Desert Destination: Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to celebrate the 50th birthday of Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, located about 140 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. I really like this area and have visited before, but this was the first time I got to spend more than a few hours. For the birthday celebration, the wildlife refuge invited people to come for the weekend and take free classes and camp out.

There is a pay phone at the refuge--one of the very few concessions to modernization. It is very primitive and far out in the middle of nowhere, so travelers should go prepared.

I got there Friday night in time to witness the full moon rising. It looked particularly beautiful coming up over the desert mountains, lighting up Fish Springs Flat.

The Pony Express marker reminds us that this area has been important for a long time. I bet the Pony Express riders enjoyed full moons--it made their gallops across the desert so much easier.

Usually the refuge is closed to camping, but on this weekend it was allowed. I took my bike, and when I got up in the morning went for a lovely ride along the impoundments.

I got an excellent view of this American Pelican, complete with its breeding bump on its bill. Both males and females grow this bump to show their interest in breeding, but at the end of the breeding season, it is shed. Talk about taking dressing up to a new extreme!

These heavy birds, 10-17 pounds each, were often seen soaring overhead, their nine foot wingspans making them conspicuous.

On Saturday morning, refuge manager Jay Banta welcomed everyone and introduced the instructors.

People had come from many different areas, and we were all eager to learn. I chose the aquatic birds class, and there was also land birds, history, and botany classes. Notice the coats--it was cold! A north breeze kept us shivering--but it also kept the bugs away. When the breeze slowed down, I got bitten to pieces.

There were quite a few Red-necked Phalaropes bopping in the water. They have reversed sexual dimorphism, meaning that the females are larger and more brightly colored than the males. The males are a duller color because they are the ones who incubate the eggs and care for the chicks.

 The Long-billed Dowitchers were busy probing for insects.

Our group spent a lot of time like this, looking through binoculars and spotting scopes to see what was out on the marshes.

We found a little bird island, where cormorants were sitting on nests and a pelican was coming in for a landing.

It was windy and chilly, so the pelicans hunkered down.

Except this one. She was a bit of a showoff.

The American Avocets were busy searching for invertebrates to eat.

One of the best parts of the trip was that we got to go into areas of the Refuge that are often closed. Although we saw some really dry desert, like these alkaline flats, it was impressive how much of the nearly 18,000 acres were covered with water. It was obvious why this refuge is such an important stopover for migratory birds--it really is the only sizable water body in over 50 miles. Many birds also breed here.

The geology tour not only looked at rocks, but also examined where Fish Springs water comes from. The Utah Geologic Survey has recently drilled monitoring wells and done extensive water quality sampling. They believe that most of the water comes from nearby Snake Valley, as refuge manager Jay Banta explains in this post.

Many of the groups got to see this rattlesnake, curled up under a bush right next to the refuge headquarters.

Lizards abounded, including this baby horned lizard.

And everyone who went out to the marsh could see plenty of bullfrogs sunning themselves. They were huge and disgusting. They are nonnative, brought in prior to the refuge for a bullfrog farm. Frog legs, anyone?

In the afternoon there were more classes: archeology with a trip to one of the refuge's caves, geology, history, and botany. I chose the botany class and learned five new families of aquatic plants. It's a rare day when you can learn one new family, so five made it quite a treat!

One of the plants we looked at was this spiny naiad (Najas marina), which is common in some of the springs. We also looked at a variety of terrestrial plants, some of which were blooming.

In the evening we had a potluck dinner and then some of the people who had previously worked at Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge spoke, including the first refuge manager. He and his wife had come out when there was no indoor plumbing, in fact there wasn't even an outhouse. There was no water supply except the springs themselves, and of course there was no electricity. They came in November with a one-year old and another baby on the way, and somehow managed to survive and even come to love the place. This refuge manager, Lynn Greenwalt, not only got the refuge off to its start, but eventually became Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service from 1974-1981. 

Another speaker was Bob, who has been retired for 20 years but was better at finding birds than any of the rest of us despite wearing hearing aids. Bob and his wife didn't stay at the refuge for long because his wife disliked it so much, but he found the place so enticing that he drove from Arizona in his new hybrid car to attend and reminisce about his short stay. 

Kim was acting refuge manager in the 1980s while the Fish and Wildlife Service searched for a manager. At one point she was the only employee left out at Fish Springs, which she said was one of the best times in her life. 

Listening to the stories made me realize how much special places like Fish Springs means to people. So many of the fish and wildlife refuges are located out in the boonies and require a special type of person to live out far from civilization and protect what's out there. They also require special groups of friends who are willing to come out and visit and educate people about why those places should be protected.

Sunday morning I woke up early and took another bike ride to enjoy the morning sights and sounds. I disrupted a group of snowy egrets and a black-crowned night heron.

There were more classes offered Sunday morning, and my only regret was that I didn't have time to take more classes, because they were all excellent. It was great getting to meet the variety of people who had traveled to the middle of the desert for a fun and educational weekend.

Happy Birthday, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge. I hope the next 50 years are just as good, if not better, than the first 50.