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!

Went Camping

We went camping over the weekend and are still recovering and unpacking. Hopefully we'll get organized soon. It was great being out under the big night sky, even if Desert Boy was afraid of the dark.

Out in the Boonies

Yippee, I'm leaving the boonies today for a trip to town! Town in this case consists of driving nearly 100 miles without passing a single abode--but it is on a paved highway. The town we're going to has a whopping population of about 5,000. Desert Boy and I are ready to do all the fun things you do in town--walk on sidewalks, wait for traffic lights to change, people watch, and of course wonder how people can manage to live so close together.

Oh yeah, we'll also get in lots of shopping and playing on different playgrounds. The tricky part is taking enough coolers and ice to get the ice cream home still relatively frozen.

Grandpa and the Big Loader

Desert Boy loves big machinery. He likes the movement, the noise, the challenge of climbing up and down it. If he hears a diesel engine, he immediately perks up to see what is going on and what piece of equipment it is. One of his first words was "backhoe."

There's only one thing Desert Boy likes better than watching the big equipment:
Driving it. It's even better when Grandpa lets him help.