Hampton Fire

In the last post I shared our hike up Mount Moriah. Today we're going to stay with the North Snake Range, where a small lightning-strike caused fire has been blown by strong, gusty winds into a large wildfire.

At first you might say, "Oh no, the poor forest is burning!"

What I'm saying, as an ecologist, is "Hurray, that forest really needs to burn! The aspens might have a chance of surviving if the encroaching conifers are burned back, and the bighorn sheep habitat should be vastly improved."

What my husband, the rancher, says, "Good, those canyons are overgrown with too many trees and fewer trees means more water will be coming out of the canyons."

What is certain is that over one hundred years of fire suppression has caused for some very dense understory. If you've ever tried to hike off-trail in the Snake Range, you know what I mean!

The fire was under a 100 acres for the first few days just in the Hampton watershed. Strong winds blew it over into Little Horse and Horse Canyons. The first night the fire got big, the ridgetop glowed at night.

Last night we took a drive out to see the fire better. (We saw quite a few other people out doing the same thing.)

The fire had been updated in size to 4500 acres, and we wanted to see it from a different angle. We drove up to the road towards Horse Canyon and found smoke emerging from several canyons, but it wasn't coming from the mouth of any of the canyons.

A helicopter flew over. More and more aircraft are involved with fires now. It can make it easier to see what's going on and to respond in some cases, but aircraft really add to the cost of a fire.

As the light faded, we saw headlights approaching from both Horse and Smith canyons. The Gila hotshots had been up there. While the fire was small, a wildfire monitoring crew from Colorado was stationed there. Now there are over 100 personnel on the fire since it covers much more ground. The fire is really cleaning a lot of forest!

This fire will likely be going on for some time, as no rain is in the forecast, and many of the flames are high up on steep hillsides where it's not safe for firefighters to go (plus those areas should burn anyway). The Forest Service supervisor is very happy with the fire, as it is burning in an area that they've wanted to have burn for a long time. The fire doesn't threaten any lives or structures. (It must be rare to have nearly a whole mountain range with no structures on it!)

For the most up-to-date information, check out the Ely Fire Facebook page.

Hiking up Mount Moriah in the North Snake Range, Nevada

 A few weekends ago we headed to the Mount Moriah Wilderness in the North Snake Range. After a very pleasant evening camping at the Big Canyon trailhead, we had a leisurely start to our destination: the top of Mount Moriah, at 12,050 feet. The trailhead is nearly 10,000 feet high, so we figured this wouldn't be that hard of a hike, especially since we had already conquered Wheeler Peak a few weeks previous. So we took the kids, and figured we'd be back in a few hours.

 The first part of the trail went down into Big Canyon, then crossed it at about 1 mile in, and then the trail got steep, heading up to the Table, a huge high-elevation plateau. Even though we had only hiked slightly over two miles and gained a bit over 1,000 feet in elevation, we were all getting hungry. We stopped to have lunch under one of the old bristlecones. Desert Girl was pleased with her double-double sandwich (a pb&j doubled over).

We were disturbing swarms of moths as we walked, and we saw the green gentian (elkweed) covered with the army cutworm (or "Millers") moths. Due to the mild winter, we've had an outstanding number of them this year.

 After lunch we continued on the trail towards Hendry's Creek, and then at a rock cairn headed up toward the peak.

It was so much fun when we got to a big patch of snow!

Desert Girl had to make a snowwoman. She was very bright in her tech t-shirt and pink tutu. I've long ago decided she can wear whatever she wants as long as she hikes.

Quite a variety of flowers were blooming, lending a nice distraction to the gain of elevation.

As we reached the saddle we found more snow and also a faint trail heading across the backside of the mountain.

 The trail turned out to be quite faint, but we all managed it.

The trail kept getting fainter and fainter, but we followed it around to the south end of the mountain (if I did it again, I would head up sooner, because there was no trail at the south end of the mountain).

Desert Girl got a ride up the last part, but Desert Boy had to do it on his own, with some coaxing.

We made it, though! Even our dog Henry got to the top. We carried extra water for him, as there is no water on the hike except if you find snow.

Desert Girl had fallen asleep, so my idea of a family photo on top of the mountain didn't work out. We took a little rest and signed into the register. The register is in stark contrast with the one at Wheeler Peak. More people climb Wheeler Peak in a single day then often climb Mount Moriah all summer. If you want some solitude, this is the place to come!

The views were outstanding. To the north we could see the wide table, and then off in the distance the Deep Creek Mountains, with Ibapah Peak topping out at 12,067 ft.

To the northeast we saw Gandy Salt Marsh and lake, with the Confusion Range and Fish Springs Range beyond.

To the southeast we saw EskDale and the Ferguson Desert.

To the south we saw Jeff Davis and Wheeler Peak and the South Snake Range.

And to the northwest we saw more of the North Snake Range. It really has a different character than the South Snake Range. It's a lot bumpier, for lack of a technical term. (If you'd like to learn about the geology, here's a link to the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin on the area.) Everywhere we looked we saw swarms of moths.

 It was 4.5 miles to get up to the top of the mountain coming around the backside. My husband and I looked at each other. We didn't want to go 4.5 miles back around, especially since Desert Girl was still asleep and so had to be hauled. We could see our truck parked at the trailhead, so we decided to go down the northwest slope, into a meadow, down a drainage, and meet up with the trail at the bottom of Big Canyon. Hopefully it wouldn't be too difficult.

 As we went down the steep slope (which showed evidence that other people had been using it too, making us feel better), I noticed some figures down on a flatter spot. I looked closer and realized we were seeing five bighorn sheep. Hurray!

They wandered off as we got closer, but then one came back to check us out.

Desert Girl woke up and was ready to hike again.

We descended quickly, and soon the peak looked far away up its northwest shoulder.

Before long we were in a limber and bristlecone forest, going down quickly into a meadow. It was steep!

We followed a gully back to the trail, and that part had some fun challenges for the kids.

Finally we made it back (that last part going up hill isn't easy)! It was a longer hike than we expected, with 4.5 miles up and 3.0 miles down and over 2,000 feet total elevation change. Desert Boy hiked the whole thing, and four-year old Desert Girl hiked 5.5 miles of it--she's going to be one awesome hiker. Below is our approximate route, looking south.

It was a great feeling to have accomplished that hike. The only people we saw all weekend were two guys leaving the trailhead area when we pulled in. We had the trail all to ourselves.

To learn more about Mount Moriah and the North Snake Range, check out Chapter 10 in my book Great Basin National Park: A Guidebook to the Park and Surrounding Area.

Happy hiking!

Summer School

Summer school was held the last week of June. It was four hours every day for a large range of ages. I went for one morning to do a magic show (aka physics for kids) and stayed around to help. The attendance was really good all week, with 21 kids one day. (Out here, 21 people all together is a lot!.)

The incoming kindergarteners were very eager to check out their new classroom. (Kindergarten will be a class of 3 or 4, which is medium-sized, especially since there were no kindergarteners last year.)

Desert Girl had special permission to attend, even though she has one more year of preschool. She enjoyed her turn "reading" her journal entry for the day.

Then she got 30 seconds to bounce on the trampoline. I loved how her little pigtails flew up in the air!

Desert Girl's best friend was also able to go, and he also really enjoyed being a "big kid."

The older kids were glad to see their friends.

We really appreciate the teacher doing summer school, as it gives the kids some good mental stimulation while allowing them lots of play time.

Here's Desert Boy enjoying his time. He was a little hesitant about school at first, but he enjoyed each day. I'm still not quite used to him with his gap-toothed smile!

Of course the best part of summer school was recess!

Finally I saw someone who knew how to use this part of the playground! It was one of the new kindergarteners.

It was a good week, and we are very thankful to the patient teacher.

I asked Desert Boy yesterday if he was ready for school, and he said yes. He misses seeing his friends.

Gandy Warm Springs, Millard County, Utah

You see it as you drive north from Highway 6 and 50 near the Utah/Nevada stateline, a pointed mountain isolated from the mountains around it. This special mountain, called Spring Mountain or Gandy Mountain, harbors a fantastic cave, Crystal Ball Cave, as well as warm springs.

On this hot summer day, after a visit to the Devil's Gate slot canyon, we took refuge in Gandy Warm Springs. We came prepared with lawn chairs, life jackets, goggles, and float tubes.

The water, a tepid 80 degrees Fahrenheit (with the name Warm Springs, you always think the water should be warmer!), cascades into the pool as well as flows out of a small cave tucked under some ferns. Average flow is 9,000 gallons per minute.

Here is Desert Boy exploring the cave entrance.


Water drips constantly at the entrance, providing a unique habitat out in the desert.


The cave, Beware Cave, is not large and requires dipping your head almost underwater to get to a chamber with a higher ceiling.


It's not to be taken lightly, as a man died here in 2003, leaving behind a grieving wife and small children. If you do go, follow safe caving rules: go with other people, wear proper equipment, let someone know where you're going. The proper equipment is especially important. The gear I choose to wear in this cave: helmet, multiple lights, and goggles. The cave follows a narrow corridor back to a small room (about 10 ft wide by 15 ft long) that loops around a rock formation in the middle. You can feel the water entering the cave from the back side, and from what I've been able to find, some SCUBA divers went back into it and found that it got smaller and smaller, with no air chamber beyond. Throughout the cave it's very easy to bump your head, and the current pushes you strongly. There is some flowstone in the cave, but not too much else that's particularly scenic. In short, you're not missing much if you skip this cave. The most scenic part is right at the entrance, looking out at the rest of the spring from under the ferns.

Out in the daylight, there's plenty of fun to be had. With goggles or a mask, you can check out the native speckled dace that live in the spring. These two-inch long fish swim around the edges of the spring. Desert Girl also enjoyed picking up the non-native Melanoides shell. They are a mollusk commonly found in aquariums, and unfortunately someone dumped their aquarium into the Warm Spring, and now the non-native mollusk is taking over the habitat. That's particularly bad because Gandy Warm Springs is home to a tiny springsnail, Pyrgulopsis saxatilis, found nowhere else in the entire world. (To learn more, check out chapter 11 in my book Great Basin National Park: A Guidebook to the Park and Surrounding Area.) It's also really cool to look at the base of the waterfall through goggles.

Something else that's spectacular about Gandy Warm Springs is the diversity of dragonflies and damselflies. Here are a few that we saw:

Water is always precious in the desert, but Gandy Warm Springs provides an especially fun diversion. For directions to Gandy Warm Springs, check out the Utah GeoSight bulletin. If you go, please pick up any trash and be safe!