Best Birthday Party Ever!

Full.lead.taco

Active Member
I haven't been to Great Basin National Park yet, but I have done the Mt. Timp caves hike with my kids--gets tough with a big weight on your back that moves around... Lol, I should do it again now that my kids are old enough to hike it themselves instead of being carried on my back. Lots of good hikes around here. The Mt. Timp hike to the top is also a great one with an awesome view. Sunrise is amazing! Sand dunes, yes!

For any young whipersnappers that like to hike at 10 to 13 thousand feet, Highway 50 runs through Sevier River valley.
If you follow it into Nevada there is a park "Great Basin National Park" . They grow Bristlecone pine trees way up high.

They are some of the oldest living thing on the planet. If I remember there was one 5000 years old. You can even chuck a few snow balls in the summer. It's one of the must do's.

One of the other memories I have of that trip,
Even though you just rebuild your chevy 350 into a 383 stroker, roller cam, Dart heads, If you have a carburetor, and a 12 foot camper, It aint gona run very good at 10 thousand feet. They have an upper parking lot, so you don't have to walk so much. I could have walked faster than my truck would go. Thats why I put fuel injection on the jeep.

Another "must do" while you can hike is go to the Mt.Timpanogos cave. Then there is the sand dunes, the High Uintas, yea, I do miss living in Utah. I just wonder if that warrant is still active, and on the books. :oops:
 

Full.lead.taco

Active Member
Funny part of this video is that a few of the guys are quite a bit younger than me. I think I'm old enough to be their dad--but with shooting buddies, age doesn't really matter to me as long as they are safe to be around.
 

John

Active Member
The difference between the west desert and fertile valleys is irrigation and water. We see the same here in Montana, if you have plenty of water you are rich, if you struggle to grow a lawn you work for someone else.
I was born outside SLC and lived there until my early 20's. Dad was born in Delta and had a lot of family around there. I spent a lot of time in the west desert.

As to shooting buddies, I agree age is of little difference when you catch the fever.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
The bristlecones of fame and the one called Methuselah are in the white mountains about 260 miles south of US 50 off US 395 east of Big Pine CA .

Every time I drive across Nevada I think to myself how traumatic it must have been to climb to the top of a ridge line with a wagon train and see the same dry lake in the new valley that you left behind in the last . Dropping into a valley with a lake 25-30 miles long 6-7 miles wide and save for junipers and scrub pine 2 miles behind you the only trees are in a canyon wash between cliffs and 20 miles of round trip back track .

There's a range peak that overlooks McGill just north of Ely off US 6 that on a clear day , not many that aren't out here , you can see from there to a lava cone called pilot peak just south and west of Tonopah (toe- Na paw) right on the Cal boarder and looking east the flats past the immediate mountain range are in Utah .
If you take a hike on the Ranger trail south from Austin Nv on US 50 there are several peaks that you can see the other 6 major ranges in Nevada from . It's about 70 miles south of I80 there which leaves NV at mile 401 . You can see the peaks near Reno of the Sierras and if everything is just exactly right there's a visible point south west of east Wendover Utah .

Impressive to be sure but I think the most dramatic change I've seen is coming west into Pueblo CO and seeing the Rockies come out of the haze ......that 6 way stop with the RR tracks through it at Los Animas is interesting too .

Lots to see in the far West . Lots of things you have to just just stare at in slack jaw awe . Things that just take your breath away made 10 times more spectacular by being where they are .

Did you know that Mt Whitney is officially the highest point in the continuous 48 but that when NASA started doing the satellite mapping they discovered that Mt Blanco beats it out by about 1 boulder and an earthquake . Mt Whitney is just 70 miles away and the peak is solid and continuous vs Blanco in the Whites across the valley which is boulder topped but 4ft higher and considered to have soft features , basically the boulders are counted like trees for the peak altitude . So Blanco and Whitney stand up there towering over everything at 14,000+ ft and Furnace Creek in the bottom of Death Valley is about 85 miles away as the Crow flies some at some -262 ft . About 15 yr ago the base surface level of Death Valley was reduced to only 250 ft below sea level , it was a very wet yr and water pooled by eye witnesses accounts between 8-12 feet in the lowest point . Of course all of that March water was gone by mid May .

There are a series of faults that lay across southern California with the potential should there be a catastrophic movement to open a seep or even a sea water flow from the Sea of Cortez /Gulf of California or the Pacific to the Salton Sea 163 ft below sea level which in the case of a breach flow could run into Death valley effectively creating or possibly restoring an inland sea . The changes in weather would be breath taking .