sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
Hey, does anyone want to do a photography contest on this trip? I'm horrible at taking pictures and I need some motivation and guidance to get better.
Northern Utah Freeze Your Tail Off 4
- Thread starter Expedition Utah
- Start date
I suggest sleeping with your batteries
I will bring my camera and will probably play around doing a timelapes with the Gopro too
RogueJeepr
Here!
- Location
- Utah
Are we gonna be stopping at the Spiral-jetty ?
Id like to see that.
. (if its not underwater)
Id like to see that.
. (if its not underwater)
If you come back around the north end, then the jetty is not of much of a detour at all. Should be well above he water right now.
- Location
- Stinkwater
I'll probably have my boy along.
I will have my 5 year old girl and my brother is going to come as well (another subaru HAHAHA) with his little girl
Donner
Isuzu junkie
- Location
- Weber County, Utah
what happen to your rear diff?? you could always weld it lock...
211K miles! I think it's just plain wore out. The pinion nut keeps loosening up and I think it's because the bearings are worn. last time I tightened it, it felt rough too.
It's not dead yet, I just dont like the idea of having to retrieve a truck with a failed diff from the west side of the lake.
I don't know if I'll change it out or not. I have the '91 I'll be getting ready to go to Moab in May and that will be my new daily driver.
- Location
- Draper, UT
Take lots of food, winter expeditions including the name "Donner" can get dicey....
- Location
- Stinkwater
Take lots of food, winter expeditions including the name "Donner" can get dicey....
It's the late summer ones you gotta worry about...
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
Take lots of food, winter expeditions including the name "Donner" can get dicey....
Lol, and we will be right on Donner tracks in fact we pass within a few hundred feet of their camp
Lol, and we will be right on Donner tracks in fact we pass within a few hundred feet of their camp
Really? I didn't know that they passed through that area.
Kurt, you are just full of interesting information.
- Location
- Stinkwater
Lol, and we will be right on Donner tracks in fact we pass within a few hundred feet of their camp
You know, I've never seen the wagon tracks and I've been meaning to. Can you point them out while we're out there?
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
Have you been from Wendover to Lucin before?
There is a small farmhouse/ranch that literally was built around an old spring/pond (subsequently called Donner Spring). The Donner-Reed party camped at that exact location after their dreadful push across the salt flats and Great Salt Lake Desert. The original settlers of that ranch collected old artifacts of the DR party's week+ stay there. The road we travel goes right past the ranch and a stones throw from that spring.
Familiar with the Silver Island Mountains (you cross over them at Leppy Pass) as you go from Wendover to Lucin... at the north end of that range is "Donner Pass", named because the Donner group passed through en route to Donner Spring. A bit further east is Floating Island (its at the end of the Bonneville Salt Flats Racetrack), just east of that range were several wagons they left behind and 'cached', some say with treasure on board.
More on the subject:
Donner Party Treasure:
http://www.expeditionutah.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1122
Donner-Reed Museum in Grantsville:
http://www.expeditionutah.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1508
Excavation of the Donner-Reed Wagons:
http://www.expeditionutah.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1224
Salt Desert Trails, a book about Hastings Cutoff which was the dreadful route taken by DR's party
http://www.expeditionutah.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1197
My head is full of something, don't know if it is always interesting
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
I don't know of any surviving wagon tracks but I'd be glad to point out the Donner Springs ranch. I'm sure this will come up around the campfire too as the Donner-Reed treasure is a passion (obsession) of mine
Salt Desert Trails does indicate their were wagon tracks visible as of his book revision in the 1960's but I don't think they were in the GSL desert as the excavation had to dig down to find them, which they successfully did.
Other interesting tidbits. When Major Howard Standsbury's & team were circumnavigating the GSL as part of their "Exploration and survey of the valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah" in 1849-1851, they used parts of the abandoned Donner-Reed wagons to keep warm... years later Charles Reed (author of above book) used parts of the wagons to get his car un-stuck in that mud in the 1929-30 trip he did. Its crazy to think they were able to cross the mud-flats and Salt Flats from Grantsville to the Pilot Mountains
I would LOVE to be able to do that however its pretty muddy (Maxtrax? ) and there is an issue with crossing a bombing range You've stumbled upon the exact reason ExpeditionUtah is in existence, to catalog, connect, and share all this info so that everyone can learn from the experiences and random knowledge of each other
One good reason not to be on the bombing range out there:
http://www.expeditionutah.com/forum/showpost.php?p=14886&postcount=11
- Location
- Stinkwater
I don't know what I read that made me think there were extant tracks out there, I'll see if I can dig it up again. I thought it was a more recent source than the 60's, but I could be misremembering. I do remember reading an account of a couple wagons that were dug up, could that be what you're thinking of?
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
The dug up wagons are from my Excavation of the Donner-Reed Wagons I listed, the book does a really good job covering the dig process and their findings.
There is a lot of mystery about the DR wagons, the supposed treasure and the artifacts over the last 100 years. Stuff has simply gone missing and unfortunately it was all the 'official' channels that lost them. I.e. things donated to museums and the museums can't find it all these years later or the museum they donated it to fails to exist
I harp about this all the time on ExpeditionUtah but its unfortunately a common theme, missing skeletons, missing Native American artifacts, etc. There was a giant stash of Native American goods from the 4-Corners area that was donated to a museum back east (in the 30's or 40's?), they sat on it for awhile and decided they didn't want it so they sold it to the curio shop across the street whom sold it off as souvenirs to museum go-ers , details are in one of my EU book reports. Hijack off...
Keep me posted on the wagon tracks you speak of, its far from impossible and I'm convinced there is still some Donner-Reed treasure out there somewhere, might be gold or it might be some tracks, all treasure to me