Tonkaman
Well-Known Member
- Location
- West Jordan
The girls and I decided it was time to get out camping. Even though it was Labor day weekend I was confident I could find us a quiet place to stay. After getting ideas from several of my Utah back country books I decided to check out the West Desert, specifically the House mountain range.
We Headed out early Saturday morning and took a long scenic detour through Fish Lake National forest. I really liked this area and would love to see more of it so its hitting the list of future trip reports. Since we already had a destination in mind we simply drove through it all and continued toward Delta. We took the old Highway 6/50 toward Notch Peak Scenic Byway and started our big loop all the way around the mountain range.
Sinbad Overlook was my favorite part of day 1, its a mind blowing view of the Tule valley sitting at the bottom of shear cliffs raising up to Swasey Peak.
Day 2 we found Hermits Cabin. The cabin was one of my favorite parts of the trip, Its nothing more than stones stacked up like a brick wall enclosing a small cave like hole in the rock.
We continued our journey up and down every open road the range had to offer. Eventually we made our way into Amasa Valley, a beautiful little oasis high in the mountains. It was truly impressive to find big thick trees growning out of a fresh mountain stream surrounded by grass, all while overlooking the barren dry lake bed below.
Notch Peak is the main attraction of the mountain range with its nearly 3,000 ft shear cliff overlooking the dry lake bed below. We weren't able to make the hike this year with my daughter, but there's always hope for next year.
Saturday night while looking for a good place to camp I hit a soft hole in the dirt so hard that it sheared my pitman arm off. Luckily we broke down in a large flat valley with plenty of space to make camp. Having changed the pitman arm before, I knew it was only coming off by cutting it off so I had to go on a long hike in the rain to find cell service and convinced my dad to travel 185 miles to my rescue. The next morning he arrived with a pitman arm generator and grinder, 3 hours of cussing later the job was done. I owe my did big time!!
We Headed out early Saturday morning and took a long scenic detour through Fish Lake National forest. I really liked this area and would love to see more of it so its hitting the list of future trip reports. Since we already had a destination in mind we simply drove through it all and continued toward Delta. We took the old Highway 6/50 toward Notch Peak Scenic Byway and started our big loop all the way around the mountain range.
Sinbad Overlook was my favorite part of day 1, its a mind blowing view of the Tule valley sitting at the bottom of shear cliffs raising up to Swasey Peak.
Day 2 we found Hermits Cabin. The cabin was one of my favorite parts of the trip, Its nothing more than stones stacked up like a brick wall enclosing a small cave like hole in the rock.
We continued our journey up and down every open road the range had to offer. Eventually we made our way into Amasa Valley, a beautiful little oasis high in the mountains. It was truly impressive to find big thick trees growning out of a fresh mountain stream surrounded by grass, all while overlooking the barren dry lake bed below.
Notch Peak is the main attraction of the mountain range with its nearly 3,000 ft shear cliff overlooking the dry lake bed below. We weren't able to make the hike this year with my daughter, but there's always hope for next year.
Saturday night while looking for a good place to camp I hit a soft hole in the dirt so hard that it sheared my pitman arm off. Luckily we broke down in a large flat valley with plenty of space to make camp. Having changed the pitman arm before, I knew it was only coming off by cutting it off so I had to go on a long hike in the rain to find cell service and convinced my dad to travel 185 miles to my rescue. The next morning he arrived with a pitman arm generator and grinder, 3 hours of cussing later the job was done. I owe my did big time!!
