Day 2-4: Three Days, Three States
- Karen Derrick-Davis
- Apr 18
- 4 min read
Wildlife
Blue Bird
Antelope/Pronghorn
gulls
hawks
Eastern Meadowlark
crows
Wild Turkeys
chipmunks
Robins
Great Blue Herons
Magpies
Stellar’s Jays
Barn swallow
Red-winged blackbird
Bald Eagle
Mallards and other unidentified ducks
Western or Clark's Grebe
other birds I couldn't identify
Highlights
Great Salt Lake
Bonneville Salt Flats
Nevada mountain vistas
Large bird nests on electric poles
Cliff swallow nests on rock face (no photo ☹)
Getting way off the beaten path
Wildlife bridges over highways
Nevada’s Sheldon Wildlife Refuge with warm springs pool
Our internet at camping spots has been spotty, so posting has been a challenge. Here is a recap of our last three days.
Day 2 -- Palisade, CO to Bonneville Salt Flats, UT
After our night in Palisade, we headed toward Salt Lake City, planning to stay at Great Salt Lake State Park. When we arrived, no sites were available – no biggie, so we drove on a hundred miles more and found dispersed camping at Bonneville Salt Flats public lands.
The salt flats are where land speed records are set and broken. When the kids were young, I remember watching with them the movie The World’s Fastest Indian about New Zealander Burt Munro and his successful 185-mph record-setting ride on a 47-year-old rebuilt Indian Scout motorcycle in 1967. His record still stands. The salt flats are such a BIG area—miles and miles of white flatness. Pretty amazing.
We like to find dispersed camping sites -- always game for free camping in wide open spaces. Open and free off-grid camping lures an interesting crowd – from weekend warriors to van-lifers living on the road who look “settled in,” taking advantage of the entire two weeks they are allowed to stay at the location. Generally, it's not a communal type of camping. People who camp in these areas are usually trying to "get away from it all." In fact, the etiquette is to distance yourself from others.
We parked and set up camp near a rock cliff on the edge of the salt flats, so first thing to do was to hunt for interesting rocks. The rocks were pretty, but none made the cut to pack up and haul home.
After dinner and early bedtime, the night started peacefully, then a bit after 3:00 am the wind picked up…a lot. The dog was scared and restless. I kept checking the weather app on my phone, which reported gusts of up to 30 mph. The rocking of the trailer was disconcerting, but we felt pretty safe since we were still attached to the truck. Though, all in all, not a restful night.
Day 3 -- Bonneville Salt Flats to Sheldon National Wildlife Res.
In the morning, the wind was still strong, but we decided to head out – with the caveat that we would find a place to hunker down if it felt unsafe. We drove slowly, never needed to pull over because of the wind, and were able to make it nearly all the way across Nevada. The wind and white sand made for lots of white dust devils traveling across the shrub-covered plains.
We spent most of our day completely off the beaten path – topping off our tank every chance we got. Late in the day, we paid through the nose to fill our tank at the only gas pump in Denio Junction and then made the final 30 miles to our camping spot in Sheldon National Wildlife Preserve, near good rockhounding.
This site was an unusual dispersed camping experience. The area was developed into campsites with tables and fire rings, and even had pit toilets and a potable water spigot. All for free. There were at least a dozen other campers -- fairly close to each other.
We walked into the hills looking for, you guessed it...rocks. I found a few nice ones, some wildflowers and Pygmy Horned Toad!
We still had wind, but not as strong as the night before. Got a good night’s sleep!
Day 4 -- Sheldon NWR to Lake in the Woods Resort, OR
Doggy and I went for an early morning walk and found the steaming warm springs with lots of red-winged blackbirds and bullfrogs.
After breakfast, we packed up and drove to rockhound at a location mentioned in a guidebook before leaving the area. Sheldon NWR is one of only two places in the world where black opals are found. The pay-to-hunt mines are not yet open, so we tried our luck “in the wild” off the road. The ground was covered with obsidian. We also found chalcedony. I found one piece that might have an opal in it, not sure, but it’s pretty.
By the end of the day, we were truly in Oregon -- surrounded by incredibly tall trees and camped in a resort on a lake.
Tomorrow, we are off to the Oregon Coast!