Adventures to the middle of nowhere in Utah

A few weeks back I took Luke to the Hutchings Museum in Lehi. They have a zillion amazing rocks there and I was fascinated by them all. Luke really enjoyed all the ones that looked like Gold. He kept saying that he would be rich if he had those rocks. While there they had a flyer about a place here in Utah called Topaz Mountain. I had heard of that place before, but didn't really know what it was. Once we got home I looked it up and became excited about the possibility of taking the boys out there.

It took me a few weeks to convince Brandon and then some more time for us to figure out a weekend that would work. But, this past Saturday the stars aligned and we drove out there. My amazing cousin, Jonathan, who is a geologist also recommended that we visit Dugway Geode Beds since we were in the area. But, first stop to Topaz Mountain.

It wasn't too difficult to navigate there. We took a paved road to a junction near Delta, eventually found the Topaz Mountain turnoff, and then started off roading it. For being on a dirt road it was a pretty nice dirt road. Then we got really close and the road turned into a crazy ATV trail. Brandon loved every second of it. I was glad for a vehicle that had high clearance. We eventually found our way to the mountain and parked in the foothills. Then we walked up the mountain to begin digging.  Actually, we did very little digging and mostly just poked around the rocks looking for the shimmery topaz. You see, when the amber colored topaz (the valuable stuff) is exposed to the sun it turns clear and then sparkles in the sun. I was totally into it and once Luke found his first topaz he was too. Brandon and Peter didn't have nearly as much luck as Luke and I did. I felt like I struck gold every time I found a piece. Honestly, I could have spent hours looking and gathering.

While were were searching Luke and I spotted a little lizard. Later I was able to go slowly back to the stop where we had seen it and got a few pictures. I've never seen a wild lizard before. He was adorable and super, super fast. Later on in the day we saw an very long lizard dash across the dirt road right in front of us. I never imagined there were lizards in Utah but there they were.

We left the house packed to the gills with food and digging equipment. We left at 8:30am and it took us 2 hours to drive out there. The boys were ready to eat after 30 minutes of digging. We managed to postpone lunch for another 30 minutes.

It ended up being a good thing that we ate lunch earlier then expected because a mini storm came through and it started pouring rain. We were exploring some larger rock formations just a little ways from the car. Luke took a bit of a tumble and started crying VERY loudly. But, then the rain came and we started dashing to the car. We got wet, but not too wet.

The area out there is very remote. Like you could imagine nobody ever finding you if you ended up there in the winter time on a dirt road that led to nowhere. In it's own way through, it was very beautiful.

Once leaving there we headed out to the Geode beds. Brandon had managed to view a map on his phone and by a lucky happenstance that crytic map eventually got us there. It really did take us another hour on a dirt road. This one also ended up taking us up the side of a small foothill. That part of the trip was not my favorite. A drop off on one side had me clinging to my side of the car for dear life. 

The boys were getting a bit restless after about 40 minutes of traveling on this dirt road. When we saw this old silo (I have no idea why it is there. Nothing beneficial could grow our there) we decided to stop for a snack break. I am SO glad I thought to over-prepare the food. It helped the boys out a ton to stop for a potty break and a chip break (our boys LOVE chips).

I was seriously beginning to wonder if we would ever find out way to the right place when this sign came into view. I was seriously so thankful. Since we didn't have a map of where the actual geo beds were we drove around for a while. I had read that they could be found with just a little bit of digging in these sandy mound areas. Thankfully, the mounds were pretty easy to spot because it was pretty desolate out there. 

We got out and easily started to find the geode rocks. It was so fun to dig and find them. Then Brandon and Peter would work on cracking them open. Once again, the kids got bored of collecting faster than I would have liked. But, I didn't want to make them too miserable so we only stayed for about 40 minutes. I regret not having Brandon take a picture of me. Ugh. The trip home was SO long. Another dirt road but this time for 3 hours. Not too fun. The last hour the boys were the worst. We didn't bring any electronic devices and by that time I was really wishing we had. They were poking each other and crying like crazy. We could home on the route that takes you through the Little Sahara and we saw a lot of ATV families camping and riding around. That part of the trip was reassuring because I felt like we had made it back to civilization. We got home right around 5:30pm. It was a full day that ended up being tons of fun.