Skull Valley–2 weekends in a row.

This weekend I went with my brothers.  This meant that we could be a little more ambitious in our exploring, since we had 2 Jeeps out there. 

There was a little more snow there this weekend than there was last weekend.

Even with 2 vehicles, there are still some times we get out and walk it before driving it.   It ended up being good enough to drive it.

Both the jeeps up at the end of the road.

We ran into some extraterrestrials.  Nice beings, but the extra nose was hard to get used to.

(Ok, that was really just my little brothers radio controlled flying thingy.)

The two Jeeps up on the hilltop between Skull Valley and Tooele valley.

Same place, with my two brothers in the picture, and Stansbury Island behind them.

Desert snow.

How many of you out there, when you hear the word “desert” and picture this scene from Spaceballs?

Go ahead, raise your hand, I know you do.  Or something like it at least.  And snow in the desert?  Nah, no way, are you kidding?  It’s too hot in the desert.

Well, ok, a lot of you already know that ‘desert’ is defined by the amount of rain (or snow) that an area averages in a year, not how hot it is.

Today I went out to the west desert with my friend Lisa Shafer, to get shots of the desert in the snow.  If you’ve been following my blog at all, you’ve probably seen pictures of this area before, but here it is in the snow:

The marsh area at Horseshoe Springs Wildlife Area.

A shoe tree along Skull Valley Road, just south of Horseshoe Springs.

Coming back down from Lone Rock.  We would have spent more time there, but there was at least 3 groups of target shooters and it kind of felt (sounded) like we were in the middle of a battleground.

Lone Rock, from the foothills on the other side of Skull Valley Road.

Looking away from Lone Rock – the foothills I took that last picture from.

A washtub, out in the middle of nowhere.  What’s it doing there?  Enlarge the picture and you’ll see it’s riddled with bullet holes.  The west desert is a popular place for going target shooting, and even a wash tub can work as a target.

The snow super-highway.  This road parallels the highway, about a half mile east of it, and goes almost the entire length of the valley.

More target practice.  There was also an empty donut box with a target taped to the back right next to the pallet.

Stansbury Island, from atop the mountain between Skull Valley and Tooele Valley.

We had dinner at the Subway in Grantsville, but right across the street was this place.

Fun way to spend a Sunday.