Friday, May 12, 2006
Rockport State Park, Wanship, UT - May 10-11
We pulled out of Wendover at 10:30am, late enough that we didn't have to worry about lunch-hour traffic in Salt Lake City. We immediately dropped down to the Bonneville Salt Flats, residue of a now-evaporated prehistoric lake. A rest area 4 miles into the salt flats allowed us to walk on and examine the inches-thick crusty salt. After binoculing some yellow warblers, we headed out across the vast, flat, almost-level expanse (the elevation at the east end of the almost 40-mile-long barren wasteland is only 4 feet above the west end). Despite our outside thermometer reading only 57, the relentless sun, reflecting off every available surface, caused the temp in our truck cab to rise quickly -- the cats were panting after only a few minutes, forcing us to turn on the a/c.
And I now understand how mirages used to drive travellers mad, as a vast lake of shimmering illusionary water stretched out before us and to our left, all the way to and reflecting the snow-capped peaks on the horizon. Only the fact that it receded at the same rate as our speed gave any indication that this was, in fact, a mirage.
Rockport SP offers five cgs plus four group cgs. Only one has hookups. Naturally, we stayed in a cheaper non-hookup site ($9/night vs $18 for hookups). This turned into a "down-time" stop for us as all our plans for sightseeing melted into walks around the park and birdwatching.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 3:30 PM 
