I had read about this event on Expedition Utah and always wanted to see the sun tunnel installation and finally got out there! About 40 miles of some pretty rough dirt road at 45-50 mph in a train of 20 4×4 trucks was a little much on the westy cabinets. But everything (including us!) held together!
I heard it wasn’t as cold this year as it was last year, but it was still pretty cold. Luckily one of the trucks was loaded completely full of firewood. And when you end up with a truckload of wood in the desert in the middle of winter, you get fire. A BIG fire! It was nice and we made more Tortilla Soup! I know our recipe was a little different this time and we prepared a lot of stuff at home because it was just a quick overnight trip.
It was fairly cold and it snowed a little bit, but it kept the crowds and hippies away. In fact there were only a couple others outside our group that showed up. One gentleman from England came all the way to the Utah desert to see the solstice at the tunnels! It was fun chatting with him and he was enjoying our beautiful state of Utah. I really wish I would have tried the tea he made that morning, I mean, British tea! Anyway, on with the pictures!
No sunrise through the tunnels this morning. I’ll be back to try again and the effect is still the same a couple days +/- the solstice. I would love to see it on a clear night when you can look through the portals in the tube.
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- No sunrise today
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- Bullet holed sign at Lucin
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- Lucin
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- Along Highway 30
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- Highway 30
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- Beautiful day in the snow
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- Looking Southeast towards Great Salt Lake
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- Nice ranch entrance
Leaving the sun tunnels, we drove North to Lucin then to Highway 30 to start the long way home. Amazingly, out in the middle of nowhere we had to wait for a freight train to pass, it was pretty awesome! We were actually driving along side it for a bit until we got stopped at the crossing. Wishing I had video (or even pictures!) of it…
Elephant arch along the railroad grade.
Around Black Butte mountain, we turned South on snow covered dirt roads and headed to the Kelton station along the old railroad grade. This is the same railroad where East met West in 1869! We followed the road until the Golden Spike National Historic Site, stamped out National Parks Passport, then headed home. We decided to skip the spiral jetty so we have an excuse to return later.
A boy and his syncro 