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08-18-2013, 11:39 AM
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#1
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: East Bay CA
Posts: 1,078
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Need WY Red Desert recommendations
I'm considering exploring some of the South Pass area in WY, and down through the Red Desert there. I've seen some scattered info about various sights/sites, such as Atlantic City, the Sweetwater, the various trails (Oregon, etc), Kemmerer dunes, Adobe Town, and so on. Lots of LONG dirt roads. I made my way down through there perhaps 25 years ago from Pinedale with a guy from a drilling company and was quite impressed, but it's kind of hard to determine how best to spend the 4 or so days I'd have to explore it most efficiently.
Would love any suggestions.
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2001 Ford E250 Sportsmobile with Salem-Kroger 4x4 conversion
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08-18-2013, 01:02 PM
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#2
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Site Team
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Posts: 1,202
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Re: Need WY Red Desert recommendations
No suggestions here but if you want to know how that area came to be and get an entertaining look at WY earl 20th century life style, I highly recommend John McPhee's Rising from the Plains ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/83.R ... the_Plains). He blends essays on the incomparable geology of WY with a biography of geographer and son of Wyoming pioneers David Love. We read it during the Jackson M&G. It added hugely to out appreciation of the terrain while painting a captivating picture of Love's life, including his childhood on a Sweetwater-area ranch.
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-Don-
Life and baseball both sometimes are not fair, but it is how you play the hops that counts. —Scott Miller, NYT Sports
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08-18-2013, 03:01 PM
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#3
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: East Bay CA
Posts: 1,078
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Re: Need WY Red Desert recommendations
Thanks; put it on my list. The history of the area is one reason I want to go there. Spend time last spring following parts of the Pony Express Trail around NV; following the history makes you more conscious of what you're traveling over. Can you imagine what a forum like this would have held if it were say www.conestogaforum.com?
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2001 Ford E250 Sportsmobile with Salem-Kroger 4x4 conversion
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08-18-2013, 03:43 PM
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#4
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Site Team
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Posts: 1,537
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Re: Need WY Red Desert recommendations
What a coincidence. My wife and I are planning to explore that area this coming weekend. We plan on camping in the South Pass area on Friday night. Hope to head north out of Atlantic City into the mountains. We are only staying over one night, but if I see any great spots I will let you know. I also will check with my brother and other people in Evanston to see if they have any ideas.
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Mac McIntire
2003 Ford E250, 5.4L V8,
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08-18-2013, 05:07 PM
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#5
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Site Team
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Posts: 1,202
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Re: Need WY Red Desert recommendations
Quote:
Originally Posted by rob_gendreau
Thanks; put it on my list. The history of the area is one reason I want to go there. Spend time last spring following parts of the Pony Express Trail around NV; following the history makes you more conscious of what you're traveling over. Can you imagine what a forum like this would have held if it were say http://www.conestogaforum.com?
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Love the idea--great debates on mules vs. oxen, buckboards vs. covered wagons, setting brakes on downhills, bear grease vs. who knows what else.
An eye opener for me about wagon travel was at a backcountry monument to the Mormon brigade (IIRC). Located in the Peloncillos on the NM/AZ border, it described how wagons were dismantled and lowered by rope on the steepest grades there. Then reassembled.
McPhee's book starts with a Bryn Mawr Phi Beta Kappa getting off the stage to be a school marm. You can guess her relationship to David Love but the pleasure lies in the telling.
Don
__________________
-Don-
Life and baseball both sometimes are not fair, but it is how you play the hops that counts. —Scott Miller, NYT Sports
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08-18-2013, 06:10 PM
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#6
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Arcata, CA
Posts: 623
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Re: Need WY Red Desert recommendations
Quote:
An eye opener for me about wagon travel was at a backcountry monument to the Mormon brigade (IIRC). Located in the Peloncillos on the NM/AZ border, it described how wagons were dismantled and lowered by rope on the steepest grades there. Then reassembled.
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To open the other eye... read about the Hole in the Rock expedition that settled what is now Bluff UT. Wagons, Mormons, and using faith to accomplish the impossible.
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2002 E350 7.3 PSD
Quigley 4x4, EB50 floorplan
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08-18-2013, 06:49 PM
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#7
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: East Bay CA
Posts: 1,078
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Re: Need WY Red Desert recommendations
Still takes some moxie to live in some of these regions. That's why I live visiting the remote parts of the west. Real character-builder out in the desert, particularly the Great Basin.
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2001 Ford E250 Sportsmobile with Salem-Kroger 4x4 conversion
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08-18-2013, 07:08 PM
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#8
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 88
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Re: Need WY Red Desert recommendations
If you're headed to the South Pass area then check out the Carrisa Mine. They just opened it up for tours.
http://www.southpasscity.com/carissa.html
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08-19-2013, 09:59 AM
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#9
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: East Bay CA
Posts: 1,078
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Re: Need WY Red Desert recommendations
Thanks. Would be interesting. I was thinking of getting to Atlantic City for one of the scotch tastings, so that would be a nice side trip (the next day, of course )
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2001 Ford E250 Sportsmobile with Salem-Kroger 4x4 conversion
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08-19-2013, 12:20 PM
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#10
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Site Team
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Turlock Ca
Posts: 10,409
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Re: Need WY Red Desert recommendations
Quote:
Originally Posted by rob_gendreau
Thanks. Would be interesting. I was thinking of getting to Atlantic City for one of the scotch tastings, so that would be a nice side trip (the next day, of course )
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2006 Ford 6.0PSD EB-50/E-PH SMB 4X4 Rock Crawler Trailer
Sportsmobile 4X4 Adventures.......... On and off road adventures
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