April 23 - Little Sahara

I woke at 5:30, made coffee until the breakfast bar opened at 6 a.m.  The Rodeway here has the ever-present waffle maker, cereals, boiled eggs, and strawberry yogurt.  I worked a bit on my blog and headed toward home.  I realized that I’d mis-planned my route, as I could have / should have continued west from the Taos area to try to find Grace’s Warbler, Lesser Nighthawk, and such.  At this point, I’m not going to back-track, so will try again later this year.

I drove up through Centerfield and Gunnison to Nephi, and before I turned onto HIghway 6, I spotted a Golden Eagle soaring overhead.  Good chance that this bird was watching the sheep pastures below.

At the stop sign, I saw the BLM signs to “Little Sahara”, which intrigued me.
The dunes here are quite impressive, but the ATVs have pretty well torn the place up.

Little Sahara Dunes

The campgrounds have been wheeled-through until little vegetation remains, and there are wheel tracks out into areas that the Bureau has obviously posted “No Off-Road Vehicles”.

Right throgh the campground . . .

I'm guessing it'll be dusty later in the summer . . .

I guess that the Government has to accede to the demands of the ORV public, and provide a place for them.  Otherwise, they’d just tear up any old place, and Society must provide the users of fossil fuels with some ‘sacrifice areas’.
Back on the highway toward the north, I was intrigued with the purple flowering weeds that covered hundreds of acres in the farmlands around here.  It appeared to be a low-growing flower in the mustard family.

Cute li'l crucifer . . .

I’d planned on gassing up when I got to the I-80 freeway.  But, when I got there, I found there was no gas station.  Ah, well, thought I:  I’ll gas up at the next exit . . .  Little did I realize that there was no open gas station - or even any open towns - until I crossed the Great Salt Lake Desert and Bonneville Salt Flats!  As I watched the gas gauge drop lower and lower, I could only imagine how the Emigrants must have felt as they watched their provisions diminish as they traveled the California Trail.  About 30 miles east of town, the gas gauge light went out, and ten miles later, the gas display quit registering.

I prayed to Deity and the Saints and pulled into the Pilot station in Wendover, where I added 16.53 gallons of Unleaded!!  Which surprised me, as the Crosstrek XV has a 15.9 gallon tank.

I kept on west, arriving in Winnemucca at 6 p.m.  I didn’t want to push on to Lakeview, as I wouldn’t have made it until 9:30, and I was leery of driving through the Mule Deer range, or chancing to meet a black Angus steer in the middle of the highway after dark, so I pulled into the Frontier Motel.  This is a 1950s-era place, pretty down at the heel, with no amenities other than a small fridge.  They advertise internet, but it is intermittent.  What was good was the front desk clerk’s recommendation for supper, which was the Toasted Tavern.  Good food and good beer.
Jericho eBird Checklist is Here

Little Sahara eBird Checklist is Here

Jericho eBird Checklist is Here