Newfoudland Mountains, Utah

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This is actually two trips combined.  These first images are from May 2003.

On the fisrt day of the earlier trip, we select a campsite on the northern end of the Newfoundlands.

There's a weird collection of rocks that form interesting shapes.  It was already uncomfortably hot, forcing us to hunker down under some boulders during the hottest part of the day.  Of course, hunkering down is always made more tolerable by drinking cold beer.

The next day we head south along the eastern side and drive up a road to  a place called Boston Terrace.  The picture on the left  is looking out to the salt flats.  On the right is looking towards remnants of an old mining claim.   There is a lot of evidence of mining in these mountains, but Boston Terrace looks like it was a fairly major operation at one time.

Fast forward to April 2006.  This time we head to the Newfoundlands via the  Hogup mountains.  On the left is Locomotive springs.  It was a wet year and there were several big mud puddles we had to drive through.

My friend Bob recently bought a Toyota Prius which he claimed would be fine for off road travel on dirt roads.  I believe the picture says it all.  We ended up smacking a big rock and the car started making a rattling noise.

We ended camping near where the car incident occured which was about a half mile short of the Newfoundlands.  An evening hike yielded these photos.

These images were taken close to our forced campsite.  It was decided that we should leave the next morning since we weren't sure of the extent of the Prius's damage.   If it gave out, it would have been a long walk out.

This bird kept an eye on us hoping to score some food no doubt.  On the right is the road to the Newfoundlands.

To make matters worse, there was a railroad crew replacing ties and they had dug up the only crossover to the Newfoundlands.  Fortunately these guys used their big machines in to build a gravel crossing for us.

On the way out we use the road along the tracks until we hit Lakeside and can drive south to I-80.  It crosses a military firing range where we saw this vehicle along the road.  It looks like they mean buiness.   This route is the same way we drove in on the first trip.  It's the most direct way, but there are a lot of warning signs about being on the railroad's land.

The guys we talked to said they weren't sure if the RR crossing is going to be rebuilt.  If anyone has been to the Newfoundlands since April 2006, please send me an email as to whether the crossing has been rebuilt or not and I will post the information on this page. In conclusion, the Prius may not be the best offroad vehicle.