Starvation

Visited: October 2017

This is a park featuring... wait for it... another lake! You drive over part of it on US 40 to Vernal/Colorado, but I decided to go in and see the dam. It's pretty darn big. It's called Starvation reservoir because some horses starved and died there one winter. Or something like that. I dunno. 

View from US 40

Apparently you can see Kings Peak, the tallest peak in Utah, on a clear day. I went on a day of prescribed burns and couldn't see a thing.

Glory Hole

I got pulled over right before the turn into here. You turn in wayyyy after you pass the reservoir on the road, so I was ever so slightly distracted, hoping I hadn't missed it, because I knew I wouldn't be returning the way I came from on this trip. I was the last in a line of 10 cars and I got pulled over for 7 over in my loud patterned wrapped work car... I didn't get a ticket, but really??? 72 in a 65 with several cars in front of me going the same speed? mmmmkay.

Also, there were all these giant balls in the lake and on the shore since the water was low. No idea what that's about. Google it idk.

I don't know if you were supposed to get that close. I walked down from the dam sign and the sign faced the other way, but it said something about a danger zone lol whoops.

Hyrum

Visited: September 2017

Utah sure has a lotta lakes. This was a moody cloudy day and I visited on my way back from a school in Logan. I was the only one in the park, not shockingly. It was the first cold day and the first official day of fall. Just me and some seagulls. Though I did get to creep up on an osprey. This is primarily a boat park or fishing park, so I more than likely won't be back, but I always love to see big birds of prey. There is a nice day use area with picnic tables and 'beach' access. It was cool to see the Wellsvilles drowned in thick clouds.

Seagull poopalooza on deck

Osprey

Rocky Beach

Yuba

Visited: September 2017, April 2018

Another park I didn't spend immense of time at, but it helped me break up the drive back to SLC from St. George, and get some chill before hitting mad traffic from General Conference (it's a Mormon thing idk like the Mormon version of the Academy Awards maybe?).

It was a Friday afternoon and I think there were 3 other groups of people in the whole park. I could tell the lake was low because there was a rather long trek from where it was safe to park without sinking into sand in an Impreza to the shore. All of these reservoirs I visit, I make sure to wander to the shoreline at the very least, or throw a rock in from my vantage point above the lake. I had no idea what to expect when I got off the interstate and drove the few miles to the park. I wanted to go to the area called "Painted Rocks", but realized it was on the far end of the very long (though narrow) lake. Another time.

The sand dunes surprised me. There was nothing from the interstate or any park description I've read that indicated there would be dunes! An RV was parked right at the water and some kids and dogs were running around. The water looked like glass. Lots of trash stuck in the bushes or in the dried up shoreline that must have been flung off boats... but I didn't have the time or resources to get much of it. Oh well. Thinking of heading back some time to check out that painted rocks area. 

April 2018 update:

I went a slightly longer way to Richfield for work to visit the end of this lake, the Painted Rocks campground area. To me, this side was so much cooler. I preferred the view of the mountains and of course the cliffs that give the area its name. I cleaned lots of trash up. Lakes, man. Trash magnets. Still, I recommend this side of the lake more. 

Gunlock

Visited: September 2017

I didn't spend much time at this park. I went after checking out the Vortex (and getting miserably lost and almost falling off a cliff I mean no Grandma I was being perfectly safe and know where I am in the universe at all times). I poked some dead crawfish with a stick. I picked up some trash and almost got attacked by a bee in a soda can I picked up and opted to leave behind (for safety). I threw a rock in the water. I looked at some sunflowers. The sunset blinded me. And yup that's about it. That's the beauty of the pass- you don't feel forced to turn each park into an amazing experience, because it's "free". You can just be chill and enjoy yourself. I'd like to go back with more time some day and check out some cool rocks jutting out in the lake.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes

Visited: September 2017 (and childhood)

I remembered being blown away by this park as a kid. And I grew up a stone's throw from the GREAT Sand Dunes National Park. The sand really is a coral color. So of course I had to take all my fellow educators there after school one day. It was the other girls' first trip to Arizona (you have to duck through AZ to get to the dirt road into the park) and Phil's first trip to the park, after years of wanting to go during each school trip to St. George.

When we got there, I demanded we take a "band photo" of our group of Reaction Time educators. The result:

I love it

Justina and Glynis and I frolicked over the dunes and Phil walked around the lower dunes to get his steps in :)

It was so much fun to be a child and scramble up and down the dunes, and watch the sand flow over itself almost like a fluid as we stomped around the slopes.

When we finally went to the bottom of the dunes, we started to notice the smaller things. Some flowers still thriving in late September and some pretty preserved ones that dried out nicely in the summer.

Glynis, fellow geologist, and I both noticed some perfectly round small black rocks in the low points between dunes. We thought maybe there were seeds? There were so many though. Glynis put it together that they were iron concretions. Deep into a geologic paper that night, I found out they were Moqui Marbles.

Image from link source above

As a child, I earned a junior ranger badge here

I am not sure if they still have this program, I didn't see a visitor center, just the entrance booth, and it wasn't advertised there. 

Quail Creek

Visited: September 2017 (and April 2016)

Quail Creek is Sand Hollow's underrated cousin. The cliffs on the far end of the lake are geologically interesting, and this is a quieter park that attracts more wildlife, in my experience. I think they set up some lake playground monstrosity in the summer, but I wasn't around for that.

In September I visited on the way back from a school in Hurricane. I just wandered around for a few minutes to check it out again. I saw a crane and adorable critter footprints in the sand. I poked a dead, sunbleached crawdad with a stick.

I picked up an armful of litter on my way back from the shore to my car. A park ranger looked at me, confused. Why was I doing his job? I don't know.

I spent more time here in April 2016, I camped here after a day in Zion with my bff Lynsie. It was a wiiiiiindy night and we got there after dark to our reserved campspot, so we scarfed down some cold sandwiches and went to bed. There was a full moon that rose over the water and woke me up though, so I ended up joining her in the water as well.......

 The sunrise was magical, as sunrises generally are (unpopular opinion: sunrises>sunsets), and I went for another swim before making the trek home. 

Feast your eyes upon my obnoxiously yellow hand-me -down tent that somehow survived 4 years in a geology degree program and further abuse since. Holes in the bottom definitely don't create any problems or consequences.........

Sand Hollow

Visited: September 2017 (and May 2017)

The first time I saw a photo of this park while wandering around on Google Earth (my main indoor hobby), I audibly said "WHAT" really loudly. At my old office job. Which mainly involved answering phones. Whoops.

This place is unreal. Bright orange sandstone in crystal blue green waters. It boggles the brain. There shouldn't be a lake in those conditions! Well, there isn't. Not naturally. It's a reservoir, fed by Quail Creek Reservoir across the way. Even in September, I was able to see the waterfalls cascading through the sandstone into the lake from some man made tubes. Fun and spectacular nonetheless. And vital for the residents of St. George.

I camped here after an adventure hiking Kanarraville Falls with my brother from another mother Meegah and my husband Paul in May, and just stopped by after teaching a school in Hurricane.

When I camped, we used the dispersed campground on the far end of the lake. This meant there were no hookups for RVs, and no designated spots. Plunk your tent in the sand, and you get a picnic table if you're lucky. This also somehow meant absolutely no accountability for your own litter, and the place was TRASHED. I had just gotten a brand new trash grabber (I'm a nerd I'm aware ok let's move on) and went on a QUEST to get it all. Diving into bushes, probably encroaching on people's personal space to get wrappers and bottles and cigarette butts and abandoned flip flops. Once the area was purged of rogue litter, I waded in the lake at sunset, and may have had a late night swim 

And we ate GOOD that night. Meegah makes a mean roasted corn.

The next morning, we went to check out the place on the map called "Jumping Cliffs". I grew up in the high desert of New Mexico, and yet we had two cliff jumping spots in under an hour's drive from us. One wayyyy up in the mountains, from a rhyolite cliff into a freezing stream that had formed a mega deep pool, and one off sandstone cliffs into Abiqui Reservoir, with cliff options from 20-30 feet at both. So when I saw this sign...

I knew I had to jump right in! We were there on a Monday morning, so we had the cliffs to ourselves. In my excitement, I had left my trash grabber and bags, and still lament the piles trash I was not able to clean from the cliffs. If any of ya'll can take that on this summer, that would be grrrrrrrrreat. There are lots of cliff heights to choose from, I think my highest cliff was about 30 feet or so. The boys chickened out wayyyy earlier than that :P But had fun on the floatie and warming up on the rocks. You can see out to Zion NP from the top of the jumping rocks.

I considered jumping in September, I had packed a swimsuit for a hot spring on our way down to Saint George, but I saw when I drove in that Swimmer's Itch was out, and I was not interested. Swimmer's Itch is a parasite released from snails in shallow marshy water.

Don't look down...

Many people at Sand Hollow have a watercraft or OHV (there are some dunes for this), but all I had was a swimsuit, some camp chairs, a beat up tent, and some roasted corn and was happy as a clam. I plan to go back over and over and over again.