Roadtrip

Gary proclaimed:

> Paul-
> If you get to Thompson Springs, UT you can get off I-70 and go north
> about 3 miles (on paved road) up the canyon to the ghost town of Sego.
> There you will find the remains of the old coal mining town. Also,
> there are some fairly extensive petroglyph panels, well marked and
> easily visible from the road. Some Fremont work, with other more
> recent images over the top of it in some places. A couple of picnic
> tables and an outhouse that might come in handy, too. A short, easy
> side trip but well worth it, IMO.
>
> BTW, Lon - thanks for the info on the geyser. I remember seeing it
> several times as a kid, as it was just a few feet off the old highway,
> but then I-70 went in and I lost track of just where the geyser was.
> I'll have to get out there this fall and check it out after the weather
> cools off.

The easiest way to get to Crystal Geyser is to go into Green River
and cross the river on the main drag. Just past the motel row, there
is a turn to the right that goes down around the old Utah Launch
Complex. It wanders and curves around for a few miles, then just
past the old meteorology site, another road crosses it. One way heads
up the hills about a mile to the north up to the old highway. Turn
right and head thru that small cut in the rocks. Once you get in
there about a mile, the road splits, with one going off toward the
ranch, the right turn there takes you along the south side of the
small clifflike stuff toward the river, where the geyser lives.

Someone kept filling the old pipe, so someone else blew the pipe
off pretty much at ground level. Don't get too close, some folks
think it is funny to drop big rocks into the geyser to see how
high they'll fly.

If you haven't been there in a while, the land is sorta puffed up
a bit with smaller secondary geysers around the bigger one, and if
the river is low, you can see the line of bubbles of the under-river
outlet for the gas geyser.

Fall is a good time for rock and bone hunting.

If you go down toward Hanksville, a coupla the big washes that
the highway dips down into have geodes and a blue/orange agate
bed upstream against the hills on the right.

Paul Calman proclaimed:

> I have been to the Thompson springs petros, there are some even better ones
> a little ways beyond the fence, but I suppose you could get shot at
> trespassing.
>
> The Crystal geyser sounds very interesting. What is the road like? We expect
> 100+ temps, and one of our party doest walk so well.
> The cemetary in Green River was interesting, a lot of cool whirlygigs and
> stuff there.
>

I've got pictures of my MGB taken at the geyser. You can drive right
up to it easily, just watch out for flying rocks when it goes off.

The terrain at the geyser could probably be done with a wheelchair
if necessary.

Yeah, coupla friends of mine are whirlygigging in the Green River
cemetary.

So many of the wheelers have been all over the place around Green
River and Moab it is difficult to find new territory, even the
road from the old Potash road up to Dead Horse Point is too well
travelled any more. In Green River, you can hop over the
railroad tracks not too far from the state park and head south
along old trails as far as your vehicle and nerves will allow...

I made it to green river early enough to see the geyser, pretty cool. I'm in
Ouray now, got some heavy rain near teluride today, but i dry well.
Great trip so far, no weather extremes, actually cooler in the big deserts
than at home

--
Paul Calman, Hathaway Pines, California