Transcontinental Railroad< Promontory Point to Wendover in one Day

[sawtooth4x4]

I've been wanting to do this since moving to Utah. So yesterday we loaded up all the kids and took one hell of a long trip. The Land Rover handled it flawlessly. Easily flying down the roads between 40 and 60 mph. Smooth as glass. Lots of things seen. So sit back and enjoy the pictures and some words.

This was the only causality. It really pissed me off. The GPS kept shutting off and kept leading us astray. We probably lost an hour on the trip because this piece of crap was so far off. I decided enough was enough and killed it. One shot, one kill.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

So we looked for Chinese Arch but could not get to it. According to the coordinates we had on the tablet, before it was shot, it was behind locked gates and too far to walk to with two babies. So we continued on to the railroad grade and drove to Elephant rock. This thing was pretty cool. The older boys decided to check it out and take some pictures of their own.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

After that we continued onto Kelton. There was not too much there to speak of other then the graveyard. I found it pretty interesting, I cannot believe people lived out here. Such a hostile place, I cannot imagine how hot it would be in the summer.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Then we continues on reading the signs about the sidings. It was pretty cool.

I think this is Devils Playground. We stopped here for a little break. we let the kids out again to run and climb around the rocks. We found a couple of dead sheep skeletons.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

We continued onto Terrace. We stopped at the cemetery to check it out.

Pretty humbling. This girl was only 3 months old. Her family is probably not buried anywhere near here.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

We got lost after Terrace. Apparently we were heading to the Hogup mountains and the Hogup pumps. We didn't know this. All we knew is that we were supposed to be following a railroad grade if we were ever going to make it to Wendover. So we turned around and got back on track 30 minutes later. We had no map or cellphones to go off. We just had the book called 4wd Trails: Northern Utah. Which was okay to use, but very vague on markers and mileage.

So after an hour we ended up in Lucin. This town has been moved about 3 times. We found a couple of townsites.

Here are the pictures.

Just some bricks scattered about here. Not much left.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

We continued on from there and found this site. I'm not sure if it was part of Lucin or not.

A lot of concrete foundations. I can only imagine they had something to do with railroad, but I'm not sure. I also found what looks to be a shut down mine. I didn't explore it, as we were starting to get down on gas and it was around 4pm by now.

had to do a poser shot. Why not. It was the hardest challenge of the trip.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

So we were at the end of the track. Nothing more to follow. Then we saw a sign for the sun tunnels. We also had no idea how to get to Wendover. So we decided since the tunnels were south and so was Wendover, maybe we should go that way. Besides, seeing those was also on my wifes bucket list. So off we headed. Luckily on the way we drove past a sign that pointed to Wendover as well. It said 52 miles. More on that later.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

It was getting pretty close to 5pm by then. We knew we needed to cover some ground. The sign to Wendover said it was 52 miles. So after 50 miles and still no sign of civilization, we were becoming worried. I still had 1/2 a tank of gas. about 14 gallons left. I had already dumped my 5 gallons in about half way through we I was down to 3/4 of a tank. So we were okay, we could probably go another 150 miles on that alone. The Rover has a 4.0 V8 and is pretty good on gas when you aren't going 80. Its pretty nice compared to my old Range Rover with a 4.6L V8 that would eat gas like it was hooked to a refinery.

So after a few more miles, my wifes phone dings with a text message. Relief! We knew we were getting close to civilization! So we continued another 10 miles and finally hit the gas station next to the Bonneville Salt Flats. I got to the gas station with just a hair under 1/2 a tank. Filled up the Disco with $30 and heading back home to Layton.

Great trip. Lots of of fun. Nothing Broke other then the tablet. Glad my Disco has a built in compass. As it worked great for navigation!

 

[Troop92]

Dang, man, looks awesome, glad you had a great time. Sad we couldn't have joined you.

 

[moab_cj5]

Great pics. You didn't get to Devil's Playground. If you had made it to devil's playground, you would have had to open a gate that clearly states you are entering the area.

There are some really cool things to see in that part of the state.

 

[Tonkaman]

Looks like a great day with the family. I love that area but never have had the time to stop and enjoy like that. Great write up, thanks

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Well, it looks like I have a lot more to see out there. I think its time to get another GPS unit. Using that tablet was pretty much worthless. I wish there was a good GPS with a screen that big. It seems like every GPS / Mapping APP just doesn't work as good as I think it should.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

forgot about this picture

 

[sLcREX]

Looks like a good day out, definitely a lot of ground to cover too!

 

[kd7kmp]

Such a wonderful area of Utah! And the best part is very few visit it. That area was part of my field area for my MS thesis.

Kevin