Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

I came the Bear River Bird Refuge due to work. The company I'm currently employeed with built the new vistor/education center out there a couple of years ago and after seeing some photo's I'd fiqured I'd make a vist.

The education center is just right off the interstate but the refuge is another 12 miles in on a mostly a dirt road (soon to be paved unfortunately )with a short strech of pavement in between. The auto tour route around the refuge is all dirt and wet enough that you can drive around with the windows without being dusted out . Only a few people were out there fishing and driving around which made it nice not having to deal with a load of traffic.

I'll say this much try to capture a bird in taking off/in flight/landing is a skill I yet to master that and a camera that doens't have a very good zoom. Regardless, it was still a great time and it felt great to get out of the city.

Any who here are the photo's (tried to capture what birds I could, there's more birds than what my photo's show).















These little birds where kind of cool, with there wings open the red on their backs really stands out.






The best I could with my camera (zooming in past this the birds where too blurry)

Rattlesnake Trail Run 2-27-10

Well, on the 27th I meet up with a group from a couple of different off-roading forums to run Rattlesnake out at 5-Mile Pass Recreation area. I had been on this trail once before with the Wastch Cruisers but only as a passenger. So this was a new one for me. About 9 vehicles showed up for this run mostly Toyota's but there was a Grand Cherokee, Mazada Pickup and a old Ford Bronco that came along. Overall, it was a good time despite being a little chilly. The group A stock 4runner made the run with no problems besides a new driver and a dented running board

Opps! Body Damage

A little spur of the run out to 5-Mile Pass receration area lead to a little bit of body damage to my 4runner. Slid sideways down a hill about 100' after loosing traction trying to back down a hill I attempted to climb. The damage was done my the Juniper trees that I slid into.

Utah Autoshow 1/16/2010

These are some of my favorite photo's from the Utah Autoshow last weekend.





















Rush hour traffic would be blast in this thing. I'll just roll right over ya!



Just because I'm Toyota guy and a 4runner owner, 2010 Toyota 4runer Trail Edition.

I've been a little lazy posting up my trips and what has been going on.


Since the Forrest Lake Trip, I've joined the Wastach Cruiser and The ExpeditionUtah group on a trip though the San Raffel Swells in South-Central Utah and have just recently completed a trip around the Cedar Mesa in SE Utah on my way back to Arizona to visit my parents for the holidays.

What this upcoming year will bring I have no idea. For now I'm just going to try and pay some bills off. At least that's the plan.

Forest Lake and Cascade Springs 10/31/09

On Halloween I headed out with a few individuals from one of the off-road communties that I belong too out to Forest Lake in American Fork Canyon. Myself and one other individual had never been to this area before so it was a little bit of an adventure. The other individaul who came along lead the run since he had been to the area before. Accompnay, him was two of his boys and his father.


I had an itching to get back out since it had been a little over a month and half since I was last out exploring. This would also be the first little bit of rock crawling that I've done since leaving Arizona earlier this year. Despite an earlier wake-up call and an hour drive too meet up with the group it was well worth it. We couldn't have picked a better day to head out. The weather was clear and cool. Very cool up at the lake around 8500' above sea level.


The road up to the trailhead was more or less a dirt road that would be passable by most vehicles. The trail head started out by crossing a flowing stream then up though a little rock garden. After that there were area patches of rocks to drive thru every so often but nothing really major. Once we reached the lake we greeted by the bitter cold until the sun peered over the mountains around 1015 am. The screney in the area was great and felt nice (despite the above mentioned cold). The lake had been coverd by a couple inches of ice and provided us with some entainment as we though/slid rocks across it's surface listening to the strange echo's they would proceed.


Eventually, we got our fill and decided to head back out to the main road. The way back down was a little more entaining as we slide down an icey patch or two that we had previous had no problems going up. A few more bangs and grinding sounds from under teh vehicles were heard. The rock garden that we had all gotten though at the beginning with no problems ended up claiming some of the paint off my vehicle. Lucky, it was to one of the fender flares on my vehicle attached to the bumper which can be easliy removed.


Once back out we headed over to Cascade Springs. The drive over prodvided some excellent views of the surrounding mountains and valleys and of the small towns down below. Cascade Springs is a natural spring coming up from the ground that produced some mini waterfalls as in flows a short way down the mountain.


The final stretch of the trip took us back down American Fork Canyon along the Alpine Loop. As we passed the montains we were dwarfed by their seer-size but at the same time we were in amazement of their beauty. Well, I was at least. I don't know about the others.


Enough of my rambling on the photos - my camera was having a bad day so some of the photo's didn't come out that great.



The view from the beginning and the last bit of asphalt we'd see until Cascade Springs.







Headin up to the lake.








Up at the Lake