Little Sahara, Utah

Long, long roads to nothing but sky

It’s about a 4 hour drive from Bryce Canyon up to Salt Lake which is quite a big day for us so we left nice and early and fed the kids peanut butter sandwhiches and grapes for breakfast in Louie.  Just as we were leaving a petrol station Justin noticed half the side of our camper was virtually hanging off so a few tightened screws later (thanks leatherman) and we were on our way. 

Little Sahara sand dunes in distance

Half way through the journey if you take a bit of a detour is a place called Little Sahara Recreation Area and it’s crazy.  You drive through the middle of nowhere for about 20 minutes and you stumble across massive sand dunes that rise up out of nothing.  There are 60 acres of them and they are a result of winds blowing the sandy bottom of what was once the ancient Bonneville Lake.  The lake dried up about 150,000 years ago and because of the surrounding hills the wind drops in velocity and it drops it’s load of sand…forming the sand dunes.

The main activity here is ATV’s (All-Terrain-Vehicle), which are like our quad bikes, they hoon up and down these sand dunes.  We passed a sign saying “12 days since the last fatality” and we also saw an apache helicopter flying very low over the dunes so we thought there might have been another accident.

It was $18 to enter the park (a bit steep when we were only stopping for a couple of hours but it ended up being well worth it) and there are parts of the park that are ATV free so you know you aren’t going to come face to face with a flying missile as you come up over a crest which is nice.

We had a wonderful time, the kids LOVED it.  The steep sand dunes were so much fun climbing and running down.  We got the body board out and gave the kids a ride.  Justin and Leo also tried to push/pull me down the steepest hill they could find but alas I was too heavy and they didn’t get very far.  Leo and Spencer on the other hand just flew….Spencer in particular had a spectacular wipe out which was hilarious and she wanted back on immediately.

Kamikaze Justin

Pre-flight checks

Not sure about this Dad....

DAAAAAD!!!

Leo loved the running and jumping down the sand dunes and then sliding down on his bottom and making tracks.  We all had sand EVERYWHERE by the time we left and the kids were asleep within 5 minutes of Louie’s loud rumblings.  Happy days.

Zara in her party hat at Spencer's 1st birthday

Today was the day we found out that the Wright Seniors beloved German Shepherd Zara had to be put down.  She was around 11 years old and such a beautiful dog.  The kids loved her when we were in South Africa and she put up with their noises and their pats and the fur pulling really well.  She went for one last walk on the beach and then refused to get out of the car when they got home, the vet put her to sleep in the car with her head in Pete’s lap.  She is at peace and out of pain but very missed.  Leo was quite upset to hear Zara “had gone into the sky like Grandad Pit” and asked us a lot of questions “Does Grandad Pit have sticks and balls for Zara to fetch?”, “Why has she gone, why can’t we see her?”…..

Just another reminder that life is fleeting and we must make the most of it.