07-Nov-2001 -- Whether intentional or not, it appears that I am on my way to visiting each confluence in Utah. This visit makes it 14 out of 19 plus 2 attempts. My thanks to Terje Mathisen for the excellent directions he provided when he submitted his confluence visit. (My apologies if Terje is female. I wish the English language provided a non-gender pronoun.)
This confluence evokes scenes of toil and hardship endured by early travelers, people we here in Utah refer to as "The Pioneers," groups traveling west in the 1840s, '50s and '60s before completion of the transcontinental railroad. Many of these groups found their destination in the Salt Lake Valley, site of present-day Salt Lake City, Utah. Others were determined to press on to what was to become California. Seeking a short-cut from the Oregon Trail, they continued west from the Salt Lake Valley, across the Great Salt Lake Desert. What today is a two-hour drive by automobile would have taken days with a team and wagon. There was no fresh water. The wagon wheels would often break through the salt-encrusted surface into deep mud. The choice to take the short-cut was disastrous for some, notably the Donner-Reed party of the late 1840s. The short-cut, sometimes called the Hastings Cutoff, passes very near the confluence.
I saw only one vehicle on the dirt road leading to the confluence, which is on the eastern foothills of Pilot Peak, a dramatic photo of which is included in visit number 1. On my visit the peak was shrouded in clouds, so I included a photo of the sun's rays beaming through the clouds on the southern flank of the peak.
There is a geocache at this confluence. It's always fun to bag a confluence and a geocache in the same visit. The geocache is one of eight hidden as part of the Utah Mega Cache contest. The eight geocaches were designed to highlight Utah's diverse and magnificent scenery, history, geology and geography.
This was a great day!