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Monday Mojo 22 – West Desert Season & Donkeys

October 29, 2019 by Amiee

Great Salt Lake sunset from Stansbury Island

As typical of this time of year, we were drawn west. Sunsets over Great Salt Lake in Autumn are much more vivid than they appear in these photographs.

It’s wild out there. The gulls swoop within a few feet of your head, the winds are always vicious, and the plume of unknown substances spewing from the stacks of the giant magnesium factory across the water makes you want to hold your breath.

A classic scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds…

My dog loves his frisbee out there. Not actually catching it, just running in circles with it dangling out of his mouth, flapping in the wind, the joy of being absolutely free and perhaps the hope of someday being able to let it go for a moment so it can be thrown. I love this episode about the West Desert by Scott Carrier, mostly for the sound of the golf balls being hit across the salt flats.

http://trailstoke.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_3306.m4v

 

It’s crazy that this scene exists a mere 37 miles as the crow flies from my house. If you were to be plopped down into this spot, you’d have no idea an overwhelming chaos of civilization exists on the other side of these hills. The magnificent desolation of this place makes me ponder why I would ever need to go anywhere else. But then I want to go. I have a zillion unused SkyMiles burning a hole in my passport, but the whole impending climate doom thing has me feeling guilty for even thinking of non-necessity travel.

Great Salt Lake sunset from Stansbury Island

I wonder why that now I finally have a location independent work situation, I am staying put. Perhaps now that I don’t have to be here, I want to be here. I found plane tickets to London next week for only 40,000 miles and I entertain the idea of heading to Iceland or to the outer reaches of the Hebrides from there. I also found tickets to Munich for super cheap and think how maybe its not too late to continue my four-year streak to Dolomiti. Then I think about roaming around the Nevada desert and hunkering down in Bend for a bit and then I think about running to the shelter and rescuing a little puppy.

Dried cattail-looking grasses on the shores of Great Salt Lake

What I really want is a donkey though. I’m halfway through Christopher McDougall’s new book, Running with Sherman: The Donkey with a Heart of a Hero, and it has only intensified my love of donkeys not to mention living somewhere rural surrounded by the Amish…

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Filed Under: Motivation, The Life Tagged With: Great Salt Lake, Mojo Monday

Previous Post: « Big Mountain to Beer Bar: A City Creek Canyon Expedition
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Comments

  1. Marie Kurzynske says

    October 30, 2019 at 3:17 am

    Thanks for writing again. You can never go wrong rescuing a puppy or owning a donkey.

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amieemaxwell

☕️⛰🐶🍺Salt Lake City, Utah 🇺🇸

I still don’t quite understand how one can “ow I still don’t quite understand how one can “own” a bazillion years of geological time 🤔
New obsession, desert ice! New obsession, desert ice!
Not sure if either one of us is ever going to get Not sure if either one of us is ever going to get used to these average Monday morning run views (not a fan of how close he gets to the edge though).
Was worried I’d miss the snow living in the dese Was worried I’d miss the snow living in the desert this winter. Guess I don’t have to 🤷🏼‍♀️
Took my mom on her first slot canyon adventure the Took my mom on her first slot canyon adventure the other week. She said she learned those moves watching Ninja Warriors 😂 We then ticked off another of her bucket list items and had dinner at @hellsbackbonegrill (holy moly carrot cupcake desert, no photos cuz we enjoyed every second!). Now she just needs to buy a horse or at least find one to borrow and her winter in the desert will be complete (although she still has four more months here)!
Day 41 in a tent. Temps never got above freezing t Day 41 in a tent. Temps never got above freezing today. Hotel tomorrow 😜
A few bits of fall in the desert now that I live h A few bits of fall in the desert now that I live here 🌵🍂 💛
When your dog and hubby are sporting matching @sto When your dog and hubby are sporting matching @stormykromerofficial masks and only one of them is wearing it appropriately...
Last night we played bananagrams and I only used f Last night we played bananagrams and I only used flower words. I did not win 🤷🏼‍♀️, yet I did 🎨 💐!
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