Hogup Mountains, NW Utah

East of the Great Salt Lake lies the major population centers of Utah, from Ogden to Provo, including Salt Lake City.

The area west of the Great Salt Lake is known to very few.  It is viewed by many as a vast wasteland, suitable for Air Force bombing practice, a railroad that traverses it, and a nuclear waste dump, along with Interstate 80 from SLC to Wendover, on its way to San Francisco.

Except there is more...

I've not fully explored the Hogup Range, which is on the western shore of the north end of the GSL, about 30 miles due west of the Spiral Jetty, for those who are familiar with this famous earth art, produced in 1970 by Robert Smithson.

The Hogup Range is noted for another, less famous landmark: the Hogup Cave, which was discovered as a long time seasonal hunting shelter for Native Americans, excavated by an Anthropology professor from the University of Oregon in the late 1960s.  Amazingly, this cave was shown to have been inhabited going back 8800 years, long before the days Jesus walked the earth, even before there was written language, anywhere on Earth.

So, as a warmup to longer, more strenuous hikes, and waiting patiently for snow levels to recede in other hiking areas, I embarked on a long ride to find Hogup Cave, and to hike to the top of the Hogup Range.





On the way north of I-80 toward Lakeside,
I saw a remarkably un-shy Antelope:









Travelling along the railroad west of the causeway,
the remnants of Governor Norm Bangerter's natural gas
 pumps that helped lower the Great Salt Lake in the early 80s:





Looking west from near Lakeside over the
Newfoundland Mountains to Pilot Peak, Nevada:

 

 

 



A real life mirage looking SW over the mudflat/saltflats
near the Air Force bombing range, the south end
 of the Newfoundland Mountains:



 



Hiking the Hogup Range, looking NW toward the Grouse Creek Mountains:





Near the top of the Hogups, looking east E-SE toward the Wasatch, you can see (from the bottom) the north side of the GSL, then the lake south of the railroad causeway, then Antelope Island, and the mountains behind Bountiful, UT beyond that, including Sessions Mountain, Pyramid Peak, Blacks Peak and Black Mountain on the south side of City Creek canyon.  About 70 miles as the crow flies.





Looking north over a hill in the Hogups toward
Bull Mountain and the east-west running Raft River
Mountains:



Looking south over the Hogup foothills toward Desert Peak.

SW view of the north end of Newfoundland Mountains
 

Hogup Cave is not easy to find. 
You really need to know where to look.

8800 years of archeological history.



SW view of the Newfoundland Mountains.



 



Dust devil across the playa looking at the Grouse Creek Mountains.