Lead Mine Hills and Provo Tufa

Salt Lake Field Office BLM

Wells Field Office BLM

(map link)

I wasn't satisfied with the hike up Mount Pisgah as a hike next to the alkaline desert because Ferguson Mountain sat there blocking a lot of the view. Meanwhile, there is tufa at the Provo level of Lake Bonneville and I was interested in seeing some of it. The only information I had for that was walk around and you'll find it. The Provo level was around 4740 feet, which is higher than Blue Lake, but lower than the top of the Lead Mine Hills. I found a spot to park at the fence for the Air Force bombing and gunnery range a little below 4400 feet and aimed at exploring my way toward the Ferguson benchmark at 5565 feet and then the high point at 5661 feet.

00: peak in the morning light — Ferguson benchmark at sunrise. Are any of these structures around its feet the Provo tufa?

02: gate and signs keeping folks out — USAF Bombing and Gunnery Range. I was pretty sure none of my peaks were within this since it ends pretty quickly. Expecting this part doesn't get much use since the county road to the east goes right through it with fencing on both sides.

The fence for the Air Force reservation just ends next to a quarter section corner at the state line, at which point I got distracted by the potential of finding a state line marker.

04: post in front of mountains — A post marks the state line a few miles south of Wendover and Pilot Peak

05: fat benchmark — Monument 58 along the Nevada and Utah border, set 1971

06: rock ledges — Hills with old shoreline evidence

07: little stiff flowers along a stem — Flowers! It's saltwort, which is a tumbleweed

I got to climbing to the white slopes that appear to be just below the level of ancient shoreline in my search for 14-15k year old tufa. The search is made a bit harder by not knowing exactly what I'm looking for. I found a thesis using tufa to estimate historic fault line slip rates which included some locations (not particularly nearby) and a picture. It's probably not the white slopes.

08: ridge of rock — Climbing toward old shoreline

09: layered rock chunks — Tufa of 14k years ago? Lake bottom thingies, certainly, and the top could be tufa

I thought I saw some caves and went over to investigate.

13: hole in the rock — Found an arch instead of a cave

The arch was just the start of cool stuff. There's all sorts of crystals that have formed along the edges of rock domains. Pretty certain it's not old tufa, but it is part of being at the bottom of an alkaline lake. (Although it wasn't particularly alkaline until it shrank.) Or maybe it's just gypsum. I made sure it wasn't going to burn and decided to taste it, but it didn't taste of much. Certainly no sharp salt sensation. There's even better, cooler crystals along the rock ledge near the arch.

15: blue, red, and white rocks with crystaline 'mortar' — A great variety of rocks found in a small space

19: structure of the arch — A little of the structure of the arch from the back

20: rocks with facets — Closer look at the crystalline rocks

21: lines of red and white around rocks of blue — Red, white, and blue

That all is maybe at the edge of the lake, which means the tufa should be downhill. I wandered off toward what I thought might be tufa just a little bit lower.

23: block of funny looking rock — Provo tufa? It looks like the stuff in the picture I found

The Provo tufa will never get a crowd of photographers out for the sunrise that can be found at Mono Lake. It's a soft rock and doesn't really stand the test of time so there are no turrets or other fun shapes.

24: bright flowers — Rabbitbush blooming away

26: little cave — Looking back to the shore where there's a small cave

27: shoreline — More of the old shoreline

30: oddities of rock — Another possible tufa rock, but less sure of this one

31: rocks and a pool in the distance — Across the rocks to Blue Lake

I took to finding my way closer to the Ferguson benchmark, but with no desire to get there directly. I wandered downward into an interesting gully with its own calcite formations, aiming to approach the peak from the east.

33: hill with a benchmark — The hill with the Ferguson benchmark

36: erosion patterns — Delightful and ephemeral erosion patterns

38: white spots — A different angle on Ferguson benchmark

41: white distance — A glance across the alkali desert

42: blue mountains — Goshute Mountains to the west

44: line of shore — The old Provo Shoreline?

47: bright oranges in greys — Bright lichens on possible old tufa (orange, yellow, and grey)

48: long spines, dark on the end — A lovely hedgehog cactus

50: expectations met — The sort of thing one expects looking for 14 thousand year old tufa

51: pillars and arch — More shoreline that might be interesting to visit, but its in the gunnery range

52: white plain — Leaving the ancient shoreline behind

54: benchmark — Found my benchmark: Ferguson

The last bit to the top got quite narrow and was very nearly sporting a trail. It's nice at the top with quite a lot of view.

55: spots of water — Looking back over Blue Lake and nearby ponds and salt springs to the alkali desert

56: peaks along the edge of the desert — Off to the southeast along the edge of the desert

57: higher bumps to southwest — The high point of Lead Mine Hills

I traced the last part of my route back down, then picked a convenient ridge to continue along to the high point. I decided to swing around to the left to go up it, too.

62: cliffs along the edge — Not all hills are as easy, so I skipped going up this slope

63: peaks to the north — Looking back to the benchmark and Pilot Peak in the distance

65: flat of land — Again along the ancient shoreline

68: blind arches in the cliffs — The rock sure likes to form arches, blind and otherwise

69: little arch — Just a little arch to play with close up

72: close peak with other peaks behind — Almost there! High point of the hills and of the day just ahead

74: rabbitbush getting service — A bee fly making its way through the rabbitbush flowers

I found prospects and junipers as I neared the top. Just tall enough for junipers! Except they actually stretch quite far down the west side of the mountain. I wonder why that is although the answer is always water. West sides tend to be drier because they get the direct sun when the day is hotter, all other things being equal. Here, rain comes from the west and the east tends to be in a rain shadow, so all things aren't equal.

76: large panorama that needs a control+click, then use the zoom options to really see it — All 360° of view rendered too small to see. (But clicking will carry you to a page that can fix that.)

77: peak that sticks up quite high over everything else — Some highlights: Pilot Peak and Wendover among the Leppy Hills

78: more mountains and such — Ferguson Mountain (center left) and Goshute Peak (center right) which is higher than that one on the right by a few hundred feet no matter what it looks like from here

79: peaks and geology and such — Peaks to the south and a line of white cliffs like the ones I passed on the way up

80: peak and desert and such — Looking back to the Ferguson benchmark and the alkali desert beyond

After a time enjoying the high point, I rolled down the other side, into a gully that I figured would be a good start to looping my way back to the car and seeing new bits of geology it would be nice to ask someone about. Maybe I should bug a geologist I know not too far off in Salt Lake.

82: rounds of green in a layered valley — Junipers stretching down the west side valley

Also growing in the bottom of the valley were these plants full of flowers on long stems. They had been blown into wonderful swirls by the wind and were mildly fascinating. Turns out, they're known as saltlover, which is a type of Russian thistle. Which is to say, it's tumbleweed.

83: stems full of flowers — A magnificence of flowers! This saltlover is another type of tumbleweed

I found another selection of little caves. Wave caves? They seem a little high for that, at least for being from the Provo shore, but they do come up at a similar elevation. There's a lot of fainter lines all around here anyway.

84: overhangs and caves — A small selection of caves along the way

After the caves, I got distracted with benchmarks again. There was a PLSS corner on a hillside to the east, so I wandered over there. Apparently I went directly north from there, because I practically tripped over a quarter section corner that wasn't marked on my map as I made my way toward another gully through the white layer. All were the same 1971 set.

88: weather moving in — Easy travel out here where there may be some weather moving in

89: line of dark rocks — Aiming at the left edge of the dark rocks ahead since they tend to have cliffs on the far side

93: white layer erosion — Standing at the top of the top of the erosion through the white layer

Getting down the chalky layer took a little attention. I stuck to the ridges of the gully for a bit. The bottom curves around nearly onto itself over and over again. Eventually, I had to drop down into it and just follow those curves. It mellows out toward the end.

94: small land slide — Blocks fallen out of one wall

95: small structures in white — Nearly to the end of the white layer

96: rocks in the landscape — Looking back at some of the ridges that do have cliffs on this side

98: moon over cave — There's a moon over another cave

99: Ferguson benchmark — The peak with the Ferguson benchmark

I got distracted again with finding a closing corner along the state line. I found that, but not a benchmark that is supposed to be next to the road. One last distraction were some "ruins" marked along the road. They would have been another valid place to park.

101: green among brown — A green spot marks a close place where there is water

102: rocks roughly in a square — The ruin shows no hints as what it was, but it was recent enough to include concrete

Then I strode on down the road to finish the loop. I went out searching for some tufa. I think I found it, but there's so much more too. This scratched that itch to hike next to the alkali desert while offering plenty of other things to discover.

*Lake Bonneville photo album*

©2022 Valerie Norton
Written 12 Dec 2022

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