Lucin Latilong

August 6, 1998

Merrill and I went to the RAC meeting in Salt Lake City, where Merrill was a member of the RAC. Following the meeting, he and I drove up to the Raft River Range in the north west corner of Utah, arriving at Clear Creek Campground at about 11:30 pm. There, waiting for us were Reed and his brother, Kay, who had agreed to go on this birding trip with us, except, they were sound asleep in Reed's pop-up trailer.

Merrill and I set up our tents and laid down, and were put to sleep by a nearby stream. The morning came early; we arose around 5:30 and prepared for the day's birding.

Reed and Kay reported that they had had trouble finding how to get to the Clear Creek Campground, until they spoke with a local who told them of the road paralleling the state line a mile into Idaho. Reed had taken a map that stopped at the state line and only showed the Utah roads.

The Raft River Range is a 25 mile long range of mountains that runs east and west in Utah south of Strevell Idaho. The mountain peaks range from 7000 feet to almost 10,000 feet, although the higher reaches are only accessible via 4 wheel drive over very rugged roads. The Clear Creek Campground is a little used camp with 6 group camp sites situated amid the trees along a short dirt road. Our camp was directly across from a nice toilet facility, against a tributary of Clear Creek. On Thursday night we were alone in the campground, but Friday there were 2 or 3 others hidden from us by the dense vegetation. The roads to the camp ground were quite good and easily passable by a normal automobile.

August 7, 1998

After breakfast, we birded around the camp early in the morning, walking to a shrub and sagebrush flat above the campground then up the main road, finding many small birds. Then we drove out of the Clear Creek Canyon, into Idaho and headed for Yost.

Merrill told us that Yost was the largest incorporated town in Utah, having incorporated all the surrounding countryside, making it larger than the incorporated area of Salt Lake City. No matter how big the incorporated land area was, Yost is a very small town, with farm houses scattered all around and a downtown consisting of an old school, several dusty streets and a half dozen houses.

On entering Utah headed for Yost, we encountered a University of Idaho vehicle with a huge radio antenna on the top, manned (?) by a young lady. She told us she was tracking mountain lions in the Raft River Mountains, there being about 3 or 4 there with an occasional stray coming from a near by range. This was interesting to me since the main topic of discussion the night before at the RAC meeting was Mountain Lion Hunting.

We drove through Yost and headed up Johnson Canyon, a place mentioned by McIvor in his book, Birding Utah. We continued several miles up the canyon but did not find anything memorable, but found a nice grassy area to have lunch in.

Returning to Yost, we went west through the Upper Raft River Valley, over a hill and down into Junction Valley where we drove south to Lynn Reservoir and saw a number of shore birds and waterfowl.

Then we drove up and over Dove Creek Pass and down toward Rosette and Park Valley, where Reed and Kay bought Gas.

The clouds were gathering around the mountain tops and lightning was thundering greatly. We drive back to Clear Creek Campground by way of Curlew Junction, seeing a large number of Common Nighthawks. Birding around the campground that evening was unrewarding.

Our tents provided protection from the storm that night and we arose early to continue birding. Reed and Kay decided to return home early following I-84 and I-15 back to Provo, while Merrill and I determined we would travel south to Wendover to see what lay next to the Salt Flats.

August 8, 1998

We left the campground and headed for Curlew Junction, where Highway 30 turns south off from Highway 42, and went to Park Valley to buy some gas. The gas station in Park Valley is the only gas station between Snowville Utah and whatever the town is in Nevada. We were early and the Park Valley gas station was closed, leaving the Nevada station as the next logical choice since it was almost on our way.

We drove south on highway 30 to Grouse Creek Junction where we turned south on a dirt road 6 miles to Lucin trying to get there fairly early. Here we parked under a tree and glassed the area carefully and quietly, until a train came rumbling through, shattering the silence. We then crossed the tracks and walked over to Lucin, a pond ringed by Box Elder trees, where a Great Blue Heron lifted off only to settle down about a quarter mile away on a low sagebrush covered ridge, patiently waiting our departure.

We were disappointed by Lucin; the pond was much smaller than reported by McIvor and it wasn't as 'birdy' as we expected. Indeed, Lucin is an oasis in the desert, there is nothing but sage, salt grass and low shrub for miles in any direction. But we did not find much there. Perhaps it was the August date, past the breeding season and before the migration.

We returned to Highway 30 and headed west to Montello, Nevada for fuel, about 11 miles past the state line. With a full tank of gas, we headed back into Utah looking for Devil's Playground, a birding area reported by McIvor's book, at about mile 20 on Highway 30. The dirt road was rutted and quite rugged, much rougher than a car should drive on, but we continued up the road until we were well into the Pinyon-Junipers. We ate lunch here, then took a walk further up the old road, finally finding Juniper Titmouse. We heard Pinyon Jay and saw the glint of the sun off several in the distance, but otherwise, the spot was not productive.

Returning to Highway 30, we drove north to mile 34 then turned west toward a small farm building next to a large tree-lined pond. This pond was very productive, yielding some ducks, shorebirds, a Sora and a Virginia Rail.

It was getting late and we needed to get to Wendover to begin our trip home, so we returned to Grouse Creek Junction and headed south, passing Lucin and continuing along the salt flats. Every so often we would pass a lonely farm house causing us to wonder about the lonesome life lived remotely in the desert. Watching our mileage carefully, we began to approach the Box Elder County line, when we came to a beautiful ranch bordering the salt flats. The grass was green right to the edge of the flats, and there was a nice pond a quarter mile from the road. Stopping and pulling out the scopes, we were thrilled to find a Long-billed Dowitcher and Redhead Duck. About 20 miles more and we were at Wendover where we refueled and headed for home. The trip would have been uneventful but for some heavy rain that all but obscured the highway.

All in all Merrill saw over 80 species of birds in this lonesome corner of the state, almost a record for the latilong. Not being as fast and experienced as Merrill, I saw 73 species, still a great count.