Lucin Latilong

September 7, 1998

We had come so close to matching the latilong record for the north western corner of Utah, that it begged to be broken, so Merrill and I determined we would return to the area for an intensive day to see if we could best the old record. I picked Merrill up at 3:00 am and we headed for Wendover, driving up I-15 then west on I-80. We got to Wendover at about 7:30 am, refueled and turned north on the dirt road.

We arrived at the Beefmaster Ranch at 8:00 am, and found to our happiness, that the ranch is a model of anti-hunting and environmental concern and is open for interested people to wander around. We spoke with the ranch foreman who gave us the nod. Birding was good, with the best bird seen being a Northern Waterthrush, high in a tree, a most unlikely place.

Next we hurried north to Lucin, again being disappointed although we did see a dozen good bird species. We continued north through the Grouse Creek Junction on Highway 30, and continued on to Grouse Creek. Here we stopped at the 'Grouse Creek Mall' where the T-shirt proclaimed "Grouse Creek Mall Has It All". The 'Mall' consisted of a single 'L' shaped room no more than 15 feet on a side. Here, we ate lunch under the trees in the school yard, enjoying the moment, until Merrill noticed we had a flat tire. The spare was low, but fortunately, the store had a service station with an air pump. A squirt of air and we were on our way.

We backtracked a little and drove west to the Etna Reservoir where we saw 7 species, nothing special. We continued north through Grouse Creek, not having seen any Grouse, up and over the hills past Lynn and on to Yost, where we then went up George Creek. On this road, we climbed to about 6500 feet, and came to a grove of Ponderosa Pine. Here we found Red-breasted Nuthatch and Clarks Nutcrackers. This forest road climbs up east of Yost, then descends quickly to Standrod, right on the Idaho border.

The day was almost done but we were about 3 hours from home, so we drove to Highway 42, then to I-84 and on to I-15, and home, with a full day and enough birds to break the latilong record.

Click here for a list of the birds seen.