One of the great things about living on the road is the ability to hear about our see something and go check it out. That’s exactly how we got to be where we are this week. When over by Valley of Fire State Park last week I could see a giant mountain in the distance. It’s Virgin Peak and with some internet research, we found it to be a fantastic area to check out. This week we’re over in Gold Butte National Monument boondocking and exploring…what we do best.
Our Hike
There aren’t a lot of official hiking trails out here in the Monument. Instead, you wander around and check stuff out. For this, the Alltrails app is a blessing because we can record our route so we are able to get back to the start. Our first hike was out, around, and through Little Finland, Mud Dunes, and Red Springs. The route was 6.7 miles of meandering, route finding, climbing, and exploring. These aren’t fast miles..our moving times was 3.5 hours.
Most of the area here requires 4wd because there are no paved roads. Everything is gravel and rocky making all drives slow going. We drove out to Mud Springs Road and started our hike by just walking towards all the red rock formations littered around. This is true wandering and we had the place to ourselves to explore. If you’re the kind of person that needs a trail to follow, with signs and mileage markers then this won’t be your cup of tea. There is none of that.
Little Finland
I am not sure why this area is called Little Finland. There is an enormous wonderland of red and orange mysteriously shaped rock formations. These conglomerations jut out at all angles dramatically with narrow fins and protrusions. Some look like giant chanterelle mushrooms, some look like spiky fireballs, one looked like an alligator, and some look just plain other worldly. We wandered and wandered craning our necks at all the oddities.
Mud Dunes and Red Springs
This area had bright red sand dunes piled up at the edge of the red rock area. The color creates quite a stark difference set against the backdrop of the ridges behind. Plopped down in the middle of the creosote and Joshua tree landscape, the red rocks and dunes made us feel like we were in a foreign country. Red Springs was dry, but with water flowing it would look pretty cool. To get to these we hiked out Mud Wash. The smooth red rocks once again contrasted with the white chalky terrain of Mud Wash.
What a first day!
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