SUN TUNNELS

Our weekend adventure took us to the middle of nowhere...literally.  Our friend Dave picked us up in his truck on Friday night and we drove 3 1/2 hours to the ghost town of Lucin, Utah.  Just outside of this abandoned town is an artist installation called the sun tunnels.  This work of art was created by Nancy Holt, the wife of the Robert Smithson who created the spiral jetty.  The sun tunnels are four massive concrete tunnels arranged in an "X" configuration.  Each tunnel reacts differently to the sun and is aligned with the sunrise, sunset, or the summer or winter solstice.  Each tunnel has holes drilled that form each of the famous constellations. These four concrete tunnels are stunning in the desert landscape. 

We arrived just after the peak of the sunset and enjoyed sunset's tail end.  I found quite a bit of meaning in these four concrete tunnels.  Circles are symbols of eternity, unity, perfection, etc.  Few natural items in the environment are circular...but when we look at the desert through these concrete tunnels we are able to recognize the beauty and perfection in the world around us..  

It was windy and luckily we had packed our kite and were able to enjoy the wind.

It was so windy that we decided not to set up our tent and opted to set up camp in one of the sun tunnels.  I loved being protected from the wind yet still out in the open.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of the night stars.  I have never been so far away from a city and could not believe how big the sky looked.

Here is a shot from inside the tunnel just as the sun was beginning to make an appearance.

We cleaned out our tunnel around 5:30 am and then waited for the sunrise.

When it came it was spectacular.

This is my favorite picture from the day.

After the sun came up we ventured back to the abandoned railroad town of Lucin.  Lucin was founded in the late 19th century as a water stop for steam locomotives.  All that is left in Lucin is a spring and a few abandoned cellars.
 

We also explored a rock quarry near Lucin.

On our drive back through Wendover we stopped at Danger Cave...unfortunately someone deemed it a little too dangerous and gated it off.

Our last stop was the Bonneville Salt Flats.  We had a blast driving on them although the salt was a little to wet to really see how fast the truck could go...maybe next trip.