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A long overdue trip to Indian Creek happened last weekend. We spent 3 days and of course got worked. Always a humbling experience out there. I was disappointed by the new influx of the moto crowd. They were riding well into the evening which kind of takes away some of the amazingness of the place at night.
We ventured out for the holiday weekend. Opting to stay relatively close, we went to the west desert of Utah again. Fortunately, a front was planned to pass through Utah on Friday afternoon and evening and make temperatures very pleasant in the desert for this time of year. Leaving Friday afternoon after packing up the van we got passed Nephi and started to hit some gusty winds and foreboding looking clouds. The clouds turned out to be a dust storm and not much rain. Driving wasn’t too bad though it was a bit dark and the cross gusts kept me alert at the wheel.
Carly and I took off Friday morning for a long weekend to explore a new area for us, the West Desert of Utah. The area is huge and doesn’t have many people in it. The area is part of the Basin and Range topology that spans both sides of the border with Nevada. This area is characterized by mountain ranges, usually north-south running, and flat desert areas in between. The topography is such that their are rarely any outlets to the rivers and stream drainages. The water that falls in the mountains as rain or snow will only travel to the basins only to dry up. This is easy to understand when you see the landscape adjacent to the Ibex climbing area. It is a large dry lake bed that does at times hold a water, but most of the time is a hard smooth and flat surface.
Another fine weekend in St. George with friends. For not rock climbing outside since Thanksgiving (with the same crew coincidentally) I actually felt pretty good. Unfortunately Sunday we didn’t get too much climbing in due to an obligation back in SLC.
November 21-25, 2018
Once again we traveled to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving with friends and climbing. With the long drive, made longer by the traffic, I had time to think about the number of Thanksgivings I’ve spent in Red Rocks since moving to Utah–of the seven holidays I think all but two have been in Red Rocks.
This time we upped the comfort factor and stayed in a hotel with some friends. While the location was close to the strip which made for a longer commute into the climbing areas, it did come with the convenience of being in the city versus our usual primitive camping area.
We had good weather and climbed a bit of cragging Thursday, alpine days Friday and Saturday, then a bouldering day in St. George on the way home to Salt Lake. Good times and great friends.
![The artistic \"through the bushes shot.\"](https://www.petewilk.com/nextGen-gallery/2018-thanksgiving/2018-11-22_36970.jpg "The artistic \\"through the bushes shot.\\"")
