Fish Springs in Utah desert

I've never been to Fish Springs but am thinking about making a trip next week and would appreciate any pointers about the place.  It's not easy to get to and the quickest route for me coming from SLC would require about 75 miles of dirt roads each way.  The route with the least amount of dirt roads coming from near Delta still requires about 23 miles of dirt roads each way.  My plan is to take the longer route to Delta to reduce the mileage on dirt roads.  I should mention my car is a 2012 Ford Focus so it's not exactly an off road vehicle.

I'm also thinking about camping near the place as in order to have both sunrise and sunset it would require leaving Delta 2 hours early and navigating the dirt roads more often.  So, if I camp a few miles away in the desert I'd save a lot of time and wear and tear on my car.

But, getting back to the topic at hand, is there anything special I need to be aware of at Fish Springs?  I guess it's possible that no one at NS has ever been to Fish Springs...


Brian 

It is an interesting place if you have the right attitude. Kind of like sharing a tent with a porcupine it is unique enough that it doesn't work for a lot of people. I wouldn't try it in a ford focus if it has been raining, the roads can get really bad. It has been about 15 years since I was there but the road from Delta was by far the worst at that time, you may want to research that. Salt Lake to the old Pony Express trail/road is better maintained I think. If you go a little beyond Fish springs(west) there is a little place I would camp with the family right on the south edge of the Salt Flats. There are some very small fresh water springs that bubble up on the slat flats and make interesting spots of life. If you don't like dirt roads not sure this is a good destination, if you like dirt roads it is a great place. I can't make it that way for a few weeks but if you get delayed let me know, I would be game to go and I have a higher clearance vehicle we could take. These are the two most common approaches.

To get there: take the I-80 west from Salt Lake City to exit 99 (Utah Highway 36). Follow Highway 36 south for about 40 miles to the junction with the Pony Express Trail Back Country Byway, just east of Faust. Take the right and follow that dirt road for about 61 miles to the Fish Springs NWR entrance.

From Delta: go north on US Highway 6 to Utah Highway 174. Go left on Highway 174 for 42 miles to the end of the pavement, and keep going another 15 miles to the junction with the Pony Express Trail Back Country Byway. Go left about 3/4 miles to the refuge entrance. The Refuge Headquarters is about 7 miles in from the east entrance. The refuge office is open 7 am to 4:30 pm Monday to Friday.

Not been there. Worth mentioning (or repeating) is how unforgiving the desert can be on your need to keep warm and hydrated, your tires, etc. Have a cell phone that works in that area.
Good Luck

Good points and I should mention that I'm not afraid of dirt roads and in fact put about 750 miles of dirt roads on my previous car, a 2004 Toyota Matrix, including driving the entire stretch of Cottonwood Canyon Road.

Actually, the experience of 15 years ago may have been that the northern route of the Pony Express was better, but most of the road from Delta is paved leaving only 23 miles of dirt roads and that's more than 50 miles less than the Pony Express route. The park information also indicates the Delta route is much preferred. The Delta route is on Brush Wellman Road also known as UT-174.

As to preparations ... in addition to the basic kit I always have in the car with tools and a first aid kit I'd be bringing cold weather clothes, a sleeping bag and tent, gallons of water, food, GPS and smartphone. I don't anticipate cell service but there is a maned office at (39 50' 20.72" N, 113 23' 50.65" W).

I'm planning to head out there early next week, perhaps Tuesday. Plan to stay one or two night depending on conditions and value.


Brian

Let us know how it goes, I have wanted to get down there again. It is a great place for migratory birds not just fowl especially in the spring time. I think there is a lot of potential for night shots on the salt flats in that area. Glad to hear they have an improved road going in there in a way, but I like how dirt roads keep the masses away some times.

Yeah,I'm thinking of bringing my telescope and mount and doing a sequence with the camera on a tripod to show the movement of the Milky Way -- I'm thinking this should be a really dark sky area...

The weather may change, but it looks like 70's in the daytime and 50's at night -- no problem at all.

Will update when I confirm I'm leaving and probably not until I get back as I don't expect any cell service out there.


Brian

OK, didn't leave today but I expect to leave tomorrow morning.  I'd planned to take my telescope and mount, but given the amount of stuff including camping gear there just isn't enough room in my Focus so -- not this time...

Looks like the weather should be fine through Friday and that's likely when I'll be returning so -- no problem.


Brian

Well I got back last night so here's my update...

First, I did take the long route by first heading to Delta then taking the paved road, 174, about 50 miles then travelling the remaining 21 miles on dirt roads.  The dirt road was mostly pretty good condition with a few sketchier sections including one section about 1.5 miles long that was not bad but not good.  Anyway, this route limited the travel on dirt roads to 21 miles.

As I neared Fish Springs I noticed that the ponds that appeared on the map didn't seem to be filled with water and were instead dry.  The approach is at the south end of the preserve and it became apparent later on that the south end was mostly dry while the north end was wet.  The preserve itself was almost 100% ducks and very few other birds.  I've not had great luck with ducks as they don't do many blastoffs like Snow Geese and they tend to move away from people by flapping there wings and paddling away a hundred feet or so. So you get smallish birds mostly far away.  

At the north end I came upon a Coyote very close to the road and not very disturbed by my proximity.  Got some nice shots of him.  The following day I came upon a pair of Coyote's and as the location was bordered on both sides by water the dogs kind of panicked and ran away from me following the road.  I followed, at a distance, at about 20mph for about a mile when one of them, I think the female, took a right at a junction.  I continued on the straight road and after another quarter mile the male turned off to the right and stopped about 150 feet from the road.  I think the male was the same one as the day before but I don't know for sure.

After a while of shooting with the preserve to myself I headed west to look for a place to camp for the night.  You can't camp within the park so I continued west towards the nearest town of Callao and found a place about 9 miles from the preserve entrance to stop.  I setup my tent and campsite and prepared dinner.  As the Sun was setting I setup my tripods and cameras with remote timer release and waited for nightfall to shoot the Milky Way.  One thing that is quite magical about places in the desert and away from people is the ... quiet, I mean absolute quiet.  This first night I used a 35mm lens on my D800E at ISO800 and f/1.8 with subs of 28 seconds and 30 second intervals -- upon review I needed more exposure.

The next morning I decided to head to Callao instead of the preserve and 16 miles later I came upon a fairly typical small population farming/ranching community with a number of old or abandoned homes of some interest.  I'd barely gotten out of my car to shoot one such abandoned home when a man on an ATV came to me with his dog following.  We chatted for a couple minutes and I came to suspect he was mostly just checking to see who the outsider was.  Thankfully I did not hear the theme song from Deliverance in the background and a few minutes later I was on my way.  There was no Starbucks to stop for coffee...

I then proceeded back to the preserve and photographed the remaining hours of the morning then decided to head towards the Geode Beds some 18 miles east of the preserve.  I actually missed it on the way out and a couple miles later I came upon a steep downhill section with some nice views to the east.  Took some pictures there then continued downhill and east another couple miles before deciding the road was nastier than I wanted. I turned around at that point then headed back to the preserve and along the way finally found the sign for the Geode Beds.  I turned in and was hoping to be able to do a short hike, but the hike was longer than I felt I could manage as I'm still recovering from the cycling injury in June.  Took some pics then headed back to the preserve for some more pics before heading back to the camp before sunset.

Shortly after sunset and before it was dark I heard a sound from the north-north-east and when I turned to look I saw an aircraft flying low and fast at a heading of about 210 degrees.  He was really honking as the sound was really behind him and he appeared to be about 500-1000 AGL.  Since I was taken by surprise and it was getting dark I couldn't clearly see what type of aircraft but it was a largish swing-wing plane so that would either be an F-111 or a B-1B.  About 10 minutes later another aircraft of the same type flew past following the same route.  I'm guessing they were either out of Dugway or Hill AFB.

I did some more night photography but this time using my Zeiss 21mm lens at f/2.8.  This time I used ISO3200 and subs of 23 seconds at 25 second intervals and this nicely exposed the Milky Way.  Unfortunately there was some clouds so the opportunity wasn't ideal.  I need to see how PS can convert a series of photos into video at HD and/or 4K resolution.  Any pointers here would be appreciated.

So, in summary, the preserve at this time was limited to mostly ducks and a good portion of it is dry.  It's obvious that there's been a lot of man-made alteration to the preserve as evidenced by many linear canals and the presence of large earth moving equipment.  I'm guessing that they've isolated the southern portion keeping it dry to maintain deeper ponds to the north.  I don't know that the trip to the preserve itself would warrant a return trip, but being in the middle of nowhere has a certain charm and ... quiet!


Brian

Well I just uploaded my first attempt at creating a time lapse of the Milky Way from the desert near Fish Springs preserve.  Sadly, encoding/uploading for Youtube robs detail and the first few seconds look kind of blocky.  There were clouds that effected the shot and can be seen in the video.  Interestingly, at about 2 seconds an aircraft flies from right to left and a couple seconds later its contrail can be seen as a linear cloud.  Also note the light moving from center right at the bottom to the right during the first four seconds -- I calculate it was a car or truck driving about 14 miles in 22 minutes and ending up near Callao Utah.

The time lapse was captured at f/2.8 with duration of 23 seconds and 25 second intervals with an ISO3200 setting.  I'd tried other time lapse's but found I needed more exposure.  Increasing the duration at 21mm focal length would result in more noticeable ovaling of the stars due to rotation of the Earth so instead I increased the ISO to 3200 so that duration could be kept lower.  The new Sigma 20mm f/1.4 would be a great help here by being able to use a wider aperture and thus a shorter duration.

The clouds visible also seem to effect the color/exposure and result in some breathing of the image during the time lapse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeD-CEkhpoE


Brian