#Fantasy valley utah full#
This report is based on statements from police, emergency personnel or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. However, the fire restrictions on all federally administered public lands, state lands and unincorporated private lands in southwest Utah were lifted Friday following an announcement from the Color Country Interagency Fire Center. Four crews, seven smoke jumpers and a water dropping helicopter are responding to the blaze.ĭixie National Forest Service closed the Oak Grove Campground and the upper end of Browse Road on June 16 due to extreme fire hazard. Forest Service and the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands. The response has gathered resources from several agencies, including the U.S. 29, 6:40 p.m.Utah Fire Info estimated that the fire has grown to over 200 acres and no containment at this time. The fire was human caused by an unattended campfire, and an investigation is ongoing. George NewĪccording to information published on the Utah government’s fire website, the blaze was initially listed at 15-20 acres. 29, 2021 | Photo courtesy of Sandra Houston Given, St. Thick plumes of smoke from the Oak Grove fire, location unspecified, Aug. on Sunday, prompting an evacuation for campers as firefighters worked to contain the burn. GEORGE - A fire broke out near the Oak Grove Campground at approximately 2:45 p.m. Stewart, goes on to explain that the coyotes, eagles, wild horses and other spiritual forces summoned the North God, who froze the evil creatures: "The Devil Chief, the Great Mother Witch, the magician and all the rest stand there just as they stood at the instant the cold struck long ago.ST. The story, as written out by interviewer George E. They dug and the ground trembled and rumbled in their work." "One day, the story goes, the evil creatures of the nether regions, tired of living in the dark and dank, decided to dig up to the surface and take over everything above and below the earth. It always starts with just one hole in the ground.Ī Ute legend about Fantasy Canyon, told in 1972 by Muse Harris (aka Chief Red Moose) and printed for display on the trailhead kiosk, was either brilliantly prescient or a masterwork in shade: The wilderness is long gone.īut I think Fantasy Canyon can be instructive as we look at potential development on other sensitive sites around Utah.
#Fantasy valley utah Patch#
If all industry were to suddenly stop in its tracks, this patch of desert would bear its marks for a very long time. The development here is overwhelming, with roads criss-crossing each other in city-like density. Other hikers have reported noise during the day and bright lights through the night. Our modern world exacts some losses the land around Fantasy Canyon is one of them. Oil and gas extraction is the long-established (if somewhat unstable) center of the Uintah Basin's economy. There is so much there - trucks, production tanks, warning signs - that it is hard to even envision the place as wild, and that blunts the grief I normally feel when I see human activity blighting natural beauty. The landscape is strewn with wellheads and pipes, and while the BLM appears to have kept them out of direct sightlines from the canyon itself, the hike to the top offers a vista that is mostly industrial. A map at the trailhead puts image-in-the-clouds labels on various rocks - such as "diving otter," "Mickey Mouse" and "yawning lady" - and corresponding numbered markers can be found along the trail.Īnother difference between Fantasy Canyon and Goblin Valley: the scores of drilling operations in the immediate vicinity. Utah Valley is a better blocking team than Texas A&M, Marquette stopped Hawaii at the net with their big block. I think the rock formations at Fantasy are even more intricate and beautiful. Some of the sandstone was harder than the surrounding rock, which weathered at various rates and produced the squiggly formations of Fantasy Canyon.įantasy Canyon is often compared to Goblin Valley, though the area is more compact and the rock at Fantasy is badlands gray rather than the warm orange of southern Utah.
That's about how long ago sandstone, siltstone and shale began to form at the shore of the ancient Lake Uinta, according to geologists with the U.S. Ghoulish formations of sandstone are caught in writhing poses like still frames from a 50 million-year-old reel of film. It is … well, an extremely pretty thing in a natural gas field. Fantasy Canyon is not quite literally a diamond in a coal mine.