Dugway Geode Beds | 12 Utah Staycations

If you've been following The Salt Project for a while, you know that Harmony loves rocks. Like, a lot. So this RV Staycation's main focus was rockhounding! We had two main spots to visit, the Dugway Geode Beds and U-Dig in Delta. The Dugway Geode Beds are on BLM land and it's free to the public to go and dig!

The only hard part is that the Dugway Geode Beds are 51 miles on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Not really hard, you just have to be committed. While the road is long and bumpy you do get to pass along the historic Pony Express Trail. It's super crazy to think about how people had to ride horses across states just to get the mail out. 

You may even see some wild horses. Can you see the tiny one in the middle of the field?

After 50 miles of riding a crazy road, we finally made it to the Geode Dugway Signs. We were literally two miles away from the dugway beds but we had one problem, we couldn't take the RVs any further. (This is where Harmony started freaking out.) The roads were pretty bad at this point and while Harmony would have totally tried taking the RVs, she was outvoted. (It's fine, it really was for the best.)

While the husbands settled the RVs in, Stephanie had the brilliant idea of hitchhiking to the geode beds. Now, this might sound crazy, I'll admit, but since it was UEA weekend and there happened to be some kind of race going on, there was a lot of traffic coming in. Harmony tried her luck with one person, who kindly told her no. (Story of her life.) While Stephanie found a couple who had an empty van and was happy to take some hitchhikers to the Geode Beds!!

It did feel extremely odd to take children along with us while hitchhiking...luckily, Kristi and her husband were very nice and had an empty van. 

If you knew the amount of joy these rocks could give... Harmony was in heaven. HEAVEN. 

So was everyone else. The Geodes were EVERYWHERE! There were cracked geodes, albeit small, but lovely, shiny, beautiful crystals nonetheless. 

It was hard not to keep EVERY single rock you found. 

We just remembered to grab grocery bags right before hopping into a stranger's car, but it was a good idea to bring the bags. 

Harmony did bring a pickax, which came in very handy. (It was hard to share just the one pickax though, bring a few to share.) 

Harmony even had a rock pick (like this one) but couldn't find it before we left. (Insert crying face.)

Orion (5) loved the pickax and was able to dig out some good size geodes. 

He worked that dirt. He was bound and determined to get a large rock/geode.

In the middle of the pit was a muddy pond. Of course, we had to throw some rocks in the water. 

So what does a geode look like? While we aren't 100% positive, we looked for more roundish rocks, that could feel a little lighter (haha) and hoped that we picked some good ones. 

We spent about 40 minutes digging around in the dirt. They were magical, just plain magical moments digging.

Thanks to Kristi and her husband (whom we'll call Ironman because he was there for a 50-mile Ironman Pony Express Race) for taking this motley crew out and fulfilling Harmony's dreams of rockhounding! Once we got back to the RVs we put our rocks aside to crack open in the morning. 

This is about the point that Harmony lost her phone. She lost her phone because it dropped out of her pocket while hitchhiking. In the van. Goodbye phone. 

We'll be sharing about camping at the Geode Beds Parking Lot next! Have you entered our epic RV Staycation Giveaway yet?