West to Pine Nuts

In the spirit of spontaneity, our little family took a day trip into the West Desert to go 4-wheeling with Bryson's parents and harvest some wild pine nuts. This road trip took us about 50 miles west of Milford-- pretty much the middle of nowhere. Once out of Milford, the only sign of life we spotted were some pelicans surrounding a little oasis, and a few antelope dashing through the brush.

Bryson: Look, Taylor! Out the window! What do you see?
Taylor: Oh! Cantaloupe!!!

We literally drove through two valleys with a whole lot of NOTHING before we reached our desired location. Seriously. As we drove though one of the valleys I counted one tree. ONE. I was beginning to question the sanity of the trip planners taking us to forage pine nuts in a land with no trees, but we kept following the directions on Bryson's GPS unit, which continued to instruct us to go "west to pine nuts!" And sure enough, eventually we came upon a pretty stretch of land full of cedars and the desired pinyon pines. Huzzah! : )

We spent the greater part of the day on our ATVs, cruising on trails through desert scenery one could paradoxically only describe as lush. Soon our trip became a treasure hunt of sorts as we began searching the pinyons for obliging cones. Due to environmental factors, the pine nut harvest was quite spotty this year. A couple promising looking areas turned up with nothing... quite. Taylor did discover an old, sun-bleached animal bone that he thought was extremely cool. He probably would have brought it home with him, if his mom hadn't intervened. : )


Bryson: Wow, Taylor, that's a neat bone. What are you going to do with it?
Taylor: I'm going to build a cow!

A while later we hit the jackpot, and found a tree with several cones ready for harvest. Later in the day we found another location with a good supply.

4-wheeling in the West Desert was a fantastic experience. Being surrounded by such stark beauty and having the wind fly past as you ride... It makes you so grateful to God for the glorious creations found in nature. I drove out into the desert expecting to find pine nuts. I didn't expect to find God. But I guess it shouldn't be such a big surprise...

"All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion... do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." - Alma 30:44