Devil's Playground WSA

If a mountain of badlands with biblically old junipers trips your trigger than Devil’s Playground may be your favorite WSA. It looks big from the highway, but it is bigger than it looks. As you hike up the thing, the badlands will be revealed as more extensive than they seemed from your car seat.

Look closely at the ground. Rockhounds will think they shed their mortal bodies and flew off to where the good rocks go when they die. The rocks are amazing, even for people that don’t like rocks. This area is near tiger chert deposits, which was favored by native peoples for various tools. Tiger chert only occurs in this region of the world, yet artifacts have been found throughout the West. So, it must have been widely traded, or just carried around on long rambles.

Adjacent to the WSA is the Pine Springs Archaeological site. This area shows signs of human use going back about 10,000 years (link to the pub here). It is a good spot, there is water and a view and lots of chert to work. You may see a lot of broken chert near the site that appears to be debitage—a fancy word for the refuse (lithic debris) associated with working stone into tools. Of course, you should not take this stuff home as some future archaeologist might learn something interesting from it.

Access

Find the Flaming Gorge Reservoir on a map and look west of the gorge. You can get to Devil’s Playground and the neighboring Twin Buttes WSA from Highway 530, which runs south out of Green River. Just look for jeep tracks off that road towards the WSA to approach from the east. The roads out to the WSA are impassable when wet (I really mean it!).

To get right to the WSA boundary takes high-clearance the way I went, but medium clearance would get you within a few miles–and a pleasant walk it would be to go the rest of the way. You can also drive to Pine Springs Archaeological site with some clearance, though I have only walked part of that road, not driven it.

Safety

The little bit of water I saw looked like leftover milk from a bowl of fruit loops. I doubt drinking those minerals would be tasty, but if you are into self-experimentation, knock yourself out.

The badlands soil is pretty slippery and treacherous if has water in its grasp. It sticks to a rig like cement; don’t try to drive or walk in it.

Rattlesnakes. Lightning. Heat.

Infrastructure

None. No designated trails. There are scattered old jeep tracks you can follow if you want—one track has a shot-up toilet just set off to the side. This was way out in the WSA, so have fun looking for it. (The WSA is quite clean other than this Anthropocene erratic).

Inspiration