If You've Never Been to Ophir or Lakeside

If you've never been to Ophir and Lakeside, now's your chance. 

A little drive through Ophir, Utah. 

Welcome to Ophir. 

This is a mining town, after all. 

The town hall and fire station (I hope the fire truck is short). 

Some former homes of Ophir. 

The old post office.

The public restrooms. 

An old mining wagon. 

And a modern telephone. 

If you come to Ophir, and you decide to follow the sign at the foot of the dirt road up the side of the hill, this is the cemetery you'll come to. It was established in 1984. That's it. I was hoping to find an old cemetery, but I still don't know if there is one. 

That's all for Ophir. 

Go through Tooele and Grantsville and head west on I-80. Exit at Lakeside. After about 10 or 15 miles, the highway turns into a well-oiled dirt road that passes through this U.S. Air Force bombing range. The road has a gate that can be closed for "explosives demolition." So I'm not sure what really goes on here, demolition or bombing. Either way, stay on the road; don't wander past the barbed-wire fence. 

You'll come to an open-pit mine on what used to be the shore of the 

Great Salt Lake. The lake is mostly dried up here. Actually, you'll end up in the bottom of the open-pit mine. Visitors are supposed to check in with the mine superintendent, unless you come on a day when there's no one here. 

A stack of railroad rails. 

Now you have to look at pictures of our new car. This is my graduation present, and I love it. 

You're lucky I'm only posting four pictures. I have more. 

These rocks are what are being mined at Lakeside. They get loaded into the train cars, and that's all I know. I don't know if they're ground for minerals or used for landscaping. 

I know the owner's manual says "Your vehicle is not designed to be driven off-road. However, in the event that off-road driving cannot be avoided..." Sometimes it just can't be avoided.