West Desert Sinkhole
- Alex Cabrero
- Mar 30
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 7
(West Desert near Delta) If you have ever wondered what might be hiding out in Utah’s West Desert, besides sagebrush, dust, and the occasional jackrabbit with trust issues, let me introduce you to one of its strangest oddities: the West Desert Sinkhole.
I first read about this odd geologic hole a couple of months ago and immediately thought, well that looks weird. I should probably go there. So, when I had a free Sunday open with no real responsibilities, Aspen and I loaded up the Jeep and headed west. It turns out, I wasn’t the only one intrigued about a sinkhole in the desert. My sister-in-law Sunnie, her daughter Tailie, and my nephew Stetson with his girlfriend Hannah were already in the general area doing something else for the company Stetson works for, so they all decided to tag along with me. Because nothing brings family together like a giant hole in the ground in the middle of nowhere.
The drive is what you would expect from the West Desert. It was bumpy, dusty, and beautiful in its own wild way. Aspen loved it. Especially when we had to drive through a herd of sheep baaa-ing the whole time. Sunnie's Jeep Wrangler and Stetson’s Toyota Tacoma was a nice site behind me. I knew that if something went wrong, I had immediate help. It was about 15 miles or so off of Hwy 50/6 roughly 30 miles west of Delta. There are several different dirt roads to get there, but once you get on the final road (called appropriately enough West Desert Sinkhole Road), it's the only road that takes you to the sinkhole. It dead ends there. By the time we reached the sinkhole, we felt like we had stumbled across something that is quite the mystery.
It's surrounded by a barbed-wire fence on all sides, which makes sense because if there wasn't a fence and you were just driving along, there's a good chance you wouldn't see it until it was too late. Especially at night. So what is this thing? The West Desert Sinkhole is about 80 feet across and it must be at least 100 feet deep. It feels even more so when you're creeping toward the edge to have a look down because you can't really see the bottom from some spots. Be careful getting close to the edge because, as you look to the other side of the hold, you can see where the land is over the hole and erosion is making it unsafe at the edge.
The walls are steep and jagged, the air is still, and there’s a haunting kind of quiet about this place. There's even an old ladder at the bottom, which makes you wonder if someone had tried to climb down... or if someone was stuck at the bottom and was trying to climb out. Yikes!
It’s one of those places where history, geology, and total randomness all come together. And unless you know it’s there, it would be easy to drive right past it without a second glance. It's a great spot to have a little picnic and just listen to the silence. There are no crowds, no tour buses, and no worries. Except for falling in, of course. It's just a weird hold in the desert that will force you to come up with your own theories about what happened here.
Would I go again? Absolutely. Would I camp there overnight? Not unless the ghost of a lost miner promised to keep the coyotes and snakes away. This is certainly worth a trip out there just to see it and ponder. A high-clearance vehicle is recommended, especially if it has been raining or snowing. Cell service is tricky, so download maps ahead of time or bring a paper map. And bring plenty of snacks and water. When you're done, you can tell your buddies you went to see a hole in the ground.
Here are the coordinates and location from Google Maps.
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