Rock Springs ‘Desert Rats’ Know Wyoming’s Adobe Town Better Than Anybody

As John Vase drove his 1991 Toyota flatbed pickup along one of the countless two-tracks that cross the endlessness of southwest Wyoming’s high plains desert, he remarked that the vehicle has about only 110,000 miles on it.

That’s low milage for a 33-year-old vehicle, but “they’re rough miles. Most of them are from driving around out here,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

A reliable rig is a must-have out there in the middle of nowhere. All you’re going to have is what you take with you.

He and two other Rocks Springs residents, Kurt Hensley and Paul Ng, have been exploring the most remote reaches of southwest Wyoming for decades, calling themselves the “desert rats.”

They’ll sometimes go out alone, but prefer to travel together, usually taking at least two vehicles.

“If you break down out here, what the hell are you going to do?” Vase said with a wry laugh.

That’s especially true during the winter. Vase said he’ll occasionally put tire chains on his Toyota and dare a solo trek out into the emptiness. But at nearly 76, he realizes how risky that is.

“Fifteen or 20 years ago, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But now? Not so much,” he said.

Ng is also getting on in years. He’s 75. Hensley is the group’s youngster, at 62.

They credit the desert for their long-running vitality, swearing that it has rejuvenating powers.

“It’s like our church,” Hensley said.

“It’s the cathedral of the southwest Wyoming high plains desert,” Vase replied.

Always More To See

During a visit on Tuesday to such remote and spectacular places as Adobe Town and Skull Creek Rim, Vase and Hensley spoke excitedly about various features of the landscape while tossing in tidbits of history.

The famous outlaw Butch Cassidy hid out in the desert, they said. He’d do favors for local ranchers such as breaking wild mustangs for them. And in return they’d stay mum when lawmen came around asking about Cassidy’s whereabouts.

The human history of the area is ancient, said Vase, describing himself as a “self-taught” archeologist. Through reading and conversations with scientists, he’s picked up a wealth of knowledge about the Clovis People.

They were paleo-Indians who roamed and hunted in the high plains desert back at least 13,000 years ago – although Vase is convinced their history goes much farther back than that.

“They knew so many things that we don’t,” he said.

Asked if the desert rats had seen all there is to see in the region after more than four decades of exploration, they scoffed.

“There’s at least as much out here that we haven’t seen as there is that we’ve seen,” Hensley said.

Landscapes Like Nowhere Else

Ng was a less talkative. He busied himself with various cameras. Capturing photographs of the desert is his true passion.

Originally from Hong Kong, he came to Memphis, Tenn., to study biology. He arrived in Rock Springs in 1980 to work for the state and county health departments and never left.

Almost from the moment he arrived, Ng was drawn to the desert.

“It was mostly the rock formations” that fascinated him, Ng said. “Even though there’s not a lot of color in them, it’s all the shapes of the formations.”

He’s never gotten weary of taking his cameras out into some of the loneliest places in Wyoming.

“A lot of people drive through Rock Springs, and they don’t realize that we have these landscapes out here. That’s what got me into photography, these landscapes,” he said.

Explore To Forget

Vase and Hensley are military veterans. Hensley served with the Marine Corps, and Vase was with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam.

He had only just arrived in Vietnam when he found himself caught up in the hellish fighting of the 1968 Tet Offensive.

Going out into the desert has always helped melt away the lingering stress and trauma of that nightmarish time, he said.

Hensley agreed. He grew up in Rock Springs but left for many years. When he returned, he didn’t realize how much he’d missed the desert, and going out there with his friends.

“We’d work 12-hour shifts, and then take off into the desert for a couple of hours, just to be able to sleep when we got back home,” he said.

Hensley said he appreciates Wyoming’s mountains and forests, but they’re frequently full of visitors, whereas the desert can almost always promise quiet and privacy.

It helps to remove the “stink” of civilization’s downsides, he said.

“John will call me and say, ‘Let’s go out there and get the stink off,’ and I’ll know exactly what he’s talking about,” Hensley said.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.