The Sun Tunnels: A Solstice Celebration in the Utah West Desert

Posted on 18. Jul, 2009 by Dirtbag in Places, The Road, Utah

Somewhere in the middle of absolute nowhere Western Utah, in the most remote and desolate landscape the artist could find, is a unique earthwork installation called the Sun Tunnels.Completed in 1976 by American artist Nancy Holt, the Sun Tunnels consist of four gigantic concrete tunnels arranged in an “X” that are positioned in a precise configuration to channel the sun’s rays during the summer and winter solstice. The top of each tunnel is pierced with holes of varying size corresponding to the patterns of constellations with a tunnel for Draco, Perseus, Columba and Capricorn. The tunnels offer from the baking desert sunand once inside the tunnel the holes cast spots of sunlight into the dark tunnel in the form of the constellations and give the illusion of starting into the darkened night sky.

Summer Solstice at the Sun Tunnels 2009

A journey out to the Sun Tunnels for the 2009 summer solstice was definitely more of an adventure than we had anticipated. We had heard that the solstice brings quite a party to the Tunnels and definitely wanted to check it out, but long story short – the roads were all gone.

We hadn’t considered how one of the wettest springs in Utah history would have affected the unpaved roads out to the Sun Tunnels. I mean it is the desert. We had planned to get to the Sun Tunnels from Lucin and just south of town the road was impassible due to a river now raging though the middle of the road. Normally I would have attempted such river crossings but a huge Ford truck bailed and turned around right in front of us. The water was just too deep and of the consistency of quick sand and not worth the risk since the nearest tow truck was a hundred miles away or so. A quick look at the map and I thought I had outwitted the wash and found a way around. Back into Nevada and several miles of rough dirt roads later we ran into the craziest washed out road ever. With the sunset an hour away, we returned to Lucin defeated and in search of a camp spot.

With the sun about to set, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Just chilling in the ghost town of Lucin wondering where to go from here when all of a sudden a knight in a shiny high-clearance Tacoma came rising out of the dust. “Want to see the Tunnels?” the knight says. “Hell yeah,” says the weary, mud-caked travelers. We all packed in the Tacoma and headed off across the raging desert mud river and into the sunset to the smallest solstice gathering the Sun Tunnels have ever seen.

Directions to the Sun Tunnels

The Sun Tunnels are located in Utah’s Great Basin Desert west of the Great Salt Lake and not to far from the Nevada border. The best advice is to get a good map of Utah and get to the “town” of Lucin. Lucin appears on the Utah map giving it the illusion that it is a real town although Lucin is nothing more than an old railroad stopping point for steam engines. The last remaining residents of the area vacated in the early ‘90s leaving nothing but some old grain cellars, a phone booth, and some random nails and bolts.

Lucin can be reached from the north on Route 30 from Interstate 84 (near Snowville, UT) or from the south on Route 223 from Oasis, Nevada. From route 30 there is a sign to the Lucin cutoff. Travel south on the dirt road four miles to Lucin. From Lucin, continue south two and a half miles and then bear onto another dirt road traveling east for two more miles. At this point you should be able to see the Sun Tunnels. Take another right and then go one and half more miles to the Sun Tunnels. If you are looking for some serious adventure, you can travel 45 miles or so on unpaved roads from Wendover (just get yourself a good map and a high-clearance vehicle). Just finding the Sun Tunnels is definitely an adventure in itself and don’t forget to find a good BLM map of the area.