Home Care In Antimony, UT

University of Texas at Austin researchers have created a new sodium-based battery material that is highly stable, capable of recharging as quickly as a traditional lithium-ion battery and able to pave the way toward delivering more energy than current battery technologies.

For about a decade, scientists and engineers have been developing sodium batteries, which replace both lithium and cobalt used in current lithium-ion batteries with cheaper, more environmentally friendly sodium. Unfortunately, in earlier sodium batteries, a component called the anode would tend to grow needle-like filaments called dendrites that can cause the battery to electrically short and even catch fire or explode.

In one of two recent sodium battery advances from UT Austin, the new material solves the dendrite problem and recharges as quickly as a lithium-ion battery. The team published their results in the journal Advanced Materials.

“We’re essentially solving two problems at once,” said David Mitlin, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Research Laboratory who designed the new material. “Typically, the faster you charge, the more of these dendrites you grow. So if you suppress dendrite growth, you can charge and discharge faster, because all of a sudden it’s safe.”

Graeme Henkelman, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, used a computer model to explain, from a theoretical perspective, why the material has the unique properties it does.

“This material is also exciting because the sodium metal anode theoretically has the highest energy density of any sodium anode,” Henkelman said.

Demand is rising for stationary energy storage systems for homes and for smoothing out the ebb and flow of wind and solar energy on electric grids. At the same time, lithium mining has been criticized for its environmental impacts, including heavy groundwater use, soil and water pollution and carbon emissions. Lithium-ion batteries typically also use cobalt, which is expensive and mined mostly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it has significant impacts on human health and the environment. By comparison, sodium mining is cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

Mitlin is bullish on the idea that this new innovation and others from UT Austin, including a new solid electrolyte that boosts energy storage, will mean sodium batteries may soon be able to fill the growing demand for stationary energy storage.

When a rechargeable battery is being charged, ions (such as lithium or sodium) move from one component called the cathode to another called the anode. When the battery is being used to generate electricity, the ions move from the anode back to the cathode.

The new anode material, called sodium antimony telluride intermetallic – Na metal composite (NST-Na), is made by rolling a thin sheet of sodium metal onto an antimony telluride powder, folding it over on itself, and repeating many times.

“Think of making a kind of layered pastry, like spanakopita,” Mitlin said.

This process results in a very uniform distribution of sodium atoms that makes it less likely to form dendrites or surface corrosion than existing sodium metal anodes. That makes the battery more stable and allows faster charging, comparable to a lithium-ion battery’s charge rate. It also has a higher energy capacity than existing sodium-ion batteries.

Henkelman said that if the sodium atoms that carry a charge in a sodium battery bind more strongly to each other than they do to the anode, they tend to form instabilities, or clumps of sodium that attract more sodium atoms and eventually lead to dendrites. He used a computer simulation to reveal what happens when individual sodium atoms interact with the new composite material NST-Na.

“In our calculations, this composite binds sodium a little more strongly than sodium binds itself, which is the ideal case for having the sodium atoms come down and evenly spread out on the surface and prevent these instabilities from forming,” Henkelman said.

The study’s two lead authors Yixian Wang and Hui Dong — current and former graduate students in Mitlin’s lab respectively — fabricated the material. Colleagues at Los Alamos National Laboratory led by John Watt characterized its properties. The study’s other authors are Hongchang Hao, Pengcheng Liu and Naman Katyal of UT Austin.

Mitlin, Wang and Dong have applied for a patent, along with UT Austin, on the new sodium metal anode material’s fabrication, structure and functionality.

This research was made possible by support from the National Science Foundation and The Welch Foundation.

Trilobites. The very name conjures up images from “B” science-fiction movies of bug-eyed, wiggly-legged, insect-like creatures that eat New York. Two questions we commonly receive are “what are trilobites and where are they found in Utah?”

Trilobites are members of the phylum Arthropoda (jointed-foot animals). Arthropods have segmented bodies and appendages covered by an exoskeleton which provides support and protection for muscles and organs. Living Arthropods include insects, spiders, scorpions, ticks, crabs, lobsters, barnacles, and centipedes.

Trilobites belong to an extinct class of marine organisms called Trilobita. This name refers to the three-part (tri-lobes) latitudinal and longitudinal shape of a trilobite’s exoskeleton. The latitudinal lobes consist of the cephalon (head), segmented thorax (body), and pygidium (tail); the longitudinal lobes consist of two lateral lobes (on each side of the body) and an axial lobe (central back area of the exoskeleton).

More than 500 different trilobite species have been found across Utah, in a broken band of Cambrian Period (570 to 500 million years old) limestones, siltstones, and shales that trends northeast-southwest across the western part of the state.

During the Early Cambrian (about 570 to 540 million years ago), western Utah was covered by a shallow sea. Slow-moving rivers flowed across the sandy lowlands of eastern Utah deposited sediment into the sea.

The heavier sediment (mostly sand) was deposited near the shoreline which metamorphosed through time into quartzite. The lighter sediments (mostly silt) were deposited farther out into the sea, and through time lithified into siltstone and shale. The deepest part of the sea was an ideal environment for the precipitation of calcium carbonate, which lithified to limestone.

Regional subsidence during the Middle and Late Cambrian (about 540 to 500 million years ago), caused the sea’s shoreline to migrate eastward across Utah, allowing the deposition of a fairly complete sequence of Cambrian sediment in western Utah. Utah was located near the equator during the Cambrian, so the water temperature was warm.

The combination of warm, shallow water and nutrient-rich silt allowed several marine genera to thrive. The most common and diverse of these were trilobites, which occupied several different marine environments.

Most trilobite species were bottom dwellers that crawled over sand and mud. Some of them could curl up like modern pill bugs. Other trilobites burrowed into bottom sand and mud using their shovel-shaped cephalons.

These crawling and burrowing trilobites were either scavengers, or they ingested mud and silt, digesting the organic material contained in it like modern day worms (annelids). Some trilobites lived in shallow burrows where they could keep their heads near the surface of the sand or mud, and grab passing prey.

Fossil evidence suggests some trilobites were capable of swimming. The bodies of swimming trilobites are narrower and the eyes are closer to the sides of the cephalon, than those of bottom-dwelling trilobites. Swimming trilobites may have been predators, or they may have been “filter-feeders” using special appendages to remove nutrients from the surrounding water. The smallest trilobites were plankton-like and lived close to the water surface.

Trilobites are probably the most common fossils collected in Utah, many world-class specimens from this state reside in museums throughout the world. In Utah, trilobites can be found at several localities.

House Range The Wheeler Amphitheater in the House Range, Millard County is one of the more well-known collecting areas. Most of the trilobites in this area come form the Middle Cambrian formation called the Wheeler Shale. The Wheeler Shale contains interbeds of shaley limestone, mudstone, and thin platy limestone. Another trilobite-bearing unit that directly overlies the Wheeler Shale in the central part of the House Range is the Marjum Formation. This formation consists of thin-bedded, fine-grained, silty limestone with interbeds of shale and mudstone.

Also located in the central part of the House Range is a fossiliferous limestone called the Weeks Formation, that crops out in North Canyon near Notch Peak. The Weeks Formation overlies (is younger than) the Marjum Formation and also contains trilobites.

Wellsville Mountains Another trilobite-bearing unit is the Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation in the Wellsville Mountains, Box Elder County. Here, trilobites can be found in Miner’s Hollow, Cataract Canyon, Dry Canyon, and the area between Antimony and Hanson Canyons.

“A Collector’s Guide to Rock, Mineral and Fossil Localities in Utah” by James R. Wilson provides detailed descriptions on trilobite fossil localities. This book is available from the Natural Resources Map & Bookstore.

Barnes, R. D., 1980, Invertebrate zoology: Philadelphia, Saunders College, p. 582-587.

Gunther, L. F., Gunther, V. G., and Gunther, G., 1994, Some Middle Cambrian fossils of Utah, in Special issue on Utah: Utah Geological Survey Public Information Series 26, p. 59-62.

Hintze, L. F. , 1988, Geologic history of Utah: Brigham Young University Geology Studies Special Publication 7, p. 14-19.

Stokes, W. L., 1986, Geology of Utah: Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication S, p. 47-56.

Wilson, J. R., 1995, A collector’s guide to rock, mineral and fossil localities in Utah: Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 95-4, p. 65-104.

For several years the fastest growing large city in Utah was St. George. Good news is, that title has been stolen by another Utah city.

The St. George area is still one of the nation's fastest-growing metropolitan areas. With an influx of people relocating from surrounding states, our road and water infrastructure has been stretched to the max. But here is some good news! St. George City proper is no longer the fastest growing large city in the state of Utah. According the 2022 census, St. George, Utah has actually dropped to 3rd on the list of fastest growing Large Cities (by percentage) in Utah.

#3 St George, Utah

St. George is beautiful (look at those colors!) with plenty of national and state parks close by and very mild winters, which is why so many people were flocking to the city especially during the covid shut down. St. George City is up 2.3% in the last year and that is approximately 2,339 People.

Fun Fact*St. George is the 7th largest city in Utah and the most populated city outside of the Wasatch Front.

#2 South Jordan, Utah

South Jordan is 2nd on the list, coming in at a growth of 4.3% in the last year with approximately 3,411 new residents.

Fun Fact* South Jordan, Utah was the first city in the world with two LDS temples. The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints first built the Jordan River Utah Temple, and then the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple was built. Now Provo, Utah also has two LDS temples.

And the #1 city with the fastest growth for a large city in Utah is...

#1 Lehi, Utah

Whaaa? That is not a city even on my radar that would be the fastest growing in Utah.

With 5.6% growth in the last year Lehi has added 4,456 new residents.

Fun fact* Lehi Roller Mill is where part of the movie Footloose was filmed.

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I went to the very first Tarzan show at Tuacahn Amphitheater May 20th. The weather was perfect, it was beautiful with a lot of green and flowers in full bloom. While we stood waiting to get in to go to our seats I could smell all of the delicious food that they offer now at Tuacahn.

I could not pass up on the candy nuts that smell like Christmas. I opted for the pecans and they did not disappoint. We sat on the right side of the stage about half way up and there was a little bit of obstructed view, so we missed the ship that was sailing toward the stage but we did get to see the water come down and flood the stage. It is still cool even though I've seen it happen quite a few times in different shows and season.

One of the cool things that happens in live theater, when you get a grateful audience, is the cheering on of the actors and show crew. The second the water hit the stage the audience cheered. I knew it was going to be a good show. When you go to a preview show, they tell you that they could stop the show at any point to correct things of fix cues or adjust props. Not much of that had to happen because the audience cheered even when the scene didn't go exactly right. At one point in the musical, young Tarzan is trying to show off his ingenious invention that is supposed to spear fruit off of a vine while he is swinging high off the ground. He could not get the prop to work right and just kept trying to "stab" the fruit with his spear. Finally the got the fruit to break loose and it fell all the way to the stage. the actors playing Tarzan and Turk, went on as if that is exactly how it was supposed to happen and the audience cheered again. It was a perfect metaphor for life. If everyone around us is trying their best and working hard then we should appreciate it and cheer them on. Even if nothing goes as planned. ♥ Go enjoy a show at Tuacahn. If you cannot afford tickets make sure you listen to DJ & Aaronee in the morning on Cat Country 107.3 & 94.9

There’s a great selection of nearby Airbnbs but if you’d prefer the comfort of a hotel, there’s a handful to consider. Choosing one of these hotels near Bryce Canyon National Park offers unparalleled convenience. After a day of hiking and exploring, returning to a comfortable and well-equipped hotel is a real treat. The area is also home to some of the darkest skies in the US. On an average clear night, you can see thousands of stars with the naked eye. And why not enjoy that from the luxury of your hotel room? These are the top-ranked hotels near the park entrance, selected for their location, level of service, and range of amenities.

We hope you love the hotels near Bryce Canyon National Park we recommend! Just so you know, Matador may collect a small commission from the links on this page if you decide to book a stay. Listed prices are accurate as of the time of publication.

Bryce Canyon is open to visitors every day of the year. Its Visitor Center — where you can obtain park information and backcountry permits, view exhibits and a film, browse and purchase books and maps, and clean yourself up if you’re road tripping and camping — is open daily except for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Opening times vary throughout the year depending on the season. Also note that if you’re traveling in the winter months, some roads may temporarily close due to heavy snowfall. But don’t let that deter you — during this extraordinary season in Bryce Canyon, you’ll be rewarded with astonishing winter beauty and solitude.

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Under Canvas Bryce Canyon is the perfect option for those who want a camping experience, but would prefer a comfortable bed at the end of a day of hiking. The upscale outdoor hospitality brand’s fourth Utah location is perfectly positioned. It’s a short 15-minute drive to Bryce Canyon National Park. The luxury glamping site is set upon 750 acres of beautiful, secluded high mountain plains and offers views of John’s Valley, with Mount Dutton and Adams Head to the west and Utah’s iconic red rocks to the east. There are seven different tent options to choose from. If you’re traveling with a group, the Hoodoo Suite sleeps up to six, offering plenty of space for your crew or family.

Under Canvas Bryce Canyon : 1325 South Johns Valley Road, Antimony, UT, 84764

Price per night: $389

Photo: Expedia

Photo: Expedia

Photo: Expedia

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This family-run glamping company is a relatively new to the area and their commitment to customer service is unparalleled. Whether you need assistance with planning your day’s adventures or simply want recommendations for the best local dining spots or gear shops, they have you covered. Each glamping dome has been designed to provide an unforgettable experience. With spacious, comfortable interiors and carefully curated furnishings, you’ll feel right at home. The domes also offer panoramic views of the surrounding beautiful landscape, allowing you to immerse yourself in nature.

Bryce Glamp And Camp : 555 Yellow Creek Rd, Cannonville, UT, 84718

Price per night: $292

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Bryce Canyon Log Cabins puts you a short five-minute drive from Bryce Canyon National Park. The cabins cater for all. They have options for families and smaller lodgings for couples or solo travelers. Each have spacious living areas adorned with rustic decor, fully equipped kitchens for preparing your own meals, and private bathrooms. Unlike an Airbnb rental, the cabins have the added perk of housekeeping and security, making this a nice blend of hotel services and home comforts.

Bryce Canyon Log Cabins : 1152 UT-12, Bryce Canyon, UT, 84764

Price per night: $175

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Best Western Plus Bryce Canyon Grand Hotel is great value for money for a lower-middle-range property. Considered one of the best hotels near Bryce Canyon National Park, it’s conveniently located off Highway 63 close to shopping, dining, and entertainment options (including a local rodeo). Despite this, the hotel is tucked away in a quiet spot. The entrance of the national park is a little over a mile away, but it’s not walkable. You’ll need to either have a vehicle or organize a ride from the hotel or a local transfer company. Rooms are modern with neutral tones with pops of yellow and are very spacious for the price point. There’s a small fitness center, laundry facilities, and a nice courtyard and seasonal outdoor pool.

Best Western Plus Bryce Canyon Grand Hotel : 30 North 100 East, Bryce Canyon, UT, 84764

Price per night: $140

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This two-star lodge is perfect for those looking for a budget-friendly accommodation option for a night or two. If you have the choice between this and the Best Western, you should consider the latter. But if you’re in a pinch, the Bryce UpTop Lodge has a solid location (close to the park, Ruby Inn and a grocery store) and friendly and helpful staff.

Bryce UpTop Lodge : 1152 UT-12, Bryce Canyon, UT, 84764

Price per night: $128

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This is the most affordable and unfussy hotel near the park. Bryce View Lodge has 164-rooms that have fridges, microwaves, and coffeemakers. Outside there’s a lawn area with picnic tables and guests can use facilities at the sister property (Best Western Ruby’s Inn) that has a pool and a gym. Pets are welcome for an extra fee, and there’s a free shuttle that will get you to the park entrance in five minutes.

Bryce View Lodge : 1325 South Johns Valley Road, Antimony, UT, 84764

Price per night: $65

Explore the scenic overlooks: Start your day by visiting the park’s main attractions, such as Sunrise Point and Sunset Point. These scenic overlooks offer breathtaking views of the intricate hoodoos and stunning landscapes. Take in the vibrant colors of the rock formations and snap some pictures.

Hike the spectacular trails: The Rim Trail is a must-do, providing panoramic views along the canyon rim. For a more adventurous experience, embark on the Navajo Loop Trail and descend into the heart of the amphitheater. Don’t miss the Queens Garden Trail, where you’ll see a hoodoo formation resembling Queen Victoria. If you continue on the trail towards Sunset Point, you’ll have a fairly strenuous hike up several switchbacks. The entire length of this trail is around 2.3 miles (the walk between Sunrise and Sunset points along the rim at the top is half a mile), meaning if you park at either point and do it as a loop, it’s a three-mile hike.

Stargaze: Bryce Canyon is renowned for its dark skies, making it a perfect destination for stargazing enthusiasts. Attend ranger-led programs or join an astronomy festival to learn about the constellations and witness the stunning celestial display.

Attend ranger programs: Take advantage of the educational and engaging ranger programs available in the park. Learn about the geology, flora, and fauna that make Bryce Canyon so special.

Scenic Byway 12: While in the area, take a scenic drive on Highway 12, also known as Scenic Byway 12. This breathtaking route showcases the diverse landscapes of southern Utah, including stunning rock formations, canyons, and forests.

Attend special events: Keep an eye out for special events happening in the park throughout the year. From ranger-led hikes to astronomy festivals and full moon hikes, there’s always something exciting happening at Bryce Canyon.

Southern Utah is an outdoor lover’s paradise. But, the red rocks, desert landscape, and national and state parks draw quite the crowd, and sometimes, you just want to get away from all of the people. Fortunately, when you want peace and quiet, to surround yourself with Utah’s natural beauty, and to spend the night under the stars there is still one place to go — Posey Lake and campground. This hidden lake and campground is located high on the Colorado Plateau and is one place not many out-of-state guests know about. In fact, it is one of the least touristy places in southern Utah.

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With Only 20 Campsites, The Butterfly Lake Campground In Utah Offers A Remote Forest Escape

You can learn more about this lake and campground on the Forest Service website. Have you ever been to Posey Lake? Did you stay at the Posey Lake Campground? What are some of your favorite lakes in Utah? We’d love to hear all about your experience in the comments!

If you are searching for another lesser-known destination in southern Utah, check out the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. This is a lesser-known state park in Utah that certainly deserves your attention.

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What are some other activities near Posey Lake Campground in southern Utah?

While you can easily spend all day exploring Posey Lake Campground, this isn’t the only incredible destination in this area of the state. A few other bucket-list-worthy destinations that are just a short drive from this lake and campground in Utah include:

What are some other incredible lakes in Utah I should visit?

Utah is known for its lakes (the Great Salt Lake, anyone?). All over the state, you will find bodies of water that are just perfect for a day of sunshine. While there are countless lakes you could add to your bucket list, some of the best lakes in Utah to visit include:

Where should I go camping in Utah?

While Posey Lake Campground is one of our favorite places to go lake camping in Utah, it isn’t the only campground in the state that deserves some attention. Several others include:

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