2015 Road Trip: Part 25 (UT-ID)

Utah to Idaho (and some Wyoming)
Day 40
5.23.15

Yes that is snow.  After my second night staying in the Uintas, I got snowed on in the morning.  Keep in mind this is late May.  I have learned never to be surprised with the weather.  It can do anything, especially at high elevation.

Heading back to town, I was able to see the Wasatch Front Range.  I was almost going to hike there while in the area, but the weather forecast was not great for the Memorial Day weekend.  I had it in my mind I was going to do a 3-day trek to summit Utah's highest point, Kings Peak and along the ridge to Mt. Emmons, deep into the Uintas.  But with thunderstorms predicted and up to a foot of new snow up over 12k, I thought that wasn't the greatest idea to be along a ridge for 7 miles.  Maybe some other time if I come back in late summer, I can give it a shot.  However, my time in Utah was coming to an end...on to new places.

I headed into SLC again, then north through Ogden.  I was faced with an easy decision: I-15 or US-89... clearly the choice would be US-89, which took several hours longer according to the GPS.  Soon I found this to be completely worth the extra time, because I was carving through canyons on my way to Logan, UT and to Bear Lake.

US-89 just north of Logan

Soon, I got another free bug-cleaning rainstorm.  You need these frequently on a road trip.  Also, you can't expect all sunny skies for 2 months straight.  If this happened, I would be concerned that the Coriolis effect was flawed, or maybe the Earth had stopped spinning and there were no more weather patterns.

Coming down from the mountains into the Bear Lake Valley was one of the best views I have seen on this trip.  The lake itself was of a brilliant turquoise color that looks like the Caribbean Sea.  This lake was an important landmark as well because it is half in Utah, and half in Idaho.

Bear Lake from the southwest.

Here it was!  My 18th state on the trip.  To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this state, but I was to be surprised.  It's not all potato country like you think it might be...you shall see in the next post.

#18 on the trip

I was craving to see some shoreline of Bear Lake, but nothing seemed to lead there, until I saw a road that crossed right through the middle of it.  One must take these opportunities.  I stopped at a turnoff to take some pictures, take in the view and the smell, and also experience the cold wind that was whipping through the lake.

After miles and miles of desert, I was happy to see some water.  I continued across the lake, and followed a nice dirt road along the east side of the lake for a while.  I was behind an SUV, and then we saw a cow!  It was looking at us funny, but it got scared when I put up the camera.

Making my way though some very small towns, I found US-89 again, and this road wiggles along the Idaho-Wyoming border, so surely enough, I saw state #19 on the list!

Wyoming - Forever west! 

A pretty flower meadow south of Afton, WY.

They welcome you into Afton with two elks battling horns.  Way to go, Wyoming.  We should have this in Monroe, but with chickens.  I'm sure we could get the town to fund this effort.

I was headed to a small free campground near Idaho Falls, ID.  I had started my day a bit late, and this meant that I was not making it anywhere too early.  Just after crossing back into Idaho, the road goes by Palisades Reservoir.  I found this an enchanting body of water, and I decided right there and then I was going to find a place to camp near it. So it was - Big Elk Campground.  Not on the lake, but near enough to it to hear the stream running into it.  Mountains all around, and most importantly, a picnic table, which makes cooking so much more fun and easy.

This shaved off some mileage from my day, and here is the map of today's progress.  I highly recommend driving along US-89 if you happen to be in this area - it's a spectacular drive, even if you hate driving.  It is such beautiful country, I'd hate to have to miss it by going along the interstate.  Total miles traveled so far is 7381.

Day 40: 354 miles.

It was too dark to get any good pictures of the campsite that night, but I got a nice view of the Moon, Jupiter, and Venus as a backdrop behind the mountains.  Next post will have some photos of the campground.