Farson, WY - On to WyomingJun 26, 2012
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View of Bear Lake from the NFS visitor center. Note the smoke...
Zoom of the wildfire smoke. It had just gotten started - that...
The main street in Kemmerer, WY - a nice neat sleepy little...
(Ron Writing) We left Salt Lake City this morning heading north on I-15 to Brigham City, then northeast to Logan, UT on US-89, US-91. After stopping in Logan for gas and lunch we continued northeast on US-89 to Bear Lake. The drive from Logan to Bear Lake follows the Logan River closely through Logan Canyon. Most of the drive is through very scenic National Forest land. There are many NFS campgrounds along the route that might be very nice to spend some time at but we pressed on.
At Bear Lake Summit (7,810’) there is a NFS visitor center and an overlook with great views of Bear Lake about 1,700’ below and “forever views" to the north and east. That forever view included a wildfire about 80 miles distant in Wyoming. The fire started last night and we watched the smoke cloud grow intensely through the afternoon. It’s just one of many wildfires burning in the western US.
At Garden City, UT on the west shore of Bear Lake, we turned south and then east on UT-30, which became WY-89 at the border. After a short distance we turned on US-30 and continued east in Wyoming to the town of Kemmerer. Kemmerer is known for nearby fossil beds and also for being the home town of James Cash Penny who opened his very first store there in Kemmerer with a $500 investment and called it the Golden Rule. That original J C Penny store is still in business and we stopped in to see it and visit with one of the clerks.
From Kemmerer we headed north and then northeast on US-189 to the junction of WY-372. We continued northeast on WY-372 to the junction of WY-28 and then took WY-28 northeast. Soon after turning onto 28 we crossed the Green River, which is one of the larger rivers in this area. We stopped to see an interesting display where the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express route crossed the Green River on ferries until the early 20th century when the highway 28 bridge was built. Much of our route through this area followed the Oregon trail very closely.
We continued to the small farming community of Farson, WY. The Big Sandy River runs through this area and is used to irrigate some beautiful farmland. This area of Wyoming is all high desert so when we see green fields we know there is a river nearby. A few miles northeast of Farson is a dirt road leading through BLM land to the south. At the intersection we found a great parking area to spend the night (42.20895, -109.22607, 6,864'). It was about 80° here early this evening - much cooler here than the weather we’ve had the past few days in the Salt Lake City area.
We did a lot of driving since we had about a 20 to 30 mph tail wind almost all day. That just does wonders for the fuel mileage.