Wednesday, 6 October 2021
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| today's route |
I heard on the radio that just since I passed by Flaming Gorge a few days ago, an ordinary person discovered the bones of an ichthyosaur. Apparently he wasn't a paleontologist or even looking for dinosaurs - he was just out enjoying a day on the reservoir in his boat. Here's the story. https://www.msn.com/163-million-year-old-fossil-discovered-by-boater-in-utah I was excited because I had always had a fondness for the limerick about this creature:
There once was an ichthyosaurus
Who lived when the Earth was all porous.
But he fainted in shame
When he first heard his name
And departed a long time before us.
I'd always thought that was Ogden Nash or Edward Lear, but some quick research makes it appear the author is unknown. Too bad. Worth claiming.
I passed the town of Roosevelt, "Energy Hub of Utah," they claim, though I can't figure out why.
At Myton City, we crossed the Duchesne River. At the town of Duchesne, we crossed the Strawberry River. These folks don't seem to coordinate their names.
We'd been having rain, or at least wet roads, all morning, but the compensation came when I saw a nice rainbow. Eventually, I even saw both ends of it, though not the middle - clouds were too low. And the end I was closest to landed just before I got to Duchesne. Make of that what you will.
I saw an operating sawmill as we drove into town.
We took a break at Duchesne. I'd been assuming the town was pronounced like "doo CANE." But I've looked it up and learned it's actually pronounced "doo SHANE." We stopped near the visitor center and found this historical marker that talks about where the name likely came from.
I'm guessing he's the reason for the various place names in southern Utah: Escalante City, Escalante Canyon, Escalante Petrified Forest, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Maybe I'll find out when I get down there.
I passed a sign for the Strawberry Pinnacles, which I almost thought was made up until I found this photo online. Strawberry Pinnacles : Photos, Diagrams & Topos : SummitPost
The road began climbing, and I passed large fields covered with sage, lots of hills all around, a fair number of trees. Then I came to a sign saying "Snow Chains Required November 1 through March 31." Glad I didn't come any later in the year.
I passed snow fences, I think the first I've seen in Utah. And I passed a HUGE lake, which I now know was Strawberry Reservoir. It covers more than 17,000 acres and is apparently the premier fishing spot in the state, due to the excellent water quality and the resident population of naturally reproducing cutthroat trout. I just thought it was pretty.
It had been raining off and on all day, and at this point I was surrounded by heavy clouds and heavy rain, so I had a hard time seeing the mountains I knew were all around. Too bad to miss the view.
I came to a sign saying "Summit 8,020'." So there are a couple of odd things about that. The first is that the sign didn't say it was Daniels Summit, which everybody else says it is. The second is that I've found other elevations listed for that point: the AAA map, which says it's 7,989'; a website called Dangerous Roads, that translates 2,439 meters (which they say is the height of the pass - actually, they say "2.439 m.") to 8,001'; and a Utah information site that says it's 7,995'. Why can't they agree on this? There were lots of attractive lodges at the summit and a sign saying a 6% grade was in store.
It was steep going down and my ears weren't just popping but actually hurting. Still, it was a beautiful drive through the Uinta National Forest with lots of yellow aspens.
I had been driving alongside the Uinta (pronounce all letters) Mountains during this part of the drive. They're part of the Rocky Mountains and are noted for being the highest range that runs east to west in the Lower 48. They end (basically) at the Wasatch Mountains, also part of the Rockies, that run from southern Idaho south to central Utah, passing the main population centers. This is all according to the highway signs and Wikipedia - to me it was all driving in mountains.
I'd been on US-40 and then switched to I-80 E, at which point the road immediately started a series of fairly sharp s-curves downhill. The truck speed limit was 55 mph with a suggested 45 mph on the curves. Still, I was able to snatch glimpses of the scenery and saw one hillside covered in low plants showing big swaths and stripes of color: red, yellow, shades of green. It was a different kind of beauty.
By 12:45, the rain finally stopped and we got to see the sun, a welcome guest.
From I-80 I switched to I-84 (I was trying to avoid the major traffic areas of the Salt Lake City metro area) and, for the first time today, found very little traffic. I hadn't expected any of these roads to show me lots of cars - the drive across on US-40, after all, was through some fairly unpopulated areas of the state - but I was wrong. It wasn't until I got close to Ogden that I could finally have the road to myself. I dunno - maybe they were all at lunch.
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| Devil's Slide |
This photo is from the internet. An interesting explanation for what it's doing here is at this link. https://geology.utah.gov/devils-slide I'm sorry I missed it.
I saw a big flock of sheep. And in a fenced field, I saw a herd of what sure looked like elk.
Wanting to avoid interstates as much as possible, I switched to US 89 for the rest of the drive.
Coming into South Ogden City, I saw a billboard that read: "Save Our Republic - Join the John Birch Society." I'd vaguely thought the John Birch Society wasn't really operating any more, but I looked them up and learned that they (and many others) see their positions as being the basis for many of Pres. Trump's positions. So I guess not passé.
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| Ogden LDS Temple |
A little farther north, in Ogden City, I passed the LDS Temple and was stunned by its size and obvious cost. There are about 87,000 residents there, but around 40% of them aren't Mormon and there are also at least 4 other LDS churches in town. Maybe things were different when it was built in the late 1960s. It's a beautiful building.
By the way, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has asked everyone to stop calling its followers "Mormons." I'm not sure why. The name came from their holy text The Book of Mormon, so it's surely not a pejorative. And it's hard to imagine a world without the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (despite the fact that "a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet"). Still, that's what they say, so I'll try to refer to the church as LDS, which I think is what they prefer.
Also by the way: those names "Ogden City" and "South Ogden City" - I've been finding throughout the state that a town may be named and very well known as "Ogden" (for example) but someone is going around and tacking the word "city" onto the real name. I haven't figured out why. Another example of this is Salt Lake City. Many people - and signs - just call it Salt Lake and leave off the City. This doesn't confuse it with the actual lake, which is named Great Salt Lake, and that's what people call it. I'll probably continue to use these terms interchangeably, based on the official signs I see. But I find it interesting.
It took me almost exactly 7 hours to drive what Google said would be a 4-hour trip, but the weather was bad and I stick to 65 mph instead of the 80 mph speed limits. Still, I was tired. Tonight's KOA was a little weird. First, when I checked in the staffer (manager?) told me her laundry room and her restrooms were in these places. What she said was "my laundry room" and "my bathrooms" - the "my" meaning her, not me. Honestly, it didn't make me feel like she had pride in her campground but instead made me feel like an uninvited guest.
My campsite backed up to another, already occupied, campsite and mine had a very large tree that took up part of my space - hard to get into and hard to find a place to park that avoided both the tree and the very close neighbor. And once parked, I discovered my hookups were on the opposite side of the RV from where they usually are. Very lucky I have a long electric cord. I didn't even bother trying to connect the water. Strange place.
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