We left Salt Lake City around 11:00, but I totally underestimated the amount of time driving US 89 through Logan Canyon would take! The posted speed ranged from 20-50, and I generally had to go 5 mph less due to tight curves in the road. I also had to pull over at all the turnouts because of the line of traffic behind me! It is around 30 miles, but it took me well over an hour. I am sure it is a beautiful road, but I was concentrating so much on the pavement that I had to rely on Kevin to confirm that!
I have a friend I used to work with that has a “cabin” (really a very nice home) at Bear Lake. While his address is in Utah, Bear Lake extends into Idaho, and is really a very large natural freshwater lake. It is known for its blue color from dissolved limestone. Jim K has been volunteering an RV spot at his place if we ever came by, and this year we took him up on it. It is a respite from the crazy holiday weekend crowds. The site comes with 50 amp electric and water/sewer. And get this – he isn’t even here! He is on an Alaskan cruise with his wife, but his daughter and three grandkids are staying here. Pretty nice of him to let us stay. The house (I just can’t call it a cabin) is on a hill with a fabulous view of Bear Lake. We watched the town fireworks from his lovely deck.
Bear Lake is a huge tourist spot, and this Independence Day holiday is even crazier than it is the rest of the summer. Tourism group estimated around 100,000 people are around the lake. Luckily it is a really, really big lake! We are near Garden City, UT, and it is a classic lake tourist location. There are a lot of burger joints, tshirt shops, boat rentals, UTV rentals, and, the local specialty, raspberry shake specialty shops. A bit busy for our tastes, but I didn’t expect anything else. The temps are in the low 80s during the day and low 60s at night, so perfect weather. Since we are above 6000’, the intense sun makes the daytime seem even warmer.
We got here yesterday, and we did a quick tour of the town. Today we were planning on a 20 mile trip to Peter Sinks, a geological wonder with extremely cold temperatures year around. It rained last night, and we didn’t get very far on the trip due to slippery mud and very rutted trails. It was labeled as “moderate” difficulty, but it was more than we felt comfortable tackling by ourselves. We were driving far too tipped over for comfort! It wasn’t a wasted trip though since I got more flower pictures.
We got back to the motorhome, cleaned up, and went on the Bear Lake Scenic Drive around the lake. The lake is about 18 miles long and generally 4-6 miles wide, so it really is large for an inland lake. Did I mention it was really, really busy?
We started driving on the west side of the lake, headed north. The North BEACH state Park looked like for for 2-3 miles! People parked on the beach with their sun shades and lots of toys. Obviously they were having a good time.
As we continued on the east side of the lake, the shores were very grass and shallow for long distances. Anyone launching a boat here was using a tractor to push the boat trailer into the water quick a ways. Maybe the picture below can give you a good scale.
We could barely see the town of Garden City across the lake from the east. See that little dab of white?
I also asked Kevin to drive us to the big overlook at the top of the mountain. There is a visitor center there with picnic tables and informational signs. You might be able to zoom in on a boat or two, but it depends a lot on your screen resolution. I have to reduce the photo size for the blog, so I apologize for the clarity of the picture.
Tomorrow we have decided to go to some museums in the area instead of doing more riding. We will have opportunity for riding later in the summer, but we won’t be able to see these specific museums again unless we come back to the area.