Autumn in Northern Utah

I was on a business trip to Salt Lake city for 5 days and ended up with more free time than i expected. The weather was absolutely ideal so i went on several road trips with my free time. Fall was in full swing so the vegetation was fantastic. However, the Salt Lake City valley for 100 miles north and south is horribly polluted. Some days it looked as hazy as anywhere i've been in America, including Los Angeles. They have absolutely ruined their air down there so you are left looking at mountains that are silhouettes only 10 miles away. Even on the other side of the mountains in the other valleys the air was exceptionally polluted. Much worse than when i had worked in the state 20 years ago.

 I lucked out on my hotel room. They had overbooked so i was upgraded to a large suite, for the whole stay.

 Pollution does make for a nice sunset. Downtown Salt Lake City.

Logan, Utah

I had only vaguely ever heard of Logan but i had to go there for an appointment one day. Since it's over 90 miles north of Salt Lake City it seemed like i should make use of that distance and check out the area. Logan is a small but beautiful college town in a sort of high mountain valley. Sort of on the Eastern edge of the basin and range territory.

 Part of Logan. You can see how hazy it gets in a short distance.

 Just outside Logan is this pretty limestone canyon full of weekend rock climbers.

 It wasn't long before i noticed this large cave

 Logan Cave has over 4,000 feet of passage but has been closed for political reasons for over a decade.

 Just outside the cave entrance. Water from the cave emerges from a spring down by the road.

From Logan i traveled east on US89 along the Logan Canyon Scenic Byway. It was indeed very scenic but what was most surprising to me was that the rock was all limestone. I haven't ever associated limestone with Utah, but here there was not only mountains of it, but lots of water as well. It wasn't long before i started spotting cave openings!

A little cowboy clogging up the highway in an open range area.

Farther upstream is Rick Springs. The hole in the bottom of it is apparently large enough that you can go diving in it. The passage has been traced 1/4 mile back to the main river.

The High Uinta Wilderness

From Logan Canyon i drove by Bear Lake, which i had not seen for something like 25 years. It was lower than last time. The air was so bad i suspected a forest fire in the area so i simply ate lunch there and took no pictures. People working in a local restaurant seemed pretty clueless about why the air was so bad, if there was a fire, or if there was anything about the air to complain about in the first place.

Since i had to go all the way to Logan i decided to make a big loop and visit the High Uinta Wilderness in Eastern Utah. The Uinta Range is the longest mountain range in the lower U.S.A running East to West, and i had never seen it. Though the range is only 60 miles long it contains the highest mountain in Utah, Kings Peak at 13,534 ft.. The nice thing is the Mirror Lakes Highway goes right over the crest of the mountain range and you can start hiking from trailheads that are well over 10,000 feet high.

It seemed like 30% of the trees were dead, making the forest extremely vulnerable to forest fire. This whole area will burn in my lifetime, so i need to see it before that happens.

Just under the soil the rocks are obviously glaciated.

The road that goes through the wilderness is called the Mirror Lakes Highway. I think this was Mirror Lake

 The headwaters of the Provo River are fun and easy to walk along.

Except for the altitude it's an easy walk up this mountain from the left.

 I think this is the Jordanelle Reservoir. Some deer ran out of the bushes at me here.

The drive this day was very nice. From Bear Lake i had to pass through the corner of Wyoming and then followed the Bear River (not naturally associated with Bear Lake) up over the mountains where i followed the Provo River back down the other side. These "rivers" are really creeks, and easily forded on foot, at least in Autumn. I would definitely like to return to the Uintas and do some hiking/climbing.

Antelope Island

On Sunday i drove up to Antelope Island. I noticed that Sunday in Utah is a great day for a road trip, as the highway was nearly deserted that morning. I also noticed that Friday is a bad day for a road trip. Saturday night some rainstorms had blown through and Sunday was still fairly windy and considerably colder than any other day i had been there. Because of those factors and my lack of packing for cold weather it wasn't a good day for hiking or photos but it was still interesting.

Antelope Island is a large island in the southeastern part of the Great Salt Lake. A road has been built out to it, and it is home to a lot of buffalo and flies. The visitor center has some cool history of the Great Salt Lake, which used to be a hell of a lot bigger and called Bonneville Lake. As recently as 14,500 years ago it was 1,000 feet deeper. At some point the north shore failed and there was a catastrophic flood into the Snake River watershed. You can still look up at the mountains and see the old shoreline high above.

 The moment i stopped the car i was engulfed in flies. They are the same flies that i saw around Mono Lake, but these were more aggressive.

 On this day the visitor center provided shelter from the wind. You could watch big dust storms build up over the dry salt areas.

 The main paved road on the island

Also interesting is that Antelope Island has some of the oldest rocks on earth. All over one part of the island are these really old boulders and outcrops that are 2.7 billion years old. That is a BILLION years older than the oldest rocks in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, which are always quoted as being some of the oldest rocks around.

 These are outcrops of very old rock.

Tortured old metamorphic rock 2.7 billion years old. It reminded me of Central Park because it felt grimy to the touch.

The Wasatch Canyons

I explored quite a few other canyons in the Salt Lake Area. Cottonwood Canyons, American Fork, Provo Canyon, Snowbird; I'm surprised how many of them have paved roads. Each one was very nice, some with limestone, some with granite, and they were all full of fall colors.

Cottonwood Creek.

I didn't expect to see so much water so late in the year.

 Another waterfall. The terraced mountains were motivating me to do something.

 Really cool folded strata. I want to go stand in the bottom of the curve on the right.

 More cool strata tilted vertical in American Fork Canyon.

 The front of Snowbird or Alta Canyon had granite mountains. The beginning felt a lot like i was driving into the Sierras.

 Up at Snowbird Ski Resort they were getting a few inches of snow.

Loveland Living Planet Aquarium

Utah has a new aquarium in Draper, which is part of the metropolitan area about 1/2 an are south of downtown Salt Lake City. My last day i had an evening flight and after checking out i didn't want to do anything that would get me dirty, so i visited the aquarium. 

 I'm a huge aquarium fan but because of that i have been to pretty much all the great aquariums in the U.S, and Vancouver. The side effect is that makes me an aquarium snob as i have high standards. The Draper aquarium is just OK but it is impressive to be in the high desert and walk into an underwater wonderland. It's geared mainly towards children rather than adults, but it's a good way to pass an hour or two.

The cuttlefish were awesome. I got to see them feed and one of them produced a perfect black circle on it's back when i pressed my camera lens against the glass in front of it. Their patterns change in a hypnotic fashion.

Other than the cuttlefish i was most impressed with the penguins.

 An electric eel.

 I think i took this same picture at another aquarium or zoo about 15 years ago.

 The south side of the outside of the building is made of this complex heat sink looking pattern of metal sheets. This is looking straight up the wall.