It was Labor Day and what I consider the end of Summer. Now begins a time of mourning and a time of panic. Winter looms on the horizon.
The question is, how many more Utah trips can I squeeze in before the snow flies?
Monday morning, I loaded up my Ford Explorer Sport with my wife, my brother and my daughter and we head north to Bear Lake on the Utah – Idaho border. Once there, we stopped for the obligatory Bear River Raspberry Shake. (Wonderful!)
After bumping around Pickleville and Garden City for a while, we headed east to the Wyoming border.
We wanted to take the Man Head Road north to the Utah-Idaho-Wyoming Corner location but the road was closed on the south end. We ended up driving north to Cokeville Wyoming.
From Cokeville we could drive back on the Man Head Road to the access road for the corner monument.
From the Man Head Road, we took a dirt road west for four miles (best in a high clearance vehicle and 4 X 4 if muddy) and then a short distance back to the north. At the end of the road, it is another 100 yards hike up a steep hillside to the actual monument.
This area will obviously never be a major tourist destination.
Once back on the Man Head Road, we were able to find a way through the construction so we could bypass Cokeville Wyoming and head south for Randolph Utah.
Randolph is the site of the Wilfred Woodruff restored cabin and home. He was the fourth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.
Around the Woodruff cabin stand tall cottonwood trees, some of the few trees in the entire high mesa area. These trees seem to be the favorite of the local vulture population which were gathering there for the evening. There were at least 30 of the large buzzards perched high in the limbs.
A few miles further down the road was Woodruff Utah, but it was getting late so I didn’t stop for pictures.
We made a quick stop in Evanston Wyoming for gasoline before driving home again via Salt Lake City. (It would have been shorter going through Heber City Utah and down Provo Canyon but the Labor Day weekend traffic usually clogs the canyon.)
This road trip burned the entire day and the clock ticking sound in my head is even louder now.