The stories of magic about the Bears Ears area in Southeastern Utah have captured my imagination for many years. When I was 6 we lived in Logan, Utah and I have memories of visiting ruins. In my early career days I was sent to a two week training course near Pagosa Springs, Colorado and had the in between weekend to goof off, so I went to visit Chimney Mountain. Later I had friends rave about the area, just prior to the Obama administration’s creation of the larger Bears Ears National Monument. Like millions of others I have been enamored by the places in the west where ancient civilizations leave clues to their magnificence and long-gone humans leave personal art.
Sarah and I had talked about going to bears Ears when we were on the boundary waters and related journeys in 2017. The opportunity to go arose this Spring and we made plans to meet in Salt Lake City on April 26, 2018, for a 6 day adventure in Southeast Utah.
Day 0 – Sacto to Logan
When I got to Winnemucca I realized that I was less than halfway across Nevada, it’s a really big state with a lot of awesome scrubby land to look at it, but I was sure happy to think that just past Wells I could get of Interstate 80. This cutoff to Logan was even less populated than 80. Highway 30 was so straight and so open that at times I was driving down the middle of the road with the center line running down the belly of my FJ Cruiser. I even pinned the steering wheel with my knees at one point so I could properly aim and shoot my DSLR camera to the West as I was speeding along, thereby saving at least a minute of drive time. I love this country, it’s so wide open and desolate.
ola (life) | wai (water) 