Salt Lake City to Green River, Wyoming

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It’s a gorgeous day and now expert at circumnavigating the Interstates around SLC, we head for the Mirror Lake Scenic Highway that runs from Kamas, Utah to Evanston, Wyoming, bisecting the western portion of the Uinta Mountains. It’s about 78 miles long. However, we were beaten to Kamas by the Highway Patrol and hundreds of cyclists of all shapes, sizes and age. The cyclists were in various categories of race, from novice to expert. Instead of soaking up the “………pine-covered mountain terrain accented with lush meadows and rugged peaks…….” as the tourist blurb tells you, we got lots of wobbling ‘ass’s’ as they say over here. Much of our photos were video so you might have to wait until we learn how to put video on this site.

It was great to see so many people both cyclists, spectators and support volunteers enjoying themselves. Although, that is some serious cycle climb to the 10,687 feet high Bald Mountain Pass for those peddling to the top - wow! The most stressful part of the journey for us was trying to get past the stretched-out groups of cyclists, cos there ain’t many passing places on this road.

Once over the pass, the road was almost empty until we got to Evanston. Here we stocked up, got fed and watered and headed east to Green River on Interstate 80. Found the huge Oak Tree Motel at Green River no problem.

It was sad to see so much of the mountainous area east of SLC being eaten up for prime real estate development.

En route, we visited Fort Bridger, a 19th century fur trading outpost established in 1842. Between the 1840s to 1860s, the fort served as a vital supply post for wagon trains on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. Fort Bridger was sold to the Wyoming Historic Landmark Commission for preservation as a historic monument in 1928.

The Union Pacific Railroad made the fort obsolete in 1869.

Fort Bridger is an annual meeting place for a number of groups, namely a celebration of the Fur Trade Era that occurred in the Rocky Mountains, between 1825-1840. A Pony Express Association also passes through each year and we arrived on that day - great! We chatted to some of the riders waiting for others to arrive but missed them as we explored the fort; they'd arrived early - drat!

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Photos

Fort Bridger
A Pony Express Rider waiting for the next rider to arrive on the annual ride through

The Ice Store
In the Winter they filled this shed with ice, providing a plentiful supply into the summer.