Road Trip #3, Day 4 Scenic Ride Central Utah

July 5, 2011
Colorado, USA

We have not seen everything we wanted to see in southern Utah, but this morning it was time to point The Ride north and east. We rolled out of Panguitch, UT about 8 am under partly cloudy skies on Hwy 89, riding for a time past misty mountain-scapes and fog-laden valleys and farmlands. Hwy 89 follows the Sevier River through the edges of the Dixie National Forest and the Fishlake National Forest. The road travels through rugged, high-walled canyon lands as well.

Near Marysvale, UT there is a mountain and resort named after an old folk song - The Big Rock Candy Mountain. My grandmother (age 100) used to sing this song to me.

Oh the buzzin’ of the bees
In the cigarette trees
Near the soda water fountain
At the lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
On the big rock candy mountain

As the story goes: Shortly after the release of the song in 1928, some local residents, as a joke, placed a sign at the base of a colorful mountain in Utah naming it “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” They also placed a sign next to a nearby spring proclaiming it 'Lemonade Springs.' These names stuck, and the mythical Big Rock Candy Mountain of the song became perhaps one of the most recognized geologic sites in west-central Utah. The mountain is huge, mostly yellow in color dappled with orange and red and white.

In Richfield, UT, we stopped for gas and a bite of breakfast. It must have been a forgettable breakfast because I cannot remember what it was. Ha! (Update: I was right - forgettable - Tim reminds me we had an Egg McMuffin at McDonalds.)

Miles away from the city of Manti, two twin towers were visible from the Sanpete Valley on the horizon. We thought they must be those of a courthouse or a very large church. As it turns out, the towers (179 feet tall) belong to the Manti Utah Mormon Temple, conceived by Brigham Young in 1875. It is third of five LDS temples built for the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. The site for the temple was the Manti Stone Quarry, a large hill immediately northeast of town. The area is known as Temple Hill. The massive limestone temple was completed in 1888.

The architecture in the little towns along the way is indicative of the late-1800s through the mid-1900s, much of it ornate in Victorian styling. Sadly, many of the buildings stand vacant and in disrepair.

We continued north on Hwy 89 until we reached the junction with Hwy 6. We would dip south again on Hwy 6 until we reached the town of Helper, UT. Actually we traveled the few miles to Price, UT just to check it out and returned to Helper where we filled the ride with gas and ourselves with ice cream sandwiches. The day had grown warm and the skies, surly.

Out of Helper we took Hwy 191 to Duchesne (dew-shane). This stretch of road is also known as the Indian Canyon Scenic Byway. At least one summit was near 10,000 feet in elevation. The first thing of interest we passed was the Carbonville Cemetery along the side of the road. It appeared to be old and neglected. Some research claims there are graves dating back to the 1700s. As we rode along, the skies grew dark and the clouds that we had watched building over the horizon all morning finally pulled themselves together. Lightning creased the skies and thunder roared overhead, magnified by the canyon walls. As we rounded one bend about halfway along the fifty some odd mile stretch, we saw rain maybe a mile ahead. We stopped, pulled on the rain gear and tucked away the camera. A mile later, we were traveling in rain. We were slightly damp and chilled as we rolled into a convenience store in the the small town of Duchesne. We spoke briefly with a local man who stopped to admire the Harley and asked where we were headed. He commented briefly on the road ahead. He said he hunted mountain lion in Indian Canyon as a youngster.

The skies remained troubled and we ran through light showers as we headed northeast toward Vernal, UT. By the time we reached Vernal, we decided to call it a day. We found a room near downtown at the Econo-Lodge. Vernal was gearing up for a Dinosaur Days bash of some sort. The busy streets were congested with traffic and festival vendors trying to set up shop.

We strolled through the Veterans War Memorial Plaza on our way downtown to find a bite of supper. There are several memorial stones erected for all American Wars, a statue of a WWI soldier and a Vietnam era Cobra Helicopter on static display. Vernal is always decked out with flags and flowers. Baskets and baskets of flowers (mostly petunias) line Main Street. Giant dinosaur sculptures are everywhere and Vernal is home to the Utah Field House of Natural History where you will find an amazing dinosaur garden.

We found supper (but no beer) at the Ranch Restaurant. The meal was a bit pricey, but hot and tasty. Utah has some funky liquor laws. A couple of years ago, you had to join a club at a restaurant just to get served a beer. Now, in most restaurants, if you have beer with a meal, the limit is three per person. We stopped at another restaurant on the way back advertising beer and found we could not order a beer at all without ordering a meal. We walked on and finally found convenience store beer which we took back to our room.

FYI: A word about the Econo-Lodge. Don't do it! The room was over-priced and while it appeared nice on first impression, closer inspection proved otherwise. It took me about half an hour to realize one of the unknown scents (later identified as dirty mop smell) in the room was not emanating from us after a long day on the motorcycle but the area near the bathroom. We had a flat screen TV but half of the channels listed on the visitor sheet were unavailable. Later, we would have to call the office twice to report a neighbor who apparently had hooked up a play station to the TV and was bombing the hell out of something at full volume. Tim reported the continental breakfast looked like packaged muffins and dry cereal with no designated spot to eat. We will pass on that.

Here is a slide show of today's ride (103 photos):

Today's ride was 285 scenic miles on roads we have not traveled before. Tomorrow, we ride for home...

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Source Material:
Big Rock Candy Mountain