MEEKER, CO TO BRIGHAM CITY, UT ON THE BACKROADS…
Saturday July 29th:
Driving backroads Meeker to Brigham City (2 lane highways 391 miles – 8hrs?)
So we got an early start (for us) and were rolling around 8ish, leaving Meeker we traveled first to a little hamlet called Maybell, CO on CR 57 & Hwy 40. We stopped at a little store hoping for bathrooms, nope and got sent to the city park. None of us had ever travelled this route so we had no idea what we’d find along the way, but that’s part of the adventure, right?
After Maybell we continued on Hwy 40 to Hwy 318 heading to Dutch John, UT, it was all rolling hills (mountains) and valleys, ranches, etc. and following the Green River, it really looked like a wonderful place to live. We chatted about what we would need to live there (high speed internet seemed to be a must for all, oh and a kid to come shovel us out in the winters).
The temps were climbing fast up near 100 degrees, but dropping into Dutch John was interesting, at one point we’re cruising along on Highway 318 in and out of UT/WY and all of a sudden the highway turns to a half assed dirt road (Brown’s Park Rd) up over a small pass (6300’) dropped into Wyoming for half a minute and finally hitting the pavement again now Hwy 191 down to a gas station in Dutch John for fuel and we were off again.
Next we hit Hwy 44 north to Hwy 414 Traversing the lower edge of Flaming Gorge Reservoir, Next stop Mountain View WY for fuel and a late lunch/early dinner. We chose the bowling alley (only place with burgers), and then made our way north and west avoiding the awaiting I-84 to take in the lesser seen route that we had a warning of road closure, but chanced it anyway. Hwy 414 turns into Hwy 412, north and west up to Hwy 189 north again to Kemmerer, WY.
Kemmerrer was a drive by rolling on towards Logan, UT. Hwy 189 turns into 30 or 89, we took 89 the road supposedly closed (thinking if it was closed and we couldn’t get around it we could always turn back and run back to the boring freeway.
Lucky for us it was open, although a semi obviously had some problems at the top of the 7000’ pass above Bear Lake. A flat out crazy place that apparently all of central UT goes to in July, it was a veritable zoo in traffic. We grabbed gas and hit yet another 7500’ pass up out of Bear Lake then dropping through one of the most scenic canyon areas we’d seen (reminding us of the lower half of Hwy 12 above the tunnel along the Rimrock Lake). In this case we were following Beaver Creek and Then the Logan River down into Logan, UT.
In Logan as the sun was setting we gassed and made an all out run for Brigham City to our awaiting hotel rooms and bed. It was nearly 10 pm by the time our heads hit the pillows, but we decided on another early start to try and beat the heat tomorrow.
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