Skyline Drive Ride

Mike led Sid, Terry and me on a series of narrow, dirt roads up through the mountains of the Manti-La Sal National Forest southeast of Provo. Once again, I was struck by how many places there are to camp, ride, hunt, fish, etc. in Utah. It's an outdoor lover's paradise. Click on photos to enlarge.

Nebo Loop Scenic Byway

Is another narrow, twisting road up through the mountains of the Uinta National Forest southeast of Payson. For my biker friends - you will want to add this road along with the Alpine Loop to your list of rides in the Salt Lake area.

Click on photos to enlarge

Rush hour traffic

The Devil's Kitchen (a mini Bryce Canyon)

Uinta National Forest Ride

Terry, Mike and I rode the UTVs from the Tibble Fork Reservoir up over the mountains to Cascade Falls exploring several spur roads along the way. If you ever needed an excuse to buy an OHV, it is the ability to see parts of this beautiful country that you would never see from the highway. Unfortunately, the mount for my gps is broken so I was unable to make a track of the trip.

One happy camper

Big Cotton Canyon

No one knows an area like the locals so for the price of a diet coke and some Hersey's chocolate, I engaged professional guides, Terry & Gail, to lead an expedition up Big Cotton Canyon to Park City and then on to Mirror Lake. No question, it was money well spent...

Terry & Gail

The slopes of Park City in the summer

Fresh fish for dinner

The Alpine Loop (Hwy 92)

This scenic byway (southeast of Salt Lake City) winds its way up through the mountains of the Uinta National Forest where you see vistas like this...

And critters like this...

All in all a great area for hiking and camping.

Museum of Ancient Life

At first I thought the Museum of Ancient Life was going to be about my cousin, Chris, but no, it is about other old fossils like dinosaurs. If you can tolerate a million screaming kids, it is an interesting place to visit.

Bingham Canyon Mine

If you are going to pay to see a big hole in the ground, then the Kennecott Utah Copper's Bingham Canyon Mine is a good place to start. It is the world's largest man-made excavation (can be seen from space). Since open-pit mining began in 1903, enough material has been removed to create a pit that is more than three quarters of a mile deep and two-and-a-half miles wide. Still in operation, this massive mine has yielded more than 19 million tons of copper as well as vast quantities of gold, silver and molybdenum. Click on photos to enlarge.

I was going to put a set of these on my UTV until I saw they were $25,000 per tire...