Bear Lake SP, Utah

We left Nephi, UT and travelled north towards Salt Lake City.  It was interesting as we started to recognize different areas from our skiing visits.  We passed Sandy and the exit for Alta and Brighton, then Park City exit; it brought back good memories.

We went through Echo Canyon , which was important for early Utah history. It was used by Native Americans, buffalo, Pony Express and wagon trains.  Apparently, the famous Donner party did not use it, which caused delay of their plans and ultimate problems in the Sierras.

Later in the afternoon, we landed at Bear Lake Birch campground and settled in.  The lake is huge, 20 miles long and 8 miles wide, with beautiful blue color.  It’s called the Caribbean of the Rockies because of its color, which is due to calcium carbonates suspended in the water. The beach is easily accessible from our site, just a short walk, perfect for afternoon swim. You have to walk out a lot to get the water up to your waist or more, the bottom is sandy and water clear.  It was a perfect beach experience.  It’s hard to believe we are in Utah, almost at Idaho border.

There’s a bike trail around the lake and we joined our camp hosts, Debbie and Barry, on a ride.  They are originally from New Hampshire, but now are retired and working as camp hosts in different areas. We biked along the east side of the lake, there are couple of access points for boating and swimming.

Garden City is the local activity center with motels, campgrounds and fast food places.  The big event here is the Raspberry Festival first weekend in August. It celebrates the harvest of local raspberries with food, vendors, fishing contest, etc.  We will miss it though we did not miss the local specialty - raspberry shake! The vibe here is that of shore vacation, boats and jet skis, kayaks and paddle boards, and families gather in the afternoon for ice cream and raspberry shakes.

We had to get some errands done,  so we went to Logan, about 50 west of here.  You go through Logan Canyon, which is beautiful. There’s a ski resort, Beaver Mountain, few sheep farms but most is part of Cache National Forest.  There are campgrounds, horse riding and hiking trails, plus fly fishing along Logan River. Just beautiful!

Tom decided to give jet skis a try and I went along for the ride.  It was fun going that fast across the lake, though I had some trepidations initially. I’m not the one for speed! But when all set and done, it was great.  Kayaking was a bit more challenging, they only had eight foot kayaks, too small for Tom.  I did take one out, it was nice to paddle along the shore, away from the activity.  There are wetlands that can be explored, just watch out for rocks since it is pretty shallow even 50 plus feet away from the shore.

Now we are ready to go to our next stop, Grand Teton NP!