A beautiful drive

Monday, October 3 was a beautiful day! We left the National Park and spent most of the day driving to Provo. We went north on 93 to 50. Highway 50 bills itself as the loneliest road in America, but I think 93 can beat it. Both roads were two lane with very little traffic and went straight as a stick – 93 goes straight north and 50 goes east.

It may be lonely, but this was the most beautiful drive of the trip. The Great Basin Desert lived up to its name. We were at 4000 feet driving through a vast plain filled with gorgeous yellow sagebrush. There were a few ranch houses and some cattle grazing.

We turned off on Highway 132 and drove through the tiny town of Nephi to  the junction with FR015. This started the official scenic drive through the Uinta National Forest which rises into the Wasatch Range. We switch-backed up the mountain road to over 9000 feet. We had tremendous views of the desert below, the yellow, orange, and red leafed trees on the hill side interspersed among the many varieties of pines, and snow capped Mt. Nebo. We stopped at several scenic overlooks. At one spot we looked down on red rock formations of hoodoos, cones, and other red sandstone and conglomerate formations. This was aptly named the “Little Bryce Canyon!” We even ran into some snow flurries and there was some snow on the ground.

Don at "Little Bryce Canyon"

Suzanne in the snow flurries

We also saw lots of cattle. They were all over the place and seemed to enjoy snoozing alongside the road. We even saw a few mule deer with their large ears.

We finally stopped in Provo to spend the night before heading into Salt Lake City.