Perry, Utah

Good morning, my friends. Well...the best laid plans.... We find ourselves in Perry, Utah, this morning. While hitching up yesterday morning, Mike noticed another broken leaf spring on the RV. You might recall we had a broken leaf spring at the beginning of this trip while we were in Petaluma, California. (Sigh.) It probably broke because of a broken bolt that would have tweaked the spring and put pressure on it. These sorts of things are caused by the rough roads we've traveled. Hopefully, Mike can find the part he needs to replace it, and then it will be an easy fix. We're hoping to be on our way again by tomorrow.

For the first part of yesterday's journey, I was busy calling ahead, moving our reservations out by one day. Fortunately, every place (including an Oregon state park) was able accommodate the change, and we didn't have to reroute ourselves. After that, I spent some time locating places Mike might be able to get the part he needs. It's looking like he'll have to drive south 50-some miles to Salt Lake City to get what he needs unless he can find something closer.

In any case, we made it to Perry, Utah, safe and sound with our broken spring. When all the Googling was finished, there was some pretty scenery to take in. We were traveling a section of road we haven't traveled before. There were plenty of barns.

We crossed over Strawberry Reservoir. It is Utah's most popular fishery, receiving over 1.5 million angling hours annually and is part of the Blue Ribbon Fisheries program. 

Game fish in the reservoir include rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, kokanee salmon, and crayfish. The reservoir is situated in Strawberry Valley. This valley is normally part of the Colorado River drainage. It was created with the construction of the Soldier Creek Dam, an earthen dam, 272 feet (83 m) tall and 1,290 feet (390 m) long at its crest, completed in 1972. The original Strawberry Dam was constructed by the Bureau in 1913, about eight miles upstream of the current location. It was deliberately breached in 1985. The 1972 Soldier Creek Dam expanded the capacity of Strawberry Reservoir from 283,000 acre⋅ft to a maximum capacity of 1,106,500 acre⋅ft and a total surface area of some 17,164 acres. Strawberry Reservoir was the 2006 recipient of the American Fisheries Society's outstanding sport fish development/restoration Project of the Year award.

We passed through another section of aspen trees growing thick on the hillsides for several miles. It must be pretty through here in the fall when the leaves change. For now, the aspens are just leafing out.

This was our view for much of the day. We were driving toward the Wasatch range. It runs about 160 miles (260 km) from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Great Basin region. The northern extension of the Wasatch Range, the Bear River Mountains, extends into Idaho, constituting all of the Wasatch Range in that state.

There were barns all along the way.

And eventually, we came to the Jordanelle dam and reservoir. 

Jordanelle Reservoir, an earthen dam, is fed and drained primarily by the Provo River. The construction of the dam meant rerouting both U.S. Route 40 and U.S. Route 189. The towns of Keetley, Hailstone, and Jordanelle were submerged with the creation of the reservoir. There is also a state park associated with this area.

Continuing on, more barns.

And then, the Echo Reservoir and state park. Echo Reservoir contains rainbow, brown trout, and channel catfish. It is stocked with more catchables in the fall. 

It is created by Echo Dam, an earth-fill structure. It has a structural height of 158 feet and contains 1,540,000 cubic yards of materials. The spillway has a capacity of 15,000 cubic feet per second. The outlet conduit is a concrete-lined horseshoe tunnel to the gatehouse, from which two steel pipes pass through a tunnel to the valve house. The outlet works has a capacity of 2,100 cubic feet per second.

And, not for the first time, we passed by the Devil's Slide as we neared our final destination. 

It consists of two parallel limestone strata that have tilted to lie vertically, protruding 40 feet (12 m) out of the mountainside. Intervening layers have eroded more quickly and formed a channel running hundreds of feet down the mountain. The distance between the two slabs is around 25 feet (7.6 m). 

Continuing on, we saw a few more barns.

Also, more of the beautiful Wasatch Range. We generally pass through this area on a fall trip, and so we aren't used to seeing these snow-capped peaks.

As we were nearing our final destination in Perry, we stopped at a rest area. This was our view getting out of the truck.

There was a monument there about Peter Skene Ogden, for whom Ogden, Utah, is named.

Below the information about Peter Ogden was a story about hostilities between American and British fur trappers. I regret the use of racist and pejorative terminology to describe women and children within, but the story is still interesting.

On our way again, we saw more barns.

And eventually the Great Salt Lake came into view. The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It is a remnant of Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric body of water that covered much of western Utah.

The area of the lake can fluctuate substantially due to its low average depth of 16 feet (4.9 m). In the 1980s, it reached a historic high of 3,300 square miles (8,500 km2), and the West Desert Pumping Project was established to mitigate flooding by pumping water from the lake into the nearby desert. In 2021, after years of sustained drought and increased water diversion upstream of the lake, it fell to its lowest recorded area at 950 square miles (2,500 km2). There is concern that continued shrinkage could turn the lake into a bowl of toxic dust, poisoning the air around Salt Lake City.

The lake's three major tributaries, the Jordan, Weber, and Bear rivers together deposit around 1.1 million tons of minerals in the lake per year. Since the lake has no outlet aside from evaporation, minerals accumulate and give the lake high salinity (far saltier than seawater) and density. This density causes swimming in the lake to feel similar to floating. Indeed, I have been swimming in the Great Salt Lake, and I can attest to the fact that one will float like a cork.

The lake provides a habitat for millions of native birds, brine shrimp, shorebirds, and waterfowl, including the largest staging population of Wilson's phalarope in the world. On a previous trip, we stayed at Antelope Island State Park, which gave us an opportunity to be up close and personal with the lake.

Okay, and by then, we were almost finished with the day's drive. We saw one more barn, and then we were at our next stop at the Perry/Brigham City KOA.

Originally, we'd planned just one night here, but it looks like it will be two. (Fingers crossed it is no more than two.) The kitties are happy either way. We're situated so that Sadie can bask in the morning sunshine.

Smitty is just happy for the full complement of quilts for his napping pleasure.

As I'm writing, Mike has already made calls to a place in Salt Lake City where they had a high level of confidence they could provide him with a new spring. He'll have to make about an hour's drive (one way) to pick it up. Assuming he can get the part, he'll be able to replace the broken one fairly quickly. Obtaining the part is the most difficult part of the job. 

He's outside just now removing the broken one, and he'll take off in a few minutes. I offered to ride along for company, but he says it isn't necessary. Frankly, with the togetherness of three months in an RV, sometimes a little alone time is relished. I'll be fine here working on my slow-stitching. 

So that's where we stand...at a standstill...and very hopeful we'll continue our journey home tomorrow. Time will tell if this little hiccup along the trail will discourage us from seeing Idaho's Shoshone Falls. Fortunately, these problems, once repaired, are forgotten quickly. My dad had this piece of good advice, and we have followed it in our travels: Never let an RV problem ruin your day.