Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Day 82 of 117 on our “Go West, Young Man” Two Lane Adventure – Sunday 9/16/18


Today we departed Antelope RV Park in Delta and are headed to Green River, Utah. Antelope RV was an OK overnight stop, but not much to do in the area. As the road approached Delta, it was a straight passage across desert. It has now changed to zigzags through farming areas.

The highway continues to zigzag through farms until arriving at more mountainous terrain at Holden. In 1853, a group of wagons came over the rise of Scipio Summit. The Pioneers saw a valley covered with grass and sage brush with trees defining the creeks. This large fertile valley was surrounded by the Pahvant range of mountains on the south and east, by the House range on the west, and the Canyon range on the north. To the west was Pahvant Butte, an ancient volcanic cone. The shore line of old Lake Bonneville could be traced here and there along the mountains in the east. These pioneers did not know it at the time but the climate was typical for the area, too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.

William Stevens and Richard Johnson obtained permission from Brigham Young to start a new settlement. In 1855 the two men and their families came from Fillmore and settled on Pioneer Creek. The first plowing at this area was done and attempts were made to plant crops but the harvest was poor because of the shortness of the season and menacing grasshoppers. Elijah Edward Holden came back to Utah in 1847, soon as the pioneers arrived. He froze to death in a sudden winter storm in 1857. The first post office was established in 1858 and the name of the town was changed from Cedar Springs to Holden in honor of Edward Elijah Holden. In 1864 the settlers built an adobe school house just west of the spot where the newer two story school house eventually was built.

At Holden, the highway merges with Interstate 15 to cross the Pavant Range at Scipio Summit and into Scipio. Scipio was settled in 1859. Early names included Round Valley and Craball, but it was eventually named for Scipio Africanus Kenner, a young lawyer who helped the pioneers to obtain legal title to the land. In 1861, George A. Smith organized an LDS branch in the town. Fort Scipio also existed here at one time. There are several nice pioneer style homes found throughout the town. Several houses are found on the National Register of Historic Places. The Peter Quarnberg House, the Merien and Rosabelle Robins House, the Thuesen-Petersen House and the Pharo Village (a Fremont site) south of Scipio. Also on the Historic Register is the Town Hall built in 1935. Not on the Historic Register is an old gas station, located on Main Street. Before I-15 came through, this was highway 91, it must have been a bustling town at one time.

Route 50 then separates from this freeway to travels in conjunction with Interstate 70 in Salina. The two highways run concurrent from this point east to Colorado. In early 1864 the scouts and some thirty families returned to the area and settled here. Because of the abundant salt deposits nearby, they named the site "Salina," surveyed it into square blocks, each divided into four lots, and started to build shelters. Efforts to divert creek water to the north failed and forced them to put to the plow only land south of the creek; however, they did harvest a good crop from this. They started to build a fort and church and constructed a bridge across Salina creek. Troubles with the Indians, the Black Hawk War, forced the settlers to retreat to the Manti area. They returned in 1871, determined to stay, and organized a militia, completed the church and fort, started a school, and explored the canyon to the east, where they found anthracite coal in "almost inexhaustible quantities," various minerals, and more salt deposits.

During the 1870s a telegraph, regular postal service, a school, and a small library were operating. Many small mines produced coal for local use, but farming and livestock raising continued to constitute the basic economy. The railroad reached Salina in 1891. That same year, a newspaper, the Central Utah Press, was started, and a city hall with library and an eight-room elementary schoolhouse were built. A second Latter-day Saint ward was established in 1912 and its chapel built at the junction of State and Main streets. An LDS seminary was organized in 1921; the first seminary building was completed in 1953. The community also welcomed members and churches of other faiths. In 1882 a Presbyterian chapel was established and continued until 1947. In 1982 the Faith Baptist Church, independent and local, was established. A related private school was organized in 1984, and in 1991, a church building was constructed. In 130 years Salina has changed from a settlement of thirty families whose hard-scrabble economy was based on farming and livestock to a small city of 2,000 with an economy based on coal mining, trucking, farming, and livestock.

When traveling on the interstate, there is not as much to see as there is on a secondary road. While co-routed with I-70, Route 50 crosses the Wasatch Plateau and passes through the San Rafael Swell. We pulled into the Salt Wash View. This roadside view has spectacular views of the San Rafael Swell and the stupendous rock formations. A part of the Colorado Plateau, the San Rafael Swell is high desert country, vastly different from the Sonoran desert of the Southwest. In some sections, it is a sweeping country with towering mesas, buttes, and pinnacles rising from flat desert floors. In other areas, it boasts rolling pasturelands populated with antelope and wild horses. And just around the bend it can become an incredibly wild, broken land with streams cutting through slot canyons that open up to panoramic vistas.

Yet again, we are on a stretch of highway that is 100 miles without services from Salina to Green River.

We stopped at the Devil’s Canyon View. There are relatively few canyons on the west side of the San Rafael Swell, where the land slopes more gently and does not form the dramatic reef that characterizes the eastern edge. One of the best is Devils Canyon, a long canyon that starts just beneath the highest point in the Swell and has eroded deep into generally dull-colored layers of Cedar Mesa sandstone that cover this region, forming some narrow sections and joined by many slot-like tributaries.

On the road today, we have seen three different EarthRoamer RV’s. We have not seen many before and to see three in one day, amazing! This is what I learned about them. Since 1998, EarthRoamer has been redefining luxury camping and overland travel with their solar/diesel hybrid, four-wheel drive Xpedition Vehicles. 











They are the go anywhere, do anything answer for people who want to travel on their own terms and seek their own adventures, without sacrificing any of the comforts of home. 

Each EarthRoamer is built custom to order and offers capability, comfort, craftsmanship and convenience unmatched by typical recreational vehicles. Charlie found a 2006 EarthRoamer on RV trader for $149,900 … WOW!

The construction of I-70 through the swell is noted as one of the engineering marvels of the Interstate Highway System. One specific feat, the excavation through a portion called Spotted Wolf Canyon, required excavating 3,500,000 cubic yards of rock to have a bed for just 8 miles of roadway. Construction workers noted that prior to the construction of the freeway a man could stand in this canyon and touch both sides of the canyon wall.

We were supposed to stop in Green River for the night, but it was early and aonly 100 more miles to Fruita. We called Monument RV Park in Fruita and they had a space for us tonight, so we made Green River a gas and lunch stop. As we were heading back onto I-70, Charlie said we have been here before. I thought for a little bit and then a roadside piece of public art caught my eye and I said, yes … we have been here before. We were there in 2016 on our Southwest Caravan. We came to a Pilot to get gas and we were the tail-enders for the caravan, because the real tail-enders were back down the road with Bud and Bernice and their fuel leak.

Green River is home to an annual Melon Fest. It is held the third Saturday in September to celebrate the end of the melon season. There are vendors in the park Friday and Saturday with crafts, retail, and food. There will also be somethings for children like face painting, bounce houses, etc. There are three melon growers in Green River, all of whom were represented at this year’s Melon Days! You can pick up melons any time from Dunham Farms or Vetere Farms by visiting their melon stands along Main Street in Green River. The third grower is Thayn Farms.

US 6 rejoins Route 50 near Green River, Utah. The three routes run concurrent and follow the southern edge of the Book Cliffs to Grand Junction, Colorado. Once again, services are not present from Thompson Springs to Fruita, Colorado, a span of about 60 miles. This portion of US-50 is part of the Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway, a National Scenic Byway. The name of the byway comes from the large number of areas along the route with visible dinosaur remains.

 








We passed the Utah and Colorado state line sign and the ladies that wanted to picture the fact that they were there!





We arrived in Fruita, CO at Monument RV, our home for 4 nights!

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