Utah – Trains, Little Grand Canyon and the SWELL!

Dave and I recently finished our 8 days in Helper, Utah. The view from Homer was absolutely spectacular! We felt like we were completely surrounded by mountains and to wake up each morning to no humidity and lower temps, was amazing. Even though we had a lot of smoke in the area from the fires in California, it didn’t detract from the beauty all around us. And while the average temperature was 97 degrees plus, no humidity makes a huge difference.

The small town of Helper is within walking distance and has a great museum on trains and mining from the area. We were fascinated to learn that the trains are actually “Helper” engines that aided the other trains through the mountain passes. It is still a very active train area and several went through daily. There’s just something about looking at the mountains and hearing that whistle as the train rumbles through. We did have a small river along one side of the campground although, after seeing how clear the water was in Montana, this river appeared to be muddy and dark. Still that same cold, mountain water, but not as appetizing to dip your toes in or to sit and cool down.

As you all know by now, we love to try and find an out of the way drive to actually see the area where we are staying. We actually did two of them. The first was on an evening to try and spot some wildlife in the area. Basically, we found one cow and calf wandering around and that was it. What we weren’t expecting to find were the old mining towns, or rather what’s left of them as we drove through the canyon closest to us. There isn’t much to see, but after visiting the museum and learning about them, they start to come to life in front of you. If you look really close, you can see Dave wandering amongst the rubble left behind.

Our very favorite drive was through the Utah, Swell. Not only is the little grand canyon there, but the canyon itself is amazing. You just start driving through and around every corner is yet another view that’s even better than the previous one. We did finally see some antelope as we were entering the swell which seemed to kick the day off right, and they had an amazing metal sculpture in reference to all those that came before us and their travel across this amazing area.

To sum it all up, the whole area is beautiful. Hot. Dry. Smokey at times. Beautiful in it’s stark, dry, landscape. Not someplace we want to live in the future but are so glad we saw it and experienced a small piece of it.

Headed to Colorado next. Really hoping to see some large animals and the color green. Not sage green, but honest to goodness, green. Green trees, Green grass, anything green!

See you on the road,

Dave and Theresa