Quiet times crossing central Utah

80 miles to Fillmore, no services. 

Pahvant Range at Fillmore

Koosharen Reservoir

Colorado River overlook with Hite Crossing Bridge (center right)

For all the grandeur of Great Basin National Park, everything slips right back to desert in a few fast miles. After the obligatory state line casino-hotel, Utah goes silent for 80 miles. The highway crosses a number of silent mountain ranges, some dusted with snow.

I got my fill of banded rock and little else, moving toward cities as the mile slowly clicked off. The mountain passes were marked with elevation signs more than names. 

Crossing the desert of southern Utah on Easter Sunday was not lost on me, but I did not dwell on it either. The season of renewal was moving forward briskly where water and shade allowed, as the warm winter did not replenish the West as it might have in past years.  

The dry winter meant no glimpses of Lake Sevier, which lies just south of U.S. 50. Lake Sevier is a Lake Bonneville remnant but no longer a year-round lake. Agricultural diversions and lack of a decent snowpack left the lakebed empty. 

For of rural driving, I stayed in Scipio, a little farm town with a large name, at a nice, spartan hotel. Its founded was named after the Roman general who defeated Hannibal and helped end the Second Punic War. 

I fared better with lakes when leaving Scipio early the next morning. Roadhouse Blues came on the radio, and I couldn’t argue with Jim Morrison howling, “Keep you eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel.” I rolled past Scipio Lake, then winding Rocky Ford Reservoir near Sigurd. The Sevier River had some decent flow through Sigurd, and the creeks in the mountains seemed healthier. 

I stopped near the earthen dam of the Koosharem Reservoir, with morning mist hanging above the surface. A handful of ducks rippled the water, but it was otherwise cold and quiet, the lake not yet in the morning sun. 

Where golden eagles fled

As I started driving again, some large birds picked in the sage ahead. I expected buzzards but realized I stumbled onto a pair of golden eagles, a species I’d never seen in the wild. The eagles ignored me until I braked to find a spot to view them. I could see their pupils dilate as they surveyed me and quickly took flight. They clearly wanted nothing to do with humans. 

I parked and shuffled my camera lens for hopes of a few shots, but with a few muscular flaps of their wings, they cruised out of sight. There would be all sorts of bird sightings in the next 50 miles, but the two that got away would stick with me. I lacked photographic evidence, but I saw them. 

Focusing on the eagles, I paid little attention to the turnoff for Fish Lake, Utah’s largest mountain lake and home to Pando, the quaking aspen clone that has tens of thousands of genetically identical aspens connected by one root system. One of the world’s largest organisms, it could be between 9,000 and 16,000 years old. 

Sure, I saw golden eagles and would soon stand below the red rocks of Capitol Reef National Park. But I hate to miss highlights on roads I might not travel again. 

The quiet of the road resume quickly after Capitol Reef. With many days of roads without services, I knew what I was getting with Utah Route 95. The scenic route has no services for its whole length from Hanksville to Blanding, all 125 miles. 

Hanksville’s famous convenience store built into the stone was closed for Easter Sunday, even if the gas pumps remained on. I didn’t need to fill up but I did anyway. 

Following the patchy Dirty Devil River, I barely saw any cars until reaching the overlook of the Hite Passage Bridge, a turnoff that rises several hundred feet above the Colorado River. The overlook lies on a high bluff five miles from the bridge.   

If I called the Colorado River mighty, you could call me a liar. From this height, the water seemed low, green, and sedate. In an ordinary April, the Colorado would be flush with water. But the Colorado Rocky Mountains are historically dry. 

East of the ghost town Hite lies the Hite Passage Bridge, which marks the unofficial northern end of Lake Powell and the only Colorado River crossing in a 300-mile span between Moab and the Glen Canyon Dam Bridge. 

Hite falls within the northern boundary of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which abuts the southern end of Canyonlands National Park.In this year of deep drought, the Hite marina and boat launch were hundreds of feet from the Colorado’s thin ribbon. When I crossed, I didn’t glance below, and headed back into the bone-dry country. 

From the overlook, it didn’t look especially healthy, although the influence of the dam generally doesn’t reach this far. Following the bridge, I fell back into the land of interesting mesas and rock formations, enjoying the lack of people while it lasted. 

I already felt the pull of home as I reached the Four Corners region, even if I had two-thirds of Colorado and at least three mountain passes ahead.