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Show TO SODA SPRINGS. The Routes to the Wonderful Subterranean Sub-terranean Labratsry. The Ogden Canyon Ronfe, Its Beauties, Attractions, Romantic Roman-tic Scenery, aud Speckled Trout. (Special CorrefpjnJeneo ol too llorald.) Soda Speisgs, Idaho, Aug. 27, 'i When the dog star rages in Salt Lake City, and the cry is HO ! FOR fcODA SPEISGS and Idaho, the first consideration for saint cr gentile is the route lo pursue. Your correspondent having just solved this problem by one of the three or four nearly parallel routes claims it to be as gooa if not better than any of its rivals. The easiest journey to this out-of-the-way spot is undoubtedly undoubt-edly to take rail from Salt Lake to Franklin; there hire a team and in fifty-live miles of road travel Sxla .Springs will loom up in eight. But this routo for beauty of scenery or the picturesque has little to commend it; it is only the swiftest and most commodious. com-modious. There is still another in that neighborhood, by leaving the care at Logan and striking from thence by the Blacksmith Fork. Again, there is the round-about Union Pacific, which is a man route and passes through grand scenery and along and across fine trout streams. But your correspondent selected se-lected none of these. He chose as his initial point of starting, a route which sems to be little known in Salt Lake, but which, from its own! intrinsic merits, -should bo more' widely published. I refer to i THE OGDEX CASOJi ROLTK. Altogether the bebt outfit for this or any other journey of like character h for a small party to procure a light spring wagon, and if possible take along a saddle horse for way-side explorations. ex-plorations. After reaching Ogden . City and passing upper Ogden, in two or three miles the mouth of the canon engulfs the traveller. The scenery here compares favorably with that of the Parley's Park and Ameri-1 can Fork canons:, and especially some ot the cross gorges that open into it exhibit OUTLINES OF GRANDEl'R AND BEAUTY none of the others possess to a like decree. In twelve miles from Ogden City you enter the pretty littlo plain known as Ogden Valley, and reach the town of Huntsville. From there following a north-east course, you pass a series of mills which lurnish Targe quantities of lumber to Ogden City; the last one being some twenty miles lrom Huntsville The next stretch is fifteen miles to Blacksmith Fork, which at this point is eighteen miles from Logan. This is the most beautiful stream your correspondent cor-respondent has seen in Utah. It carries a body of water larger than I the Weber south of Echo, and has a succession of (alls, one of which is some thirty feet in height. Bej"ond all question too, it is PAR EXCELLENCE A TROUT STREAM, But let not the angler waste his time with the fly these pampered trout are dainty and only bite at the cricket. crick-et. Now the road heads directly for the south end of Bear Lake, winding through pudding-shaped mountains that are scattered about in wild confusion. confu-sion. Twenty-seven miles travel opens up a view of the celebrated Bear Lake; and its reputation is most richly merited. Tho lake has a green-i green-i ish, emerald hue, and from your lofty outlook Beems to fill to the brim the hills. No shitting of the landscape, no change of light or shadow, and no view whfther near or distant diminishes dimin-ishes that NATIVE BEAUT V OF THIS EN C HASTING LAKE. Some twenty miles long by an average of eight broad, it more nearly resembles resem-bles Lake Tahoe than any other west of the Rocky Mountains. Were the Burroundirg mountains 'speared with Berried columns of the pine, and were the Lake not so regular in its formation, forma-tion, but indented with inlets and sharpened occas'only with promontories, promon-tories, it wouid be a duplicate Tahoe -even perhaps shine, glitter and "refract "re-fract with a more pellucid lustre. Leaving Laketown, the most southerly south-erly settlement to the right, the traveler trav-eler now pursues a straight north course along the "west bank of the lake. All roads lead to Rome, and so here there iB no missing the way, for all roads fondly HUG THIS GEM OF WATERS. We are now on the Evanston or old Sublette cut-ofi", too well known to need minute specification. A chain of smalt towns here lead to the head of the Lake and beyond: Buch as Fish Haven, Saint Charles, Bloom-ington, Bloom-ington, Paris, Ovid, Montpelier and Twin Kivers; and Soda Springs is only some twenty miles Btill further on. In summing up the advantages oi this route 1 especially coll attention to the fact that it leads the traveler to worship at those Bhrincs of beauty, Bear Lake and Blacksmith Fork River. Considering its length, which is Borne one hundred and forty miles from Ogden, it is the best mountain road probably in Utah. The early frontiersmen that pioneered its devious devi-ous path, were civil engineers in their rude way, for they followed the courses of streams in making eleva- , tion and depression, and when reaching reach-ing the table lands sought for the 1 best continuous line of valleys. There iB no ioiy range of mountains to cross, no narrow and dangerous , grades to encounter; and along its whole extent the road is well supplied ' with water and other camping facili-, ties. So, Messrs. Edilors, let us hear no more of doubts expressed in the streets of Salt Lake abo.it the feasibility feasi-bility of this route. It is one of Ka- hire's highways, and may be aa safely followed as if hewn out of the eoh'1 rock. Having now piloted you ti this wonderful subterranean labralofv call el SODA SPRINGS, where imprisoned gaa and steam seek their outlets through medicated waters, wa-ters, a description of it and its host of novelties must be reserved for a subsequent letter. Viator. |