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Show Scenic Circles Offer Traveling Attractions By Kent Shearer Back when I was a lad on the sun parched plains of Kansas, air conditioning largely was confined to motion picture theaters, and my parents saved money all year so the family could spend two of summer's weeks vacationing in Colorado's Rockies. We would tour in the auto during the days, sticking to paved roads, and asking only civilized accomodations at night. Proving, I guess, thatyou can take the boy out of Kansas but not Kansas out of the boy. My tastes for Utah travel remain much the same. I continue to enjoy attractive scenery. demanding only to view it from highways. Further, it is preferable to plot our a circle so that the road to is not also the road from. Using these standards, I've traversed four scenic circles from Salt Lake City. They are: (1) Bear Lake Circle. Take 1-15 north to Brigham City, U.S. 89 through Logan to Garden City, State Highway 30 to Sage Creek Junction, State Highways 16 and 89 to Evanston, Wyoming and 1-80 back to Salt Lake. Attractions include the Utah State University campus, Logan Canyon Bear Lake, historic Rich County structures, the Evanston Oasis and Echo Reservoir. (2) Heber Circle. Take 1-15 south to Provo, U.S. 189 to Heber City, U.S. 40 and State Highway 248 through Park City to Kimball Junction and I-80 back to Salt Lake. Attractions include the BYU campus, Bridal Veil Falls, historic Heber structures and Park City. (3) Southwestern Circle. Take 1-15 south to Cedar City, State Highway 14 to Long Valley Junction, U.S. 89 to Spanish Fork and 1-15 to Salt Lake. Attractions include the Fillmore Territorial Statehouse, Iron Springs State Monument Southern Utah State campus, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Bryce Canyon National Park, historic Sevier and Sanpete County structures, Snow College campus and the Thistle ruins. (4) Southeastern Circle (my favorite). Take 1-15 south to Levan, State Highway 28 and U.S. 89 to Salina, 1-70 to Crescent Junction, U.S. 163 to Blanding, State Highway 95 to Hanksville, State Highway 24 to Sigurd, U.S. Highway 89 and State Highway 28 to Levan and 1-15 to Salt Lake. From and back to Salina, this route produces the most consistent, awesome beauty available from paved roads in the state. Only the stretch from Green River to South of crescent Junction and that from Hog Spring to Hanksville are dull. Attractions include three national parks Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef as well as Natural Bridges National Monument. Well worth a visit is Edge of the Cedars State Historical Museum in Blanding. All of the above will not surprise my political critics who claim I've always gone in circles in that arena as well. |