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Show Scenic Loop Tour Oliers Splendors i (Editor's Note: This is another in a series of "See Utah" articles designed to better acquaint Utahns with their home state. They have been prepared by the Utah Tourist and Publicity Council. Coun-cil. Each week a different sector of the state will be featured.) The most realistic life-sized dinosaur replicas, steepest cable tramway and coolest limestone cave in the world aire just a few of the spectacles in store for travelers in this week's suggest- ed Alpine Scenic Loop tour. As outlined by James D. Cannon, Can-non, director of the Utah Tourist, Tour-ist, and Publicity Council, the proposed' tour begins at Draper, Salt Lake County, on Highway 91, veers east on State Highway 80 just south of the point of the Mountain and continues over the famous Alpine Scenic Loop highway, high-way, through Provo Canyon, He-ber, He-ber, past Rock port Lake, Echo Dam and finally through Hene-fer Hene-fer and down the Old Pioneer Trail back to Salt Lake City. "Dinosaur World" is the first MAP OF I i SCENIC I TOUR I I V HENEFElO SALT LAKE f CITYjjSpp AANSHIP V c qrockport I V. X STATE utPJPR VARK M. world! J" PT(AMAS I Tm06O5 JHEBER ' , V fAUS (Skyride) ... PROVO) stop on the tour. This attraction is on the east side of Highway 91 near the Draper Crossroads. It features seven life-size dinosaur replicas sculptured in fiber glass by Elbert Porter, one-time University Uni-versity of Utah professor of sculpture. These great prehistoric prehis-toric lizards, including a gigantic, gigan-tic, horned Triceratops, i.r so realistic that even modern-day-animals sh) way. Inside a nearby quonsut hut, visitors may see Mr. Porter at work on his next creation, a massive, 80-foot long Diplodocus which stands nearly 25-feet high. Eventually, the sculptor plans to have more than 100 life-sized dinosaurs on display "in their natural habitat" on an ajacent tract of land. Next stop on the tour is the world-famous Tlmpanogos Cave National Monument in American Ameri-can Fork Canyon. This huge cavern, cav-ern, with its breath-taking limestone lime-stone formations, is reached by a mile and a half long, zig-zag-ging foot trail maintained by the National Park Service. The hike Is Invigorating and the beauty of the cave make it well worth the effort The government provides pro-vides guided tours. Continuing over the Alpine Loop, one passes beneath towering tower-ing Mt. Timpanogos which climbs high above other peaks In the Wasatch Range. The road winds through cool pine and aspen as-pen groves, and there are ample picnic facilities along the way. At Bridal Veil Falls In Provo Canyon, visitors can ride the recently re-cently completed "Skyride" tramway which climbs up a 43-degree 43-degree cable to a platform 1,220 feet above the canyon floor. The ride passes brrath-taklngly close to the sprays of the picturesque falls. From Bridal Veils Falls, the tour continues up Provo Canyon. If you like you can stop anywhere any-where along the way and with hook-and line try your luck for some of those big Cerman brown Trout that lurk in the deep pools of the Provo River. The highway passes over Deer Creek Dam and the blue water of the reservior comes Into view, back-dropped by the greenery of verdant Heber Valley. From Heber you can take a side trip to Devil's Slide, strange formation of nature on Interstate Highway 80. The tour then continues con-tinues over State Highway 65, following the Old Pioneer Trail to Salt Lake City, emerging onto the valley bench at This is the Place Monument, past Hogle Zoological Zoo-logical Gardnes. |