Cisco Sonar: The Highway

We built our home in Bridgerland 45 years ago and the front of our lot bordered the Logan Canyon Highway, US 89. I really would have rather been further up in the hills with trees, but we were living there full time and needed access during the winter. Back in those days nobody had four-wheel drives and snowplows were few and far between. I became good at chaining up and we could plant trees since there were none on the lot. 

We built a large deck on the front of the house to take advantage of our beautiful view of Bear Lake. Over the years we have become totally addicted to the view and the deck. When the weather is tolerable, we spent as much time on the deck as possible while watching the cars and traffic go by below us. 

I'm having a difficult time writing this article. My memory is not good enough over the last 50 years to remember what year things happened then, so I'll just give general comments. Most people don’t remember what the old highway was like prior to the Logan Canyon Improvement project. After battling environmental concerns, it took place from the late 1990’s until the section between the summit and Garden City was completed in 2005. Prior to that, the road was two lanes with narrow shoulders but there was not much traffic on it. Most of the traffic were sedans, 2-wheel drive pickups a few semis and dump trucks. Truck campers were popular and most of the trailer houses were small as were the ski boats. For a while, we had an influx of cyclists who used to ride the road constantly. They seem to drop out after the canyon was widened. We did have a lot of tour buses pass through, but like lots of things, they faded away.

In the last 20 years things have changed. Now there are a lot of folks who commute through the canyon to work in Cache Valley plus all the locals who need to drive to Logan whenever they need something. There's also a lot of construction people that come and go daily. The number of people going to their homes or cabins increases dramatically every year. Depending on what type of construction is going on or how much material they need to restock the gravel pit, double trailer monster semis with fill or asphalt hog the road. The clattering of the Jake brakes is a constant bother. Bicycles have been replaced with ATV's and UTV’s. The surf boats are huge just like the travel trailers that are the size of small homes. Groups of motorcycles parade by the thousands as they enjoy their touring. Paddleboards, jet skis, kayaks, and all plastic floating things are on every other car. With the Canyon construction now, there are brief periods of no traffic going down as they are held up by the hundreds at the lights. I never realized how many vehicles travelled the canyon until the lights were installed. 

So why do we put up with all this crap? I am used to it because we have lived here all our adult lives, change came slowly, and our trees are big enough to muffle some of the noise. Watching traffic can be entertaining, and I like to think about who all the people are, what did they do to be on the road and where are they going. The view of the lake is still there, beautiful as ever. Once you live at Bear Lake it is in your blood, you can never get rid of it. I will just have to put up with it.