Our Backyard

Location, location, location.

That real estate mantra might be a tired cliché, but for students studying at Utah State University, it’s a reality that promises an abundance of outdoor recreational possibilities. Logan Canyon, a spectacular natural resource, sits minutes from campus, a backyard playground for all.

 

Logan Canyon is a place of legend, history, recreation and more, and it is the subject of a new book by Utah State University faculty member and department head Michael S. Sweeney. Last Unspoiled Place — Utah’s Logan Canyon is Sweeney’s tribute to the geologic wonder that he was drawn to from his first visit to Logan.

 

“I came to Logan in January 1996 to interview for a job at Utah State University,” Sweeney said. “Ted Pease, then the department head in journalism and communication, briefly took me into the canyon ­­for about a 10-mile drive. There was a lot of snow and the river was churning and we saw a moose. I thought, ‘this is pretty nice.’”

 

It was later, after accepting the job offer at USU, that Sweeney and his family saw the beauty and diversity of Logan Canyon. Making the move from Ohio to Utah, Sweeney decided to drive into Logan from the east, traveling through Logan Canyon on U.S. Highway 89.

 

“That was my introduction to Logan Canyon in the summer,” Sweeney said. “I was stunned and amazed at how beautiful it was. Driving down the u-shaped valley by the Sinks, I thought how green and cool ­— cool in every sense of the word­ — the area was. We drove through the tunnel of trees at Wood Camp with leaves overhead. It was unbelievable.”

 

Within a week of moving in, Sweeney was in the canyon, soon hiking the River Trail, going to the Jardine Juniper and exploring Tony Grove. So, when he was ready to write “Last Unspoiled Place,” he was prepared.

 

“When I got into writing the book I was able to go into parts of the canyon I didn’t know about,” Sweeney said. “I went to Peter Sink and the crash site of the Korean War-era plane. I made it to every site in the canyon I wanted to know.”

 

Last Unspoiled Place is published by National Geographic, a mainstay in the publication world with which Sweeney had previously worked, completing four earlier books. With this, he pitched the idea for a book about Logan Canyon. After submitting an outline and digital photos, Sweeney waited for a decision. The process took about 18 months ­— most of that waiting for National Geographic to make a decision. Writing the book took only five months. Sweeney attributed his swift completion of the book to his newspaper reporting background.

 

The book is divided into five chapters or sections and the reader travels through the book as if taking a drive through Logan Canyon. The first leg of the journey is from the Bonneville Shoreline to Spring Hollow. Readers then travel from Third Dam to China Cave, Twin Creek to Franklin Basin and finally to the summit and beyond in Franklin Basin to Bear Lake.

 

Sweeney likens the canyon to Old Ephraim, a grand, old bear immortalized in local lore.

 

“Logan Canyon, in northernmost Utah, has much in common with Old Ephraim,” Sweeney wrote in Last Unspoiled Place. “Similar to the giant grizzly, it is among the last of its kind. If not the West’s last unspoiled place, Logan Canyon — with its alpine wildflowers, limestone cliffs, rushing trout streams, and myriad other signatures of nature upon unsullied canvas — remains something to be treasured and preserved.”

 

Sweeney believes Logan Canyon is truly a unique place.

 

“I have lived in many states and have seen places that are beautiful and wild,” he said. “But if you think of those places — Yellowstone, for instance — they are commercialized or crowded. There are traffic jams and difficulty getting a room or campsite reservation.”

 

Logan Canyon’s beauty rivals that of Yellowstone, Sweeney said, but it doesn’t have the commercial development and the crowds. The highway makes the canyon easily accessible, and soon a visitor can become lost in the canyon’s wonders.

 

“You can drive a few minutes into the canyon, then park the car and get into a quiet area of almost pure wilderness,” Sweeney said. “It’s a unique place, unspoiled, and it’s a place to restore the soul.”

 

And what are Sweeney’s favorite spots, the places that can still stop him in his tracks, his “wow” areas? There’s the trail from Tony Grove Lake to White Pine Lake, especially at the end of July when the wildflowers are in bloom. Standing atop Mount Naomi with the wind so strong it threatens to remove you from the peak. The trail to the Jardine Juniper with a sheer drop in areas and a view that is spectacular. All are on his list. And then there’s Peter Sink — one of the coldest places in the United States, where the temperature drops so suddenly it feels like you are being stabbed all over. It’s like sitting at the bottom of an ice cream bowl, he said.

 

For almost everyone, a trip through Logan Canyon would not be complete without a raspberry shake at the edge of Bear Lake and its shimmering turquoise waters.

 

A quote by Mary Ellsworth, found in Utah State University’s Special Collections and Archives, opens Sweeney’s book, and it captures the feelings of many who have visited Logan Canyon, whether once or for a lifetime.

 

“There were times when we were down emotionally or mentally and we found ourselves refreshed after a walk in the canyon,” Ellsworth said. “It was our canyon, though we knew we shared it with every lover of nature.”

 

Not a bad thing to have in your backyard.

 

A limited number of copies of Last Unspoiled Place are available at the Cache Valley Visitors Bureau, located in the historic Cache Valley Courthouse at 199 N. Main in Logan. While the initial release by National Geographic was for the society’s 65,000 subscribers around the world, copies are often made available to the general public at a later date.

 

Writer: Patrick Williams (435) 797-1354, patrick.williams@usu.edu