Fall Drive, with an unexpected, wonderful detour into Echo.

 

Over the last few days we have been watching the mountain sides light up in the beautiful display of fall. So we decided to do a nice drive to take it in, and hopefully take a few amazing pictures.

Landis remembers a road from Park City to Ogden as being particularly pretty so we decided that would be nice.

From the drive-by photography album, I am including this one because it shows a huge rock formation I personally have always referred to as the giant sea horse. It is actually best viewed from the west side of i215 towards the E-Center but this caught it alright. Do you see it? I remember as a young kid always imagining it was actually the skeletal remains of a humongous sea horse laying on the side of the mountain. It always makes me smile now when I see it.

After doing some shopping in Park City we continued up towards Coalville. Now that is an interesting little town and I wish I had stopped to take a few pictures, but we kind of blinked and missed it. hehe.

Aside from that, it was about here when something triggered in my memory. That cemetery I have been wanting to visit ever since watching S. Darko is supposed to be around here somewhere. I remember because I was so enamored with this unique cemetery that I spent hours researching and trying to figure out where is was. Most, if not all of that movie was filmed in Utah that is why I devoted so much time to it. So we took a slight detour and explored the outskirts of Coalville hoping to find this cemetery. We pulled over to do some more research.

 
Echo Reservoir. Looking kind of low on water right now.

For some reason the term “The Three Sisters.” also stuck out as a landmark near this cemetery. So we looked that up, and it directed is to southern Utah. Hrm. Maybe I was wrong? We continue skirting Echo Reservoir and are just about to get on the freeway again when I see the sign for the town of Echo. This starts sounding bells off in my head. Come on, slight detour, won’t take much time lets do it.

Echo is even smaller than Coalville. I mean wow. Before we knew it we had passed it. We were just saying well that's Echo, nothing here really when I catch a glimpse of a small cemetery. “THERE IT IS!!!! Turn around! Turn Around!!! I think we found it!” I am seriously bouncing off the walls of the car. So Landis turns the car around and we’re trying to figure out how to get to it, when we see the one street that goes back. Seriously Echo pretty much in entirety sits on a strip that faces the freeway, with from what I could tell, one street going back behind it.

Landis pulls over and I am practically jumping out of the car before he has it stopped. This is it, this is really it, we actually found it! You know, I might be building this up too much, but to me, this is without a doubt the most interestingly beautiful cemetery I have ever seen! It not the grave markers as you might assume, it is the setting, and the backdrop, as you will now get to see.

These were the only recent looking tomb stones, the rest appear to be 1940 or older. But what I like about this shot, is I happen to have that exact cherub sitting, beheaded in my garden. I didn’t behead it, but It is kind of spooky so I keep it that way. LOL.

I am still just enamored with this cemetery. It is so unique and so serene and beautiful. I would have preferred softer lighting, but the time of day we showed up that couldn’t really be helped. (well it could’ve but that filter hasn’t arrived yet)

  

Next to the cemetery sits this old church. Recognized by the Sate Historical Society. yay! And, if my memory serves me right, this is the church they Burned down in S. Darco. (you know now I have to watch it again to confirm a few other sights I discovered.)

 
Random outhouse with a cool backdrop.

I hade a hard time restraining myself here. It is absolutely breathtaking. But I peeled myself away for us to continue our journey.

Pulpit Rock and Witches Cave (I believe Witches Cave is that opening that resembles a skull)
 
Well I’ll be I stumbled upon a Historical Marker for the Pony Express.

We continued back on the freeway. I saw a sign for a rest area and suddenly realized I had to pee.

 
Here is the view from that rest area.

After this we realize we should have hit the interchange by now. A glimpse at the Atlas we discover we appear to have missed it and are now almost in Evanstan, Wyoming ruh roh! Luckily there appears to be a scenic turn out ahead.

 
Some virga if you please.

 
Castle Rock.

 
Random oddly placed junkyard…

 
And the sky’s let loose! I actually kind of like this shot!

 
Devil’s Slide. This is a rather interesting rock formation.

After that we arrived in South Ogden, and headed home from there. Really rather beautiful drive, plenty of wonderful fall colors. The only problem is, every time I saw a really interesting explosion of color there wasn’t really anywhere to pull over. So our original idea of getting some cool fall foliage shots turned into a fun adventure of tracking a very hard to locate cemetery. All in all, it was probably one of the most amazing random adventures I’ve had in a while.

I want to go back to Echo and take pictures during dusk, and nightfall. I think they would be amazing!

So this was not a hike, but can still get some squirrelly ratings. A perfect 10 out of 10. This was an awesome adventure.