Logan Canyon and Temple Fork Sawmill

Every time I talk to someone local about a hike I want to do that happens to not be in Logan Canyon, they get upset and tell me that there’s lots of good hikes in Logan Canyon. I mean, sure, and there are, but (a) there’s more than one canyon in the world worth exploring, (b) there are a ton of places within a four-hour drive of here that seem pretty cool, and (c) it’s really not that big a canyon, and people who live in THE VALLEY seem to have a hard time grasping that there’s a rest of the world that stretches beyond Sardine Canyon and Bear Lake, where sometimes things are also pretty good.

Anyway, it’s nice to have some worthwhile outings available for which the trailhead is within a half-hour of my house. Some time this summer (July? June? I dunno) I took this hike up to Temple Fork Sawmill, which some website over-hyped, but that was fine anyway. It was fine. The “Temple Fork” is a fork in the (Logan) river; the sawmill is a sawmill that doesn’t exist any more, but was used in the construction of the Logan Temple a while back. Guys apparently camped up there and worked in the sawmill while their wives were down in the valley tending to the livestock or something, then sometimes the guys would go down to the valley or their wives would come to the sawmill. And then the white salamander came, people started getting called to three-year missions in Russia, and someone else’s great aunt’s ward reduced the three-hour block to only two.

Heady days.

There’s a parking lot at the trailhead. Plenty of parking. It’s not a long hike, four miles maybe. There’s a lot to look at if you start the hike within a couple months of moving here from Oklahoma. Frex: there’s a river (!), green grass (!), some trees (!), and hills (mountains?) that, you know, exist (!).

Easy hike, could take kids on it. The sawmill isn’t there any more still though.

This was in June. June 7th, 2017.

This time, the unicorn’s horn does not point the way.

This is what’s left of the sawmill (man, my beard was so short back then):

But mostly just sort of this (although, relative to Oklahoma…):

This was a favorite:

And then I got to the trailhead, someone’s dog jumped out a truck window while the truck was still going about 20 mph, and I drove home, vowing (eventual) vengeance.

For the dog? For all of us.

bkd