U.S. 89 and U.S. 30: The Bear Lake Crossing
From Bear Lake's Utah shore north into Idaho: the refuge, the cave, the emigrants' camp at Montpelier, the Soda Springs geyser and the hot pools at Lava.
The Route at a Glance
Logan Canyon comes down to Garden City on the west shore of Bear Lake, and US-89 keeps going north. Within a few miles the lake is in Idaho and the road becomes the Oregon Trail–Bear Lake Scenic Byway, which Idaho runs from the state line through Montpelier and Soda Springs toward McCammon. This version stops at Lava Hot Springs: about eighty miles, a little under two hours of driving, and a full day of stops. It is Newe country end to end — Shoshone and Bannock, with Ute hunters in the Bear Lake Valley — and the emigrant road and the settlers' towns were laid across it.
The first stretch belongs to the lake. Fish Haven and St. Charles sit on the shore with the Bear River Range behind them, and at St. Charles a canyon road climbs about ten miles west to Minnetonka Cave. North of the lake the valley floor turns to marsh, the Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge, where the Bear River is canaled into the lake and pumped back out again. Paris, the valley's first Mormon settlement, stands on the highway with its stone tabernacle.
At Montpelier the drive meets the emigrants. Wagons came into the valley from Wyoming over Big Hill and camped at Clover Creek, where the National Oregon/California Trail Center now tells their story in costume, and from here US-30 follows their road north along the Bear River, over Georgetown Summit, to the carbonated springs the trappers called Beer Springs. Most of those lie under Alexander Reservoir now; the Soda Springs Geyser, struck by accident in 1937, goes off every hour, and the Cache Valley Crossing comes in from Logan. West of town, at Sheep Rock, the Bear River swings south toward Great Salt Lake, and from 1849 many wagons bound for California turned west there on Hudspeth's Cutoff.
The last miles leave the trail for the Portneuf, and US-30 follows that river down to Lava Hot Springs, where the state runs the hot pools on Main Street.
The highway is open all year, though Georgetown Summit can be snowy in winter, and the cave and the trail center are summer operations. Garden City, Montpelier and Soda Springs have services.
The Drive, Stop by Stop
6 stops along the route, in driving order from Garden City, Utah to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. 3 of them sit off the road itself — the distance is noted on each.
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- 6
That's the drive. Take your time, pull over often, and let U.S. 89 and U.S. 30: The Bear Lake Crossing do what it does best.
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