Out of Our Rut: A New Car in Utah

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We really enjoyed Goblin Valley State Park and are heading to another Utah state park just to the north of Salt Lake City. Originally we were going to head south to Saint George next but changed our plans to see if we could get a new car. We had narrowed down our selection to a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. We had a couple of option packages that we required it to have and a couple of color choices we were okay with. When we entered Goblin Valley, there were 5 vehicles on dealer lots on the north side of Salt Lake City that would meet our criteria. Five days later as we headed out of the park and got cell coverage again, we discovered our first choice of vehicles had already been sold - then there were 4.

It is over 270 miles between the state parks which is further than we like to go on a travel day. The Elks Lodge in Provo Utah has 5 full hookup RV sites and it is roughly halfway along our route so we planned to stop there for one night. We pulled in the parking lot by mid afternoon on Tuesday but found all the sites were occupied. All wasn’t lost since the lodge also has 3 dedicated sites for camping just without any utilities. So we get setup in one of them and head into the lodge to fill out their form and are told we had just missed the last site with power by about an hour. The lodge has pretty decent wi-fi that actually reaches the camping spots plus there was over the air TV reception as well. After 5 nights with nearly no outside communications, it was nice to have connectivity again.

When we checked the status of the Jeeps again, we discovered that one more had been sold in the past few hours we were driving to Provo. Since we didn’t have a plan B in terms of getting a replacement car and may not find an acceptable one for a few months until we get into a better area of the country, we decided to call the dealership in Brigham City which had two of the remaining 3 cars.

We talked with Justin and expressed our interest in a Grand Cherokee Trailhawk they had on their lot. It turns out that both of the cars were at the sister location in the town of Logan about 45 minutes to the north but if we told him which one we may be interested in, he would have it moved to the lot in Brigham City since that is closer to our campground. Both vehicles were optioned identically, with one being light silver and the other a dark grey. We decided another silver car would work out better since darker cars are a pain to keep looking clean and our lifestyle doesn’t lend to keeping cars clean. We told him we would need one day to get to our state park and could come in on Thursday morning. This worked out well since Wednesday was his day off so we would need to wait until then anyway. We put a deposit down and felt good we may actually have a new car in a couple of days.

Deciding on a car wasn’t the only hurdle we needed to get over. We don’t buy new vehicles very frequently. In the 40 years or so since college, we have bought a total of 11 new cars between the two of us. Keeping them on average for 7.5 years. In all those purchases, we bought the car from a local dealer either when I was in Ohio or we were in New York State. In this case, we are Florida residents buying a car in Utah. We have been spending a fair amount of time over the past few months trying to understand what is involved in buying a car in one state but registering it in another and doing all of this remotely. We were pretty sure we had a handle on what paperwork we needed and the steps we would need to do in order to be able to put our Florida plate on the new car.

One other thing that we stumbled upon more by accident was the fact that one of the camping organizations we belong to is a member of the FCA Affiliate Rewards program. FCA is the parent company that builds Jeeps. By presenting our membership card, we should be able to get the new car for 1% below dealer invoice. Besides the obvious money savings, we will also be able to avoid the haggling that some dealerships put buyers through.

Provo looked like a nice area that would be fun to explore, but we were on a schedule at this point. We stayed at the lodge until about lunch since we only had another 92 miles to go before we get to Willard Bay South Marina Campground. We weren’t sure how strict this park might be with regards to checking in early. Plus we also wanted to avoid some of the heavy morning traffic as we drove thru Salt Lake City. Willard Bay State Park actually has two distinct campgrounds about 5 crow miles apart both next to Willard Bay Reservoir. While the northern campground would be closer to the car dealership, it was also right next to Interstate 15. Most reviews commented about how noisy the campground was. The South Marina Campground is a bit more secluded and smaller but had better availability when we reserved our spot. I suspect the reason is that the marina and boat launch are closed because of very low water levels in the bay. We picked one of the sites with a shelter and booked it for a week hoping that would be long enough to deal with buying the car.

We pull into the campground and find there wasn’t anyone at the entrance booth. I guess we could have arrived early without any issue. There were maybe 5 rigs in the 25 or so camping sites. As we pull over to our site we had reserved over a week ago, there was a fifth wheel already parked there. Great, now we need to deal with this. We head over to the camp host and explain our situation. We were willing to use another site, but wanted one that we could have for the next 7 nights and we weren’t sure which one might work but it seemed like there should be something available. The camp host was not pleased with the people that took our spot and she seemed more inclined to have them move than find a different spot for us. Especially since they had not yet registered or paid for a campsite. Initially the owners were not there but came back in their truck 10 minutes later. We could see the camp host explain to them that they had taken a reserved spot and a few minutes later she came by our rig and informs us they would be moving shortly. I felt a little bad, but it wasn’t our fault they took an arbitrary spot in an online reservable campground.

We moved in after they vacated the spot and got setup for the week. It was a nice campground but the mosquitoes were terrible and it was just mid afternoon. I washed the old Jeep Cherokee one last time to make sure it was looking it’s best. Early Thursday morning we drove up to Heritage Chrysler Dodge Jeep of Brigham City. We saw a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk sitting outside and walked in to find our salesman Justin. We spent a good part of the morning looking over the car, asking questions and going for a test drive. We were both impressed with it and decided this one was going to work for us.

Since we were using the affiliates reward program, the pricing was simple and they took our old car in to look it over to come up with a price. For the past year or so, a dealership in Florida where I had some service work done, has been sending me emails with the Carfax estimated trade in value for our old car. So when this dealer came back with a price within $50 of that number, we decided to continue on with the deal. We did most of the paperwork and paid for the car by mid afternoon. We still needed to clean up some loose ends but we took the new car and headed out for a quick lunch in town. We head to the local police station to have them do a VIN check and sign a verification form that substitutes for our being at the Florida DMV. We went back to the dealership and got copies of the remaining paperwork we needed to send to Florida DMV and went to the UPS Store to mail our part of the paperwork.

In With the New

Out With the Old

There was still one other things we needed to have done. Our new Jeep is able to be flat towed behind a motorhome, but it doesn’t come with the base plate, wiring harness or braking system to make it ready to be towed. On our old Jeep, I had tackled this project with the help of a really handy friend and a houseful of tools. Even so it was a very big job and knew I shouldn’t try it on my own with a very limited toolbox. We asked at the Jeep dealer if they could perform the required install or knew of a local place they could recommend. Unfortunately the answer was no to both questions. We start to investigate places in the greater Salt Lake City area. Surely this is a large enough city to have a shop that can do this work. If not, we might need to drive the vehicles separately until we make it down to Arizona for the upcoming winter.

We discover a place on the south side of SLC that had good reviews and sold the brand of equipment we desired. We gave Pard’s Equalizer Trailer Hitch a call to ask them some questions. Do they do this type of work? Yes. Can they order the list of equipment I want to have installed? Yes. And maybe just as important, can they get the parts in and schedule us for the work fairly soon? Yes, they said it would take about a week to get the required parts in and they could get us worked into their schedule shortly after that. We are already a week into October and while the weather has been a bit warmer than normal here, we know that could change quickly and we don’t want to get stuck this far north waiting for the work to be done. We give them a deposit and had them order the parts.

We are just two days into our weeklong stay at Willard Bay, have a new car and plans to get it modified for flat towing, so we can now get out to enjoy the weather and see a few of the sights in the area. One place we wanted to see is the Golden Spike National Historical Park. We had seen a sign for this back in 2017 as we were driving from Salt Lake City to Twin Falls Idaho. We weren’t able to stop back then but had added it to our list of places to see when we make it back to the area. We now have the time and it is only a 45 mile drive northwest of us. What’s the draw for this out of the way location north of the Great Salt Lake? It is the spot where the railroad line from the east and west met back in May of 1869. Besides the typical visitor center and interpretive displays one might expect, they also have a reenactment of the two trains pulling up to the meeting point. We wanted to get there for the first showing which starts at 10 AM.

Entering Golden Spike NHP

We arrive with time to spare so we check out the visitor center and stamp our National Park Passport book. Then we head out back for the morning show which includes both locomotives being driven out off the engine house where they spend each night. The first one to arrive is the Jupiter traveling backwards on the track. This is a replica of the original Central Pacific Railroad locomotive that came in from the west out of Sacramento California. It is a very colorful steam locomotive and in excellent condition.

Bison Statue

Visitor Center at Golden Spike

The Tie Between East and West

Jupiter in Position

Once it is brought up to its spot just west of the ceremonial last railroad tie, visitors are permitted to walk around and get a closer view. No touching or climbing is permitted but there is a platform next to the track on the backside of the Jupiter which we can climb onto and get a closer look at the inside of the train. The engineer even will snap a few pictures from inside if you hand him your phone. It’s pretty impressive looking.

Jupiter Hisses Steam

View from Platform

Jupiter's Controls

During the summer months, they have costumed re-enactments every Saturday so we missed out on that, but there was one woman dressed up in the attire of the 1860’s. The locomotive representing the Union Pacific Railroad from the east is No. 119. It is brought up from the engine house on a side track so visitors can see it in action. Then it is backed down past the switch and brought into position on the main track to face the Jupiter.

Dressed the Part

Engine #119 Passes By

Number 119 in Position

Detail of One Stack

Head to Head

From a Distance

With the morning show over, we head out to see some of the other attractions within the historic park. One of the more fascinating things about the building of this transcontinental railroad, the government was not able to come to a decision on where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific tracks should meet so the crews from each competing railroad continued to build railroad grades for over 200 miles even after crossing paths with one another! Congress eventually decided on this spot at Promontory Point for the meeting place. But the indecision did leave both grades in this area and one of them has been converted into a one way auto tour drive. There isn’t a whole lot to see along the drive except for the “Chinese Arch”. Initially I assumed it was a man made arch in the stone but from the sign it was naturally created.

Rail Statue Near Visitor Center

Chinese Arch from Front

From Back

After the auto tour, we stopped at the parking area for the Big Fill Loop Trail. This is a 5 mile round trip hike but we decide to just tackle the beginning part of it which will come in around 2 miles. There is actually an audio tour that can be used for this portion of the hike. There are signs along the way with stop numbers. Call the phone number, enter your stop number and the tour guide will give a description of the spot you’re at. It was actually very well done and quite informative.

At Big Fill Trailhead

View Along Trail

We start out on the portion of the trail that was Central Pacific grade and head east. It’s a pretty wide gravel trail in good shape so a relatively easy walk. There are a few spots where a path was blasted through solid rock to keep the grade of the rail within the limits for the trains.

Rock Cut

We get out to the location know as the Big Fill. A small valley that needed to be crossed produced two different options from the competing railroads. The crossing is nearly 1000 feet wide and about 100 feet deep. One railroad built a wooden trestle over the valley while the other filled it in - thus the name of the trail. We then walk down some stairs to get Union Pacific grade and walk back to the car. The two grades are within a couple hundred feet of one another along this stretch. It’s not the most scenic hike but the audio tour made it worth the time.

Overlooking the Big Fill

Display Showing Old Trestle

Not far from Golden Spike was another unique place to visit - the ATK Rocket Garden. I guess ATK stands for Alliant Techsystems a former aerospace company that has now merged with other similar companies. Outside this Northrop Grumman facility, is a one acre display with all sorts of various booster rockets from the space shuttle and other defense programs. It was interesting to wander around to read about the displays and even find the geocache hidden on the grounds.

Entrance to ATK Rocket Garden

Wide Range of Sizes

We needed to get out for some real activity and we had noticed the Weber Pathways Rail Trail was just outside of the state park campground. We headed out mid afternoon for a bike ride to check it out and possibly find some of the geocaches hidden along it. We made our way to the closest spot we could enter the trail but found it was completely overgrown with weeds. It just a weedy path but more like thigh high grasses and brush. We decided that didn’t look fun so we headed a mile or so along the road that parallels the path and found a parking area and trailhead. The same trail south of this point was just a gravel path but mowed back along the edges and in good shape. We headed out and got several of the caches during our ride. Every time we stopped riding, we noticed the mosquitoes would attack us.

After 2 miles of this trail, we decided we should head back for dinner. We could retrace our ride on the trail or follow some lightly used roads. We decided the road would likely be quicker. I only made it a quarter mile when I noticed my rear tire was going flat. As an avid cyclist for over 40 years, I have likely changed hundreds if not even a thousand flat tires. I always have a spare tube, patch kit, tire levers and a pump along. I first tried to simply re-inflate the tire since we only had a few miles to go. By now it was early evening and as I attempted to pump the tire, the mosquitoes swarmed. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many of them except once in Alaska.

Turned out that the air leak wasn’t a slow one so my first approach wouldn’t work. But I also learned there was no way I could stop for the 5 minutes it might take for me to change the tube without losing a pint of blood. I decide I will just walk the bike and Chris would go back to the campground and come back with the car. Even though I was walking quickly, it was slower than riding so I was still getting bitten. I had walked for 10 minutes when a family in a pickup truck noticed my predicament and offered me a ride. I put the bike in the bed and hopped in. We made it back to the rig just after Chris had arrived but before she pulled out so the timing was perfect. I waited to fix the flat on a less buggy day.

When we were in Brigham City to get the new car, we spotted the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge just off the interstate. It sounded like our kind of place and headed there on Monday morning. The visitor center is the first stop. We were a bit surprised by the huge but empty parking lot. Empty because the visitor center is closed on Mondays! I guess we didn’t investigate the details before heading here. There is a 12 mile auto tour route that we did that day, but we did come back later in the week to explore the beautiful visitor center when it was open. I’ll write this as if we did both parts in the same visit since most people will do them together.

Entrance to Bear River Refuge

Visitor Center

The 80,000 acre refuge was established in 1928 but the visitor center was built in 2006. Wildlife refuge areas typically don’t have this large and comprehensive visitor center associated with them. There are all sorts of hands on displays. It’s clear that much of the center is geared towards educating children but there was plenty for us to learn as well. I’m not sure I would want to try visiting if there is a school bus in the parking lot since it would likely be a rather noisy place.

Old Air Boat

Big Bird?

There is over a mile of trails just behind the visitor center - some paved, some gravel. We do some of them and check the various viewing points out. There wasn’t a lot of bird activity when we went by, but it was still a pretty setting.

Along Trail Near Visitor Center

We next drive out the refuge road to get to the 12 mile one way auto tour loop. Being mid October, we were skeptical we would actually see many birds. The refuge has a mix of open water ponds, mudflats and marshes so there is a wide variety of habitat for the 250 different species that can be seen at different times of the year. One unique thing about the Bear River. It is 350 miles long, starts in the mountains east of Salt Lake City then heads in a U shape to the north through Wyoming and Idaho before turning back into Utah and feeding the Great Salt Lake. Why is that unique? It’s the longest river in North America that doesn’t ultimately reach the sea since the Great Salt Lake has no drainage.

View in Refuge

Near the beginning of the one way drive is a wooden observation tower. It provides for a great view of the nearby waterways as well as the numerous mountains that surround the area.

Observation Tower

View from Tower

The route is a gravel road that is wide enough that we can pull over at most spots and leave plenty of room for other vehicles to pass. It was a very pretty area and we only had a couple other cars out during our visit.

Mini Islands?

For the first half of the drive we were not spotting many birds but there seemed to be a fair number along the second half. Many of them were just sea gulls but we did spot a small group of grebes with very red eyes. There was also a solitary pelican floating along one of the channels. We were a bit surprised to come across a herd of cattle grazing in the refuge. It would seem like they might be prone to getting stuck in the mud. We saw a couple of guys with their boat just launching into one of the ponds. It wasn’t clear if this was a hunting trip since they were dressed in camouflage or if they were just scouting for hunting season. I suspect that other times of the years the bird population increases dramatically but so will the crowds of people. Definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area.