Above and below: There are hairpins aplenty through groves of aspen trees on the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway, and even in August, you can still see patches of snow in the bowls at the base of the granite peaks.
speed. I also knew that these high elevation storms don’ t last long. They move fast and hit hard, and once you come out of them – which I did about five minutes later – there’ s nothing like the smell of the desert after a good downpour.
Besides the great roads on the northbound portion of my trip, I have several reasons to take this ride again. In addition to the to-do list items I already mentioned, if I had more time, I would’ ve liked to have spent a few hours at Legends Motor Co. in Springville just south of Provo. There’ s also Spring City, about
18 miles north of Manti and just off U. S. 89, which is the only entire town listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places besides Colonial
Williamsburg in Virginia. I’ d also like to check out the Fremont Indian State Park and Museum in Sevier.
I love living in a state with so much diversity of terrain and so many areas that I like visiting over and over, and on this trip, I discovered several more that I look forward to seeing again – or for the first time – in the future.
RESOURCES:
• Cedar City, Utah: VisitCedarCity. com
• Kane County Utah Office of Tourism: VisitSouthernUtah. com
• Panguitch City, Utah: VisitSouthernUtah. com
• Piute ATV trail( includes links to new OHV regulations): VisitUtah. com / things-to-do / motorized-off-road / paiute-atv-trail
• Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort: BigRockCandyMountain. com
• Mystic Hot Springs: MysticHotSprings. com
RIDERMAGAZINE. COM / OCTOBER 2026 / 39