Day 32: To Evanston

September 1, 2013

I left Cokeville at 8:05, heading south out of town on a county road. Nice farm views and NO traffic. Very quiet and peaceful.

The weather was beautiful and sunny. 55F at first but steadily warming, with light wind.

One of the more exciting parts of downtown Cokeville, WY.

I followed the Bear River upstream for most of the day. The first 24 miles are the best, on a no-traffic county road with farms and high desert hills all around.

The most common high desert plants are sagebrush, rabbit brush, and bunchgrass.

Somewhere on the county road I crossed from Wyoming into Utah. But there was no sign. I took a picture of a "Welcome to Utah" sign later in the day when I crossed back into Wyoming.

This picture was taken much later on a more major road that had a state line sign. State #6 of this tour.

Most of the rural farm houses have been abandoned.

Traffic increased after crossing highway 30 and continuing south onto highway 16 south. Now light traffic instead of no traffic, on wider smoother asphalt.

Wide view of farms on both sides as I approach Randolph, Utah.

I had lunch in the little Mormon farm town of Randolph. The town has one store and one cafe. The only services on today's route.

The 2010 population was 464. The town had more people when Utah became a state in 1896.

Randolph is a very tidy stereotypical Mormon farm town. It's not as obviously depressed as Cokeville, but it's clearly not thriving. It has a smaller population now than it had in 1896.

After lunch I continued south on highway 16 to the town of Woodruff. An even smaller Mormon farm town with no services.

The farms end south of Woodruff, where the highway turns away from the Bear river and starts to climb in a high desert valley. The scenery is bleak and boring. The road goes mostly south but also a little bit east, back into Wyoming.

Crossing into the southwest corner of Wyoming.

In Wyoming the road changes number and continues south in a somewhat more populated valley towards the much bigger town of Evanston (population 12,359). Evanston has a very down-and-out downtown near the railroad tracks. But southwest of downtown is a thriving strip of restaurants and motels close to an I-80 exit. In the past Evanston was an important railroad town, but now the main industries are oil and gas and providing services to I-80 travelers.

The road had been mostly flat for a long time but most of the route through Evanston (elevation 6749 feet) is steep uphill. I pedaled past the mostly vacant downtown, over a steep hill to the motel strip.

Downtown Evanston, Wyoming is not doing well.

I got an $89 room at Days Inn on the strip. Dinner at Subway. Evanston isn't my kind of town.

I'm confident that I will get to Salt Lake City in two days, so I reserved a 1-way 2-day car rental from Salt Lake City to Eugene, starting on the morning on September 4.

Today had a high of only 82F with no threat of thunderstorms. Very pleasant riding conditions. And the headwind was only noticeable for the last 15 miles to Evanston. It was a long and mostly upstream day but the route has no long strenuous climbs.

Distance: 70.4 miles (113 km)
Climbing: 1567 feet (475 m)
Average Speed: 11.4 mph (18 km/h)

Today's ride: 70 miles (113 km)
Total: 1,618 miles (2,604 km)

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