The Wasatch Front

I lived in Sandy, Utah for almost 10 years before becoming a widow and starting a new chapter of my life as a full-time RVer. Today Don and I drove to my old neighborhood and I showed him a few of the places I enjoyed while living here.

I sold the house and moved out in December 2002. The scrub oak trees in front have certainly grown taller during the last 8 years! Below is a view from the north side, which shows the patio on the far right that extends from a walkout basement on the lower level.

The house is being well-maintained and the neighborhood looks great. But I certainly don’t miss all that yard work on 1/2 acre and house cleaning of 3500 sq. ft. on 3 levels! I was thrilled when I put the house on the market in October 2002 and closed escrow two months later, before the first heavy snowfall, so I avoided shoveling/snowblowing that winter! Below is the house’s east-facing front, which shows the main and upper levels. The same mailbox I installed in 1993, after a teenage thrill-seeker knocked down the old one, still houses mail for this family. There’s a rebar post set in concrete inside the mailbox post to protect this one!

This beautiful French-inspired Chateau named La Caille is a wonderful, elegant restaurant 2 miles from my (former) house, located just off Little Cottonwood Canyon Road at the base of towering peaks reaching over 11 thousand ft. in elevation.

La Caille was our first choice when celebrating big events in our lives, and we never tired of going there. Even the grounds, including beautiful gardens, and the doves, llamas and emus were very special. I didn’t see any animals today, so they may have been relocated elsewhere.

The Wasatch Front is a range of mountains that form part of the Rocky Mountains. Major cities along this front are Ogden, Salt Lake City and Provo. Sandy is a southern suburb of Salt Lake City, with over 100,000 population. The mountain range defines the eastern border of this heavily-populated area, where 80% of the state’s residents live. The area is also bordered by Utah Lake in Utah County, the Oquirrh Mountains in Salt Lake County and the Great Salt Lake in northwestern Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and southeastern Box Elder Counties. The combined population of the 5 Wasatch Front Counties totals well over 2 million. The total width of the area is about 18 miles at its widest, and the length is about 80 miles.

Our motorhome is parked at the FamCamp on Hill AFB in Davis County, just south of Ogden, almost 50 miles north of where I lived.

The view of the mountains is just as spectacular.

I don’t remember seeing so much snow on these mountains, especially this late in the year. We heard on the local news that the snowpack this year is larger than when a huge flood occurred from spring runoff in 1983. I sure hope there are no flooding problems when this accumulation melts.

Tomorrow we’ll start our trek northward toward our big adventure in Alaska. We’re meeting up with Dennis and Carol Hill, leaders of the group, and Larry and Marilyn Forbes, fellow Escapees and VCRs, tomorrow morning, ready to point our wheels north. Tonight we had a nice dinner with Larry and Marilyn at the local Red Lobster.

After that dinner, we need to jump on our bicycles and work off a few calories!