Introduction
The Route
This is a 19-day bike tour from St. George, Utah to Pocatello, Idaho, USA. It's a motel tour with lodging reserved 2 months in advance. Consequently the schedule is fixed. May 8-26, 2022.
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A Cultural Theme
This tour is a long and deep immersion in one of North America's most unique and distinct cultures. The Mormon heartland, where the majority of residents are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The tour is called Brigham Young's Promised Land because Brigham Young and his followers fled persecution in Nauvoo, Illinois for relative freedom in the Great Basin which was part of Mexico at the time. The first wagon train arrived in 1847. The Mormons didn't escape U.S. authority for very long, though. A year later the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded the region to the United States (shortly after the U.S. invaded Mexico for the sole purpose of seizing half of Mexico's territory).
For the first 12 years, Brigham Young was both the LDS church president/prophet/seer/revelator and Utah territorial governor. History regards him to be a brilliant manager, pragmatic leader, and successful empire builder, but not a charismatic spiritual leader like murdered church founder Joseph Smith. Many towns on my tour route were founded by Mormon settlers dispatched by Brigham Young to colonize every remote area that has a water supply.
The map below shows that the U.S. Mormon population is highly concentrated in Utah and eastern Idaho. The region is informally called the Mormon Belt because it's a religious mono culture similar to the evangelical Protestant Bible Belt in the southeastern U.S. I have toured in both regions and found the Mormon Belt more welcoming to outsiders.
Mormon temples are rare in most places. My home state of Oregon has two LDS temples. My route passes 13 LDS temples, including the 4 oldest temples.
The Mormon Belt is one of several religious mono-cultures I have experienced in the U.S. I have pedaled through the southeast U.S. where everybody is presumed to be Baptist. And through North Dakota and Minnesota where everybody is presumed to be Lutheran. And through the southwest U.S. where everybody is presumed to be Catholic.
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Geography
The geography of this route is not regarded to be spectacular but I think it's interesting. The first five days include a good sampling of Utah's famous red cliffs and canyons.
The route starts along the Virgin river, a tributary of the Colorado river that flows to the Pacific ocean. The route ends along the Portneuf river, a tributary of the Snake/Columbia river that also flows to the Pacific.
Most of the route is on the eastern edge of the Great Basin, a desert region where water evaporates instead of flowing to an ocean. The southern half of my Great Basin route follows the western edge of two high plateaus- Paunsaugent plateau (top of the Grand Staircase) and Sevier plateau. The northern half follows the western edge of two high mountain ranges-the Wasatch range and Bear River range.
Descendants of Mormon settlers "own" most of the water that flows out of the plateaus and mountain ranges. Nearly all of the water is used to irrigate crops or sustain towns before it gets the chance to evaporate in the basin.
Most people visualize the Great Basin as the region between the Sierra Nevada Range and the Wasatch Range. The route is kind of a mirror of my 2009 California J bike tour which traversed the western edge of the Great Basin east of the Sierra Nevada range.
The most popular bicycle touring routes in Utah are east-west routes connecting national parks. I did that twice before in 1992 and 2010. This time I'm doing a contrarian south-north route that doesn't visit any of the national parks.
The route has big climbs on days 2 and 5 but has minimal climbing on most other days. Overall, the route has half as much ascent per mile compared to last year's Silver and Gold tour. Traveling north gives me a tailwind and sun on my back most of the time.
Planning
The start and finish points are dictated by available car rental locations. I wanted to start in Kanab to make the tour 2 days shorter and eliminate a big climb, but Kanab doesn't have car rental places. Instead I had to start in the bigger city of St. George.
US Bicycle Route 77 was a good resource for planning my route. I follow it in many places but also have several detours to temples.
Most of the route is rural but it also goes the entire length of a sprawling metropolitan area in the Utah and Salt Lake valleys. Fortunately there are bike trails through most of the metro area.
Beliefs
I should state up front that I am not Mormon and don't really have any religious beliefs. To put it bluntly, I don't believe in magic. If I did believe a deity created the universe, I can't imagine that the creator would need anything from mere mortals on the third rock from the sun. Nevertheless, I accept that supernatural beliefs bring great comfort to many people. I try not to judge people who believe in magic unless they force their beliefs on others.
For this tour it's difficult for both believers and non-believers to be impartial observers. I'm definitely not an impartial observer because I think that Mormon religious practices and the Mormon historical narrative are extremely peculiar, bordering on crazy. Polygamy, baptizing the dead, inheriting planets, Israelites in ancient North America. The list is long. On the other hand, I have met enough Mormons to know that they can be great colleagues and neighbors. This tour might give me new insights about the contradictions of humanity.
This journal will attempt to follow the web site's rules about religious and philosophical discussions. I have no desire to defend or attack the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I merely want to pedal 700 miles through a religious mono culture that seems like a foreign country, just for the novelty. I hope to document the experience with as little judgement as possible.
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Early this winter, I spent some time in Southern Utah (Cedar City area) to do some sightseeing and skiing and visited the Mountain Meadows Massacre site. (It's on the other side of I-15 from where you are traveling.) I found it pretty impactful and interesting. It's also a great piece of Utah history that didn't get taught in my Utah History class.
I don't think you can easily get there from your route, but thought I'd mention it anyway. Enjoy the trip!
2 years ago
2 years ago
I lived for three years in Utah Valley (sometimes derisively/ironically referred to as "Happy Valley"), and for that reason I probably do judge the LDS Church a little more harshly than you do, because the church exerts such control over basically everything that living there is oppressive. At least it was for me.
I'm pretty sure that it's the weirdest place in the USA.
I look forward to reading your journal!
2 years ago
I expect that during the tour I will be mostly focused on normal everyday things. Temperature, wind, food, motel, scenery, traffic, etc. I will visit many notable Mormon sides and will see a lot of pro-LDS propaganda. I plan to be polite to the pretty young ladies at Temple Square.
I plan to write a "regular" journal about bike touring. Hopefully both Mormons and non-Mormons will find my perspective to be interesting. I want to look for things that are culturally unique, but not dwell on religious beliefs. The Bible Belt was my least favorite place for bike touring. Nearly everybody was extremely suspicious of outsiders. No coffee shops, no bars, no parks. The Mormon Belt is way more welcoming to outsiders. I think it will be a fun trip.
2 years ago
My family history is centered around your path for this trip.
I used to work as a sales rep in the area and spent a lot of time driving on those roads many years ago..
And I've fished many of those streams and hiked many trails you will be passing..
Although my family are descendants of the original Mormon settlers and I was raised Mormon, I have a very strong distaste for it and any other cult.
It's always fun to visit the area though.
2 years ago
2 years ago
I'm amazed that you knew about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. You are well informed. Were the victims from Arkansas?
I think I did a fairly good job of making my journal about a bike tour through Mormon country, and not an anti-Mormon rant. That would be boring and mean-spirited. I enjoyed the "differentness" of it all, kind of like touring Buddhist temples in Thailand.
2 years ago
2 years ago