#echo state park

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Echo Reservoir/Canyon, Utah (No. 1)

Echo Canyon was described in 1860 by Sir Richard Burton: "An American artist might extract from such scenery as Echo Canyon, a system of architecture as original and as national as Egypt ever borrowed from her sandstone ledges or the North of Europe from the depths of her fir forests."

The trail through Echo Canyon was one of the most important of westward expansion. Buffalo, native Americans, and explorers used this natural pathway between the lush grass of Wyoming and the salt deserts to the west. They were later followed by wagon trains, the Mormon pioneers in 1847, the Overland Stage, the Pony Express, gold prospectors and silver miners, the Union Pacific railroad, the 1st transcontinental telegraph line, the Lincoln Highway, and Interstate 80.

In 1858, the U.S. Army was sent to Utah to quell the Mormon Rebellion and enforce laws prohibiting polygamy. A Mormon militia dammed the creek with a rock wall at the Narrows, and built other fortifications to deter the soldiers. Luckily, they were never needed, but the stone relics can still be seen.

Pony Express riders carried the mail on the Mormon Trail down Echo Canyon to Echo, Henefer, and Salt Lake City for 18 months starting in 1860. The cost for a 10 word message from Salt Lake City to New York City was $5 (equivalent to $85 today). It was abandoned when the transcontinental telegraph was finished in the fall of 1861. Eight years later the transcontinental railroad reached the Weber Canyon on its way to a meeting with the Central Pacific on Promontory Point near the Great Salt Lake.

Wahsatch is an abandoned railroad division point for crew and engine changes. Hundreds of workers lived on the treeless divide at the head of Echo Canyon during the railroad construction of 1868 and 1869.

Named for the surrounding castle-like sandstone cliffs, Castle Rock was a Pony Express and stage station. Attracted by the hope of trading with travelers through the canyon, a number of families homesteaded the land and began a town. The active though small community soon boasted a railroad depot, section house for railroad workers, gas station, store, water windmill, and schoolhouse. Hanging Rock, in Emory, is another abandoned Pony Express Station.

Echo was settled in 1854 by James Bromley, who ran the Weber Stage Station. Fourteen years later, tents, saloons, and brothels sprang up as men built the transcontinental railroad. When the railroad moved on, 7 human skeletons were discovered under 1 saloon. When the old stage station was demolished a love letter to a Pony Express rider, a $5 gold piece, and a pair of gold rim spectacles were found in the walls.

Underneath towering conglomerate cliffs is the Echo Church, built in 1876, with a belfry steeple, wooden entry, pine paneled interior, and brick walls. It was a public school from 1880 to 1913, and Mormon chapel for 50 years until 1963. Vacant for 20 years the Echo Church is a meeting hall and museum alongside the Echo Cemetery.

In July, 1846, the Harlan-Young party drove their wagons past this site and down the nearly impassable lower Weber River (named after Captain John Weber, a member of the 1823 Ashley Fur expedition). They found a rocky canyon with a raging river in its bottoms. That summer the Donner-Reed party avoided the canyon and blazed a new trail to the west. It took 21 days to travel the 36 miles to the Great Salt Lake. The delay would prove fatal for them in the Sierra Nevada later that autumn.

Brigham Young led his Mormon immigrants over this new trail in 1847 to the Salt Lake Valley. From 1847 to 1867, 80,000 Mormon immigrants traveled this way by wagon, handcart and foot. Pony Express riders took the same cutoff.

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Echo Reservoir, Utah (No. 3)

Echo Dam is a dam in Summit County, Utah, standing about six miles north of Coalville and creating Echo Reservoir.

The earthen dam was constructed in 1931 by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. It has a height of 158 feet, impounding the water of the Weber River and 836 square miles of the Weber Basin for water storage and agricultural irrigation. Other Weber Basin projects of the Bureau include the upstream Rockport Reservoir. Echo Dam is owned by the Bureau, and operated by the local Weber River Water Users Association. In July 2012 crews began a $50 million seismic retrofit project on the dam to address potentially unstable subsoil conditions.

Echo Reservoir has a capacity of 74,000 acre-feet. As a recreation area the reservoir offers fishing, boating, camping, and hiking.

Source: Wikipedia

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Echo Reservoir, Utah (No. 2)

Following a 15-year drought when no state parks were established in Utah, Echo Reservoir is ready for its introduction. A byproduct of a Great Depression-era earthen dam, the reservoir has long been popular with boaters, water skiers, anglers and campers, but new facilities will be added and current facilities will be upgraded due to the new state park status.

Situated in the town of Coalville at 5,560 feet above sea level, just north of Park City, the reservoir dam has been owned by the Bureau of Reclamation since its construction in 1931. But, private entities have managed the dam and concession area for many years. That all changed in November 2017 when the Bureau of Reclamation approached Utah State Parks about assuming management. A deal was soon inked and a resolution passed to make Echo Utah’s newest state park in the spring of 2018.

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Echo Reservoir, Utah (No. 1)

Nestled in the Wasatch Range near the old mining town of Coalville lies Utah’s newest state park, Echo State Park. It’s just a 45-minute drive from Salt Lake City and even closer to Ogden, making it a great spot for an afternoon of kayaking on sparkling waters.

My friend and I arrived at its sandy shores after the easy drive from SLC. Our plan was to enjoy an afternoon of kayaking on its serene, glasslike waters, but we were dismayed to see a locked entrance gate when we initially arrived. Not ready to give up, we investigated and learned (thankfully) that walk-ins are welcome even when motorized boating access is closed.

Parking on the water side of Echo Dam Road, we unloaded our kayak and carried it down a well-worn path to a sandy spot along the shore. A few families and groups were picnicking along the beach, but we mostly had the place to ourselves.

Tall trees stood in the shallow water near the shore, providing the perfect spot to hang a hammock, and as soon as the sun streamed through the clouds, we took our cue to launch. Our paddles sliced through the glassy water as we kayaked northward toward the dam. We paddled until our arms were sore, but never saw another craft, and had the colorful cliff views and wide open waters all to ourselves.

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