Touring Fillmore, Utah

In our quest to travel south towards the national parks that Utah is famous for, we are staying at some lesser known tourist attractions in the state.  Actually, we are trying to wait until those national parks cool off a little.  So we are staying at small towns with RV parks that are less expensive or have cheap membership rates.  That brought us to Fillmore, Utah, a few miles off I-15 in central Utah.  We rode our bikes downtown to buy groceries, that we pedaled back home in our backpack.  This full-time life on the road isn't always glamorous, but this proves that grocery shopping can still be an aerobic exercise.

The town is neat and friendly, and we decided that it must be mandatory to own an ATV in this part of the country.  

This area is known for the great ATV trails that lead into the mountains.  We had to explore those trails with only our hiking boots for transportation.

We drove the car up one of the canyon roads until the ruts and width determined it was time to park.  Mark knows it's time to park the car when Denisa gets that look on her face and starts making comments about how terrible this road is.

As you can tell from the pictures, we found that more of the leaves in this area are already changing color. On the hike back down the mountain, Denisa was entertained by collecting pretty red leaves from maple trees growing close to the trail.

Mark thinks she must have contracted fall-foliage-fever as she exclaims over every tree that is turning red or orange.  But Denisa's collection of red leaves did make a neat picture.

After spending some time in the mountains above Fillmore, we also explored the flat meadows below town.  It was surprising to find out where this little flat road would take us.

Here's a hint--Mark is wearing his swim trunks, and there is a towel in that sack.  He had read that there are hot springs sprinkled around the valley.  There are three well-known springs that are on private property, and the owner welcomes others to enjoy them.  We parked the car and walked about a quarter of a mile down the road in the middle of no where.

 
We were surprised to see just how well-known these springs were when we drove into a full parking lot in the middle of a pasture.  We were even more surprised to walk to the first spring and see so many people in the water.  Of course, we were visiting on Labor Day.  Denisa's Dad would have described this scene as "there were so many people you couldn't stir 'em with a stick."  The water in this pool is warm from the hot springs feeding it.  The rope across the center is over a portion of this small pool that is 30 feet deep.

We talked to several of the locals, who said this was the most people they had ever seen at the springs.  It was a great place for families to come to enjoy the beautiful weather on a holiday.  We're guessing that we could have came back on Tuesday and had the place to ourselves.  Today, we walked another quarter mile to the second spring to check out the crowds there.  This one was cooler and less crowded (until another family of ten joined us).  The pools had natural benches on the edges, with a very deep section in the middle.

Just so we could see all three springs, we walked another quarter of a mile to the third one.  Someone had dumped some fish into the last spring, and we can testify that they are propagating well here.

We talked to a local that comes to feed them often.  She managed to tempt some of the two-foot-long fish to the top with her potato chips today.

 We thought it was so interesting to spend the day like so many locals do this holiday weekend--out in the middle of a pasture at the hot springs with the mountains in the background.

Fillmore's historical claim to fame is that they housed the original state capitol.  Originally, Utah was named "Deseret," and the federal government appropriated $20,000 to build the territorial capitol in Fillmore.  That much money only allowed for the first wing of the capitol to be built, and it is now open to the public as a state park.

 

The original design called for a central dome section, and three additional wings to be built around that dome. The brown section in the model below is the building in the picture above.  The white parts of the model were never built.

When the larger Deseret territory was shrunk and renamed "Utah", it was decided that Salt Lake City was a more populous and central area for the new state's capitol.  This lone capitol wing would later house a jail and a school and a dance hall . . . and finally now an interesting museum.

Our Passport America membership would only allow two nights at the half-price rate at Wagons West RV Park.  We have enjoyed Fillmore, but we are heading on down the road to explore more things in Utah.