Our next stop on the Road Trip 2012 was Bear Lake, Utah!

 

Our next stop on the Road Trip 2012 was Bear Lake, Utah!

 

Bear Lake is a natural freshwater lake on the Utah-Idaho border in the Western United States. It is the second largest natural freshwater lake in Utah[1] and has been called the "Caribbean of the Rockies" for its unique turquoise-blue color, the result of suspended limestone deposits in the water.[2] Its water properties have led to the evolution of several unique species that live naturally only within the lake.[3] Bear Lake is over 250,000 years old.[4] It was formed by fault subsidence that continues today, slowly deepening the lake along the eastern side.[5]

Originally named Black Bear Lake by Donald Mackenzie, an explorer for the North West Fur Company who discovered the lake in 1819. The name was later changed to Bear Lake.[6] The lake is a popular destination for tourists and sportsmen and the surrounding valley has gained a reputation for having high quality raspberries.[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Lake_(Idaho%E2%80%93Utah)

Bear Lake was an AMAZING find! By the time the guy from Ontario, that grew up on Lake Superior (I hear they do not call it superior for no reason) is grinning from ear to ear like a Daddy in an electronics shop on a free 5k shopping trip, you know it is good. The lake is a spectacular colour, nicely cool/warm and pleasantly long.

For our time in Bear Lake, we stayed at the Bear Lake/Garden City KOA. It is a large KOA kampground with many Kozy Kabins, tonnes of tent sites and even more trailer/motor home sites. They even have one site that has a fenced yard complete with a private hot tub! This KOA is on par with Yellowstone for size and one of the very best for amenities that we have stayed at.

While cooking dinner one evening, we had the opportunity to speak with the Grandmother of the owners. She gave us quite a bit of insight into the ongoing efforts of the family to ensure that this KOA keeps its kampers happy. I can attest that having a full sized (small town) grocery store and an Ace Hardware on the property was not something we had seen before. This was fantastic, as anything that you might possibly need was within a three minute walk from your site. That was in addition to great staff that kept the whole place clean, knew all about the surrounding area and had great recommendations for the best places to visit.

For the LittleJ’s the highlights were that the property has a Jumping Pillow that they made great use of even with a broken arm, a nice swimming pool because hours in the lake might not be enough for a kid, bikes to rent for a family ride and mini golf! Really, this location has it all for kids and adults. When you are not enjoying one of the nicest lakes I have ever had the joy of visiting, you are in a GREAT campground with all of the amenities you could want. For me, this KOA ranks in my top five ever! If you are in the area, with a tent, trailer, motor home or in need of a cabin, we could not recommend this KOA highly enough!

After getting settled into our Kozy Kabin, we were off to the lake to have a picnic dinner on the beach. We enjoyed a relaxing meal of chicken quesadillas and watched the sun set. Following that we were off to try Bear Lake famous shakes.

For our first stop, we went to the Quick N' Tasty. We tried the much talked about Raspberry shake. The shakes are thick, creamy and perfectly flavoured. They do not have that fake edible oil product over flavoured taste that too many shakes have these days.  We could understand why all of the reviews about Bear Lake include some sort of comments about the shakes. We tried the big three places while in town, Quick N' Tasty, La Beaus and Jake’s. I am pleased to report that Jake’s, our last stop on the way out of town had the best shakes of all. La Beaus was the most entertaining to have as we rode one of the four person bikes to get a shake. If you are in Bear Lake, we highly recommend having a shake.  

Both of our days in Bear Lake, we rented a boat from Cisco’s. http://www.ciscoslanding.com/ The first day we took out “Baby” who had a lovely roof to offer come shade in the +35˚C sun and peppy engine. As we got the run down on the workings of the boat the Cisco’s agent mentioned the rules of about swimming off the boat. Imagine our pleasant surprise to learn that they encouraged us to swim off the boat.  So with that knowledge we were off to explore the bright blue lake. After a quick tour of about 10% of the lake we were all in heaven. It was then that I asked SparkJ, the only one who had gotten into her bathing suit before boarding the boat, if we could throw her in the water from the front of the boat!  She looked at me dubiously... I then added that I would flip down the ladder so that she could swim around the boat and climb up the ladder. With that knowledge she was all in for heading into the lake.

 

 

Needless to say, SparkJ greatly enjoyed her time in the water. We were all mot impressed with the bravery that she displayed. CubJ was enjoying dangling his legs off the back of the back of the boat into the surprisingly warm water. Given how pleasant the water was we decided to head back in, all get changed and go swimming in the lake together. While we were back in the dock, DaddyJ came up with the great plan of renting a tube to use while we were swimming.

It was a FANTASTIC plan. We enjoyed two and one half more glorious hours of swimming tubing and jumping in off of the boat. The water was clear, warm and wonderful. It was almost like being in Cayman!  The kids had a wonderful time in the tube laughing their heads off and signalling that they wanted to go faster and faster. It was a very carefree afternoon watching the kids laugh and play.

Upon returning to the KOA, we spent the rest of the day alternating between the pool, jumping pillow, playground and getting shakes on the big bike. As far as camping trips go, it was the best days ever. It was relaxing, filled with laughter and an all around good time.

The following day, we rented another boat and tube. While we had some issues getting Big Mable not to go under in the beginning, we worked it out and enjoyed  three hours of tubing and swimming fun.  With the aid of CubJ’s cast cover, he too enjoyed tubing and swimming. We were all sad to leave Bear Lake that afternoon but excited to head off to our next destination.

Thanks for the great time Bear Lake, Utah, we look forward to returning one day..........