"To tour Logan Canyon is to step back into the spirit, if not the look and feel, of the Old West," Michael S. Sweeney, a journalism professor and head of the Department of Journalism and Communication at USU, wrote in "Last Unspoiled Place: Utah's Logan Canyon," published by the National Geographic Society. (The 2007 book also features a great many beautiful images by Utah photographer Scott T. Smith.)

On the other side of the range, U.S. 89 offers spectacular views of sky-blue Bear Lake, on the Utah-Idaho border. Below are Garden City, Laketown, a state park harbor … and even more loop-drive options, such as the route north into Idaho and back toward the upper Cache Valley via Emigration Canyon, or the Monte Cristo highway, which climbs to a high ridge before winding down to Huntsville and the Ogden Valley, south of Logan.

"Cache," Egland notes, "comes from the French word 'cacher,' " for trappers — and at least one blacksmith, hence Blacksmith Fork Canyon above Hyrum — "cached" their goods (or tools) for safe-keeping here during the early 1800s. They were secret treasures.

But it should be no secret that Utah's Logan, Cache Valley and their forested mountains offer anyone — day tourist, vacationer or multiweek "sunbird" — plenty of things to do and to see.

Logan offers summertime activities, charm Cache Valley Visitors Bureau: www.tourcachevalley.com (800-882-4433), County County Courthouse, 195 N. Main, Logan

Utah Festival Opera: www.ufoc.org (800-262-0074); box office: Dansante Building, 59 S. 100 West, Logan

Old Lyric Repertory Company: boxoffice.usu.edu/ (435-797-8022); Caine Lyric Theatre, 28 W. Center St., Logan

The American West Heritage Center: www.awhc.org (800-225-3378), 4025 S. Highway 89-91, Wellsville

Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art: www.usu.edu/artmuseum (435-797-0163), 650 N. 1100 East, Utah State UniversityFor more information

Cache Valley Visitors Bureau: www.tourcachevalley.com (800-882-4433), County County Courthouse, 195 N. Main, Logan

Utah Festival Opera: www.ufoc.org (800-262-0074); box office: Dansante Building, 59 S. 100 West, Logan

Old Lyric Repertory Company: boxoffice.usu.edu/ (435-797-8022); Caine Lyric Theatre, 28 W. Center St., Logan

The American West Heritage Center: www.awhc.org (800-225-3378), 4025 S. Highway 89-91, Wellsville

Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art: www.usu.edu/artmuseum (435-797-0163), 650 N. 1100 East, Utah State University

E-mail: features@desnews.com