Logan & Bear Lake: Pioneer Architecture, Cache Valley Cheese, and Utah's Caribbean-Blue Lake

Completed in 1891 after eighteen years of intermittent construction, the Logan Tabernacle is the most ambitious example of pioneer masonry ecclesiastical architecture in Utah. The building's rock-faced rusticated limestone exterior was quarried from Green Canyon above the city and laid by hand by immigrant craftsmen from Britain and Scandinavia; the 900-seat interior retains its original curved gallery, pipe organ, and the acoustic proportions the building was explicitly designed to produce. Free organ recitals run Tuesday and Thursday mornings in summer — the building fills with a resonance that makes clear why the pioneer church invested so heavily in permanent stone construction.

Dedicated in 1884 and three years older than the Salt Lake Temple, the Logan Temple took over a decade and 1,500 workers to complete its castellated Gothic limestone exterior under architect Truman Angell. The choice of Gothic crenellations and lancet windows for a Latter-day Saint temple was deliberate — Angell drew on the permanence and verticality of medieval ecclesiastical architecture to signal the durability of the institution. The temple grounds are open to visitors; the exterior is one of the most photographed buildings in northern Utah.

USU's land-grant creamery has been turning Cache Valley dairy milk into ice cream since 1922, operating within the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences and producing in small batches with higher butterfat content than commercial ice cream. The Aggie Blue Mint and seasonal huckleberry flavors are Cache Valley's most beloved culinary exports; the creamery shop on campus is one of the few places in Utah where you can eat ice cream made 100 yards from the cows.

Six miles south of Logan in Wellsville, this 160-acre living history farm interprets Mountain Man, pioneer homestead, and turn-of-the-century periods through working demonstrations: blacksmithing, wool carding, butter churning, seed saving, and the full range of subsistence crafts that sustained Cache Valley's first settlers. Staff in period dress operate a working farm, and the site's 2,000-acre setting at the foot of the Wellsville Mountains — the narrowest mountain range in North America — provides one of the finest backdrops of any heritage site in the Intermountain West.

Gossner Foods has been making Swiss-style aged cheeses in Cache Valley since 1966 using milk from the valley's Holstein dairy herds. The factory store sells fresh cheese curds — squeaky within hours of production — aged Swiss wheels, white cheddar, and Gossner's flagship UHT milk products that export to over 40 countries. The viewing window above the production floor shows the large copper vats, the mechanical cutting and pressing of curds, and the rind-washing process for the aged wheels.

Bear Lake sits at 5,900 feet on the Utah-Idaho border, its vivid turquoise color produced by calcium carbonate particles — essentially fine limestone dust — suspended in the glacial water that scatters blue wavelengths more intensely than any other lake color in the West. The lake is 20 miles long, 8 miles wide, and up to 209 feet deep, formed when the Bear River was diverted into a natural basin by faulting along the Bear Lake Valley. Cisco Beach on the Utah shore and the Marina Bay area offer swimming, kayaking, and stand-up paddle access to the Caribbean-blue water; the lake's endemic species include the Bonneville cisco, a small fish found nowhere else on Earth.

The northern shore of Bear Lake on the Idaho side protects 18,000 acres of marsh, open water, and upland habitat that shelter nesting colonies of white pelicans, great blue herons, Canada geese, and migratory waterfowl on the Pacific Flyway. The refuge's interpretive trail along the dike system offers viewing of the pelican colony — one of the largest inland pelican nesting sites in the Rocky Mountain region — from a short, flat walking path.

The western shore of Bear Lake is the quieter side — fewer services, less traffic, and the full panoramic view across the turquoise water to the Bear River Mountains rising above Garden City on the opposite shore. Rendezvous Beach State Park on the south shore has sandy swimming beaches with picnic facilities and a boat ramp; the afternoon light on the lake from this angle produces the most intense blue coloration.

A Garden City institution serving the lake's endemic perch — Bear Lake perch, caught commercially in winter ice-fishing operations and served pan-fried with lemon butter — alongside standard American lakeside fare: onion rings, coleslaw, and root beer floats. The outdoor deck overlooks the marina and the lake's evening color transition from turquoise to cobalt.