Old Ephraims Grave

On July 7th, we took everyone on a ATV/Hummer ride up to Old Ephs Grave.  Shayne and his family had told us along time ago that they wanted to go four wheeling with us one day.  I have always wanted my family from Texas to experience four wheeling and the excitement and beauty of riding in the mountains.

Anyway, as I was thinking about it, I decided that I wanted to give everyone an opportunity to go with us.  This took hours and hours of preparation. Trying to find machines and helmets for everyone was time consuming and somewhat stressful.  We had 28 people that wanted to go, so we originally decided to do two different trips.

Well, the night before we left, Bruce Goddridge told us we could use his old army Hummer and his four wheeler.  We ended up having seats for every single person, so we did one big ride.  We left the house at 8:30 am and headed up to Right Hand Fork, which is up Logan Canyon.  We got all the kids 18 and under in helmets and unloaded all the machines. 

Bryce, Clayton, and Nolan rode on Aprils machine. Shayne rode on my four wheeler.  I drove Shaylee on Bryce's machine.  Brian took Micaela, Annika, and Landon in a Razor.  Kylee and Tyler rode together. Paul and Steph had Jaden, Wesley, Cooper, Jaxson, and Coco in the Hummer.  Mom and Dad took Reese, Addey, and Ava in their Razor. Chelsey and Scott rode Bruce's four wheeler. Jacqui and Jared were on their own machines.  Once we were all loaded, we took off up the trail with 7 four wheelers, 2 razors and one ginormous Hummer!

The trail was pretty dusty, so we warned everyone about not riding too close to the next person and to wear sunglasses or goggles!  The ride was easy and very pretty.  We made a few stops along the way to move kids here and there and to make sure everyone was keeping up.  Bryce, Clayton, and Nolan lead the group.  Nolan had a great time.  Though he doesn't say much, he told Shayne this four wheeling trip was number one on his vacation list.

We finally made it down to Old Ephraims Grave.  It only took us about 30 minutes total to get there.  Old Ephraim  was a very large grizzly bear that roamed the Cache National Forest from circa 1911 until his death on August 22, 1923.

Frank Clark shot Old Ephraim in the head on 22 August 1923 with a .25-35 carbine rifle with seven rounds. It reportedly took all seven rounds to kill the bear. Clark described killing Old Ephraim as "the hardest of them [the bears] all". Clark planned to kill the bear in 1914, but did not succeed until 1923. On the night of 21 August, he woke to "a roar and groan", and took his gun to investigate. At this time, Clark says he was unaware it was Old Ephraim. After several unsuccessful shots, Clark finally found the bear, which had been caught in a trap Clark set earlier. Even after he used six of his seven rounds, the bear did not go down, so Clark started heading for Logan (20 miles away). After about 20 yards he turned around to find the bear being harassed by his dog, so he went closer and shot Old Ephraim in the head. Clark would express remorse for having to do it. Old Ephraim was skinned and buried, but was later dug up by Boy Scout Troop 43, which sent the skull to the Smithsonian. Much of the remains were taken by tourists as souvenirs

At the time of his death, Old Ephraim stood 10 feet (3.0 m) tall and weighed 1,100 pounds (500 kg). His skull was sent to The Smithsonian, where it was identified as a grizzly bear. It was eventually returned from the Smithsonian and put on display in the Special Collections section of the Utah State University library in Logan, Utah.

As we pulled up and got out of our ATV's, everyones faces were so dirty, but everyone was having a blast.  We went up the Memorial and took some family pictures.  It's amazing how tall the bear really was! Across the trail, on the other side, is where his actual grave is located.

While we were there, a forest ranger came up and started visiting with Brian, Bryce, and Jared.  Jared's machine did not have updated registration stickers.  We luckily made it out of there while the ranger was talking to some other people!

There is a place about four miles up the trail from the cars where the road splits in three different directions.  We met back here and decided we wanted to go up a different trail which led to Mt. Logan.  Mom, Dad, Shayne, and Jared had to head back home, but the rest of us went up to Mt. Logan.

The Hummer wasn't the fastest thing in the world, so we had to keep stopping to make sure we didn't lose anyone.  The kids thought the Hummer was awesome. They had a great time riding in it with Steph and Paul.

We finally made it to the top of the mountain.  We ate lunch up there and some of us played in the snow.  Tyler kept trying to throw snowballs at Kylee and the little boys.

It was a really beautiful sight and everyone enjoyed getting out of their machines and walking around for a little bit.  The wind was blowing up there and some of the kids were a little chilly.  We headed back down the trail with Paul leading out.  Clayton jumped in the Razor with Brian, and he had a good time in it.

About 40 minutes from the cars, the Hummer had a complete blowout.  A rock or something must have penetrated the outside wall of the tire, because it was gashed and riding on its rim.  We were blessed to be in a good location for such a situation as this.  We overloaded the machines and took everyone back. 

Paul called Bruce and he met us down by the cars with a spare and tools to fix it.  Brian accidently got lost on one of the trails, so Jacqui went back up to try to find him. Luckily, it was a trail that had a dead end, so they didn't go very far before turning around.  When they got back, we crammed into all the cars and Paul's razor, and headed home. 

 It was a lot of fun to take my family four wheeling. I think everyone had a great time.  The scenery was pretty and it was a new experience for many of them.  Dad enjoyed driving the razor, spending time with his grandkids, and seeing Old Ephraims Grave.  He always told us about Old Ephraim when we were kids, so it was nice to be able to take him there!