Utah's new Tie Fork Rest Stop near Soldier Summit on Highway 6. --Photo by Pat Bean
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.” — Charles Dickens
Travels With Maggie
My first day back on the road after leaving Ogden took me to Moab on Utah roads I had traveled many times before. Traffic, as usual, was horrid until I turned off Interstate 15 and began winding my way up Spanish Fork Canyon on Highway 6.
Winter sunset on Mount Timpanogas. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
I had passed this same way in April, Then the mountains had been dressed in snow. Now, in late September, they look naked, especially the 11,749-foot Mount Timpanogas. Its profile is said to be that of a sleeping Indian maiden, the legend of which is yet another version of the Romeo and Juliet story.
A cave sits within the mountain that contains a geological feature, enhanced by red lights, that is said to be the maiden’s heart.
Recollections of that powerful image, along with the effort of the steep mile and a half hike up the mountain to see it, tickled my brain as I drove past Provo this day. I prefer driving to the sound of silence instead of music to better focus on such memories and the current passing landscape.
Near Soldier Summit, which marks the end or beginning of Spanish Fork Canyon depending on which way you’re headed, a new sight greeted me, one that hadn’t been there when I had passed this way earlier. Now sitting at Milepost 202 on Highway 6 was the new Tie Fork Rest Stop.
Shiny and bright but going nowhere. -- Photo by Pat Bean
Dedicated just a month earlier, it was not just any old rest stop.Its place to do business looked more like a cathedral than an outhouse.
A high two-story building enclosed the restrooms and the pit stop was designed like a railroad roundhouse, complete with a shiny red and black engine with No. 435 emblazoned on its sides. The site was well landscaped with plenty of picnic tables scattered around for the outdoor dining pleasure of visitors, of which this day there were quite a few. I suspected it was the actual destination for some curious locals as well as a rest stop for us travelers.
Maggie got to enjoy the stop, too, as there was an area marked off just for pets.
The project is supposed to be in remembrance of the old railroad town of Tucker located just two miles away. I think I would have enjoyed it more if my thoughts hadn’t strayed to its cost.
Tie Fork's cathedral ceiling restroom
It seemed a bit too extravagant for me when our country is going through such economic woes. I suspected the money spent here could have been more thoughtfully spent reducing the country’s debt or better educating its children.
Pat Bean's blog 
Very nice rest stop. I must agree, the $ would have been much more useful elsewhere.
“I prefer driving to the sound of silence instead of music to better focus on such memories and the current passing landscape.”
I’ve done this before, but not really consciously. One of those days nothing sounded good, so I just sat in silence. It lets your mind wander to some fun places. I’ll have to make an attempt to do this the next time I’m driving somewhere of significance that I haven’t been for awhile.
Also, used to live close to Mt. Timpanogos, plenty of fun memories from there. Lot’s of weekend day trips, father & son camp outs, picnics, hiking, etc. Certainly miss having mountains here in Texas.