Winter locations Evanston area

[Jason Klein]

Seems like it's always windy in the Evanston area (and the several dozen high-tech windmills in the area i was looking at would tell me it's not my imagination), so with the lack of wind and snow here i spent some time this weekend scouting locations up there. Once you get East of Evanston, most of the land is BLM land, and most of that is wide open rolling hills with relatively few trees, shrubs only about 2' high, and in some places not even any shrubs. It literally goes for miles and miles. Pretty much ideal for kiting. The main question on using that land is where to park your car. While there are probably more options, i found 4 places that would work.

There are 3 Evanston exits. After the Evanston exits, there are two exits that access only dirt roads on BLM land. The first is exit 10, Painter Road and the second one is exit 13, Divide Road. They won't plow the dirt roads in the winter, but they'll probably plow the exit ramps, so you could park right at the bottom of the exit ramp and launch from there. I didn't take a good look at the terrain around Painter Road, but it looked like you could launch from either side. At Divide Road, the south side would be a tough launch (there's a steep uphill right at the exit), but the North side is a good launch and the terrain is nice rolling hills with very few shrubs.

The third exit after evanston is # 18 and is for route 189 north. You can also park right at this exit for some riding to the south of i80. If you take 189 north, there are a number of places that could provide some parking, but i'm not sure exactly how they'll plow when there is snow. All of the wide open land you will see on the left (west) side of the road would make for some spectacular terrain. The spot that is most likely to have some parking is 13 miles up rt 189 at Whitney Canyon Haul Road. This road was paved for the first 30 yds, with signs at that point that there is no winter maintenance, so they might plow that paved section, which would provide parking. This spot also happens to have some really nice looking terrain with the same rolling hills that this whole area has, but also some steeper sections for those looking for some gliding. I didn't see any signs saying that parking on the rt 189 is not allowed (like you see near strawberry), so if you can park along the road, anywhere along that 13 mile stretch would be fine.

There are probably a lot more locations in the area, and i think the area around Sulfer Creek res would probably give up some nice rides once the res freezes. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and if other people know of places in the area, please post here. Its an hour from Park City to the Painter Road exit, add another 20 minutes to the Whitney Canyon location. Once there is a couple of feet of snow, i think these spots would be well worth the drive if there is no wind here. I've seen a ton of days with 20mph winds there when its under 10mph here. Feel free to ask if you have any specific questions.

[kenclewis]

Jason R. and I spent a few days in Evanston last winter. There is a nice field on the way up the airport road that made for nice kiting and you could use the airport windmeter to see what the wind was doing before leaving home.

http://www.met.utah.edu/cgi-bin/droman/ ... i?stn=KEVW

I went up to the divide road at one point and the snow there is pretty wind blown. They seem to have a lot of 30-40+ winds on top there.