About Cache Valley, Utah

You'll be glad you chose Utah State University

Located 80 miles north of Salt Lake City, Logan is the cultural center of northern Utah's Cache Valley. Logan is home to 43,000 people and offers a wide variety of shops and restaurants, more than two dozen parks, riverside nature trails, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a skate park, two golf courses, a summer gardener's market, a public zoo, health and fitness clubs, a well-equipped library, fare-free bus service and a central historic district.

Old Main

Utah State University; Old Main

Local events and attractions include the annual Summerfest Art and Jazz Festival, the Cache Cruise-In, one of the largest antique car shows in the West, and the Top of Utah Marathon, ranked as one of the four "best-kept secrets" in the country by Runners World magazine. The community is family-friendly, and children of all ages can experience the valley's Western heritage through hands-on activities at the American West Heritage Center, or sample locally produced cheese, ice cream, cookies, honey or hand-dipped chocolates at tourist outlets. The Eccles Ice Center, used as a training arena for international Olympic figure, speed, and hockey skating teams during the 2002 Salt Lake games, offers Olympic-quality skating year-round. Gardeners who like the smell of flowers on their hands can find hands-on activities at Utah State's 94-acre Utah Botanical Center. The gardens, located an hour south of Logan, teach residents about water-wise landscapes, native plants and gardening skills. And for family history buffs, the Logan Tabernacle houses the second largest genealogy library in Utah.

Click to enlarge aerial views:

Campus (Heading East)	Old Main (Heading Northwest)

Cache Valley offers cultural opportunities usually found only in larger metropolitan areas. The locally-based Utah Festival Opera Company is ranked among the top 20 summer opera festivals in the world by Money Magazine and welcomes talented performers from around the world for a summer series of grand opera, light operettas and musicals. The Cache Valley Center for the Arts brings Broadway musicals and country bands to the historic Ellen Eccles Theatre, while comedy, musicals, drama and farce are served up at the charmingly restored Old Lyric Repertory Theatre. The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University houses one of the largest permanent art collections in the Intermountain West, changing gallery exhibits and Native American artwork. Local associations and the university sponsor jazz, folk, and classical music concerts, a Visiting Artist Series, an annual lecture series, symposiums, educational tours and life-enrichment courses. Utah Public Radio is broadcast from the USU campus and offers a variety of lectures, and folk, classical, opera and jazz music.

Historical Background

When fur trapper Jim Bridger first discovered the willow-edged meadows and forested mountains of Cache Valley, he pronounced the site the most beautiful valley in the Rocky Mountains. In this century, novelist Thomas Wolfe passed through the area and said it was "the most lovely and enchanted valley I have ever seen, a valley that makes all that has gone before fade as nothing."

This enchanted valley was a traditional gathering place for Shoshoni Indians and, later, for fur trappers. Rough-hewn mountain men swapped furs, flour, sugar and stories. They also cached furs here, which is how the valley got its name. Fur trappers gave way to farmers, and along the way Cache Valley became known for its cheese, ice cream and gourmet cookies. In recent decades, high-tech spinoffs from Utah State University have created a new cache of business opportunities.

Today, residents and visitors enjoy the cultural benefits of a larger metropolitan area without the disadvantages, and still find a cache of pristine beauty and unparalleled recreational opportunities.

A Recreational Paradise

Numerous recreational activities are located minutes from campus, including rock climbing, biking, snow boarding, downhill and cross country skiing, horseback riding, birding, fishing, caving, snowmobiling, kayaking, sailboat racing and canoeing. The 40-mile National Scenic Byway through Logan Canyon begins just east of campus and follows the curves of the Logan River, one of the nations' last truly wild rivers. The river meanders through vertical limestone cliffs, colorful fields of wildflowers and panoramic vistas. Glamour magazine rated Logan Canyon Scenic Byway among the nine best places in America for fall colors.

Logan Canyon Logan Cave; Spring Runoff Logan Canyon; China Cave

Logan Canyon is one of Utah's premiere masterpieces of natural beauty. Logan Canyon features miles of hiking and biking trails, horse rides, Beaver Mountain Ski Resort, campsites, yurt rentals, the Mt. Naomi Wilderness Area and chance encounters with moose and elk. Visitors can sail or swim in the turquoise waters of Bear Lake, take a sleigh ride among 700 wintering elk at the Hardware Ranch Elk Refuge, soak in natural hot springs or visit one of the largest bird refuges in the Intermountain region. For those wanting to experience the wilds of nature with a guide, USU's Outdoor Recreation Center, located on campus, and Bridgerland Audubon Society offer guided adventures. The Stokes Nature Center offers hands-on nature programs for children of all ages.

Whisper the word "Utah" and skiers and snowboarders alike go weak at the knees. Ten major ski resorts, many of which hosted sites for the 2002 Winter Olympics, lie within a two-hour
drive from campus. Here's a list of all ski resorts in Utah.

Logan is a half-day drive from Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons. Utah's famous National Parks and Monuments, including Arches, Bryce, Zion and the Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument, are within a day's drive. Northern Utah offers an ideal climate, with fresh powder snow in the winter, a mild spring, a long growing season and colorful fall foliage. One Logan native remarked, "God created a recreational heaven here. We just built a community around it."

Family Friendly

Cache Valley is full of family activities to fit all lifestyles and budgets. The community offers a skateboard park, indoor and outdoor swimming, ice skating, a roller rink, a soft indoor playworld, several fall corn mazes and children's interpretive nature trails in Logan Canyon. Children can pet and feed farm animals at the Jensen Living Historical Farm, a living history farm set in the early 1900s, and visit black bears, monkeys and kangaroos at Willow Park Zoo, home to more than 600 animals. The Cache Valley Alliance for the Varied Arts, a nonprofit arts organization, offers dance, drama, ceramics and art classes for children. The annual Summerfest features face painting, drumming and puppet theater.

Logan was recently ranked the #1 safest place to live in the United States.

Utah State University Extension and 4-H hosts several Discovery Summer Science Camps each year to allow kids to discover and explore everything from bugs to forces of nature. The Utah History Fair helps students learn about historical issues, ideas, people and events. USU's Junior Engineering is a hands-on, interactive program designed to help students learn about space missions and engineering principles. Children can also enjoy all four seasons in Logan Canyon and strap on snowshoes and track wildlife in the winter or identify trees in summer at the Stokes Nature Center in Logan Canyon.

"Farming-Town" Feel With "Big-City" Conveniences

There are few places that have the "farming town" feel, yet have all of the modern facilities and conveniences of the big city. Cache Valley is one of these unique places offering its residents and visitors alike a safe haven from the busy-ness of big cities.

If you're a prospective student of Utah State University's College of Engineering, then view our Top 10 Reasons as to why you should be a student of our College of Engineering.