DRAPER -- Many people have visited the famous "Four Corners," where three other states border the Beehive State. But what about the other five corners of Utah's border?
Ray Rogers, 72, of Draper has visited all six corners of Utah. He's definitely one of the few who have. He had to study numerous detailed topographical maps, negotiate many miles of rugged roads and, in some cases, hike several miles to reach all the corner markers.In the summer of 1996, Rogers was traveling near the southwest corner of the Wyoming border with a Scoutmaster when the subject of the state's corners came up.
"We were kind of nature nuts anyway," Rogers said, explaining he and his wife, Donna, were curious about what the state's other, non-famous, five corner points looked like. They'd already been to the Four Corners area.
It was also the time of Utah's centennial, and Rogers said he felt extra-patriotic and set a goal to reach all the corners. Fortunately, he has a four-wheel-drive pickup truck.
Later that year, they visited the northeast border, where Idaho and Wyoming join up with Utah. He said that monument is located several hundred yards off a dirt road that ranchers and Utah Power trucks use, northeast of Sage Creek Junction. They had to hike several hundred yards to the top of a hill to reach the marker, a smooth sandstone monument.
The Wyoming-Colorado-Utah corner was next. Rogers said that trek involved the roughest road of all, east of Flaming Gorge.
At an 8,400-foot elevation, it is the highest of all Utah corners. It also ended up being the nicest. There were three flagpoles at the corner's concrete monument marker, though no flags were flying then.
"We really enjoyed that one. It was a nice camping trip," Rogers said.
The Rogerses lived in St. George during the winter of 1996-97 and visited the state's southwest corner. This was one of the most difficult markers to find.
They discovered on their first attempt that they couldn't reach the marker from Utah through the Beaver Dam Wash area. In the second attempt, coming from Arizona, they temporarily got lost in the Joshua tree area. Luckily they finally saw a mesa in a distance, called Initial Mesa, and found a 4-foot-high sandstone corner monument there.
After returning to St. George, they found there had been no film in the camera, so they returned a third time soon afterward to document that corner in photographs.
The northwest Utah corner was another tough visit. A drive through the Goose Creek area, north of Grouse Creek, got them close to the marker, but daylight ran out. They had to return in the spring of 1997 to the area.
This time they met a Connecticut man, Mike Donner, who was out trying to document all the three-corner state points in the nation. After finding a local rancher who helped them cross the creek and taking a two-mile hike along a fence line, they found the monument.
"It's a scrawny little concrete thing," Rogers said.
Rogers' wife made all the trips except the final one.
"She almost made that corner," he said, explaining that's the one they came up short on because of a lack of daylight.
Rogers admits all the monuments -- except the famed Four Corners one -- are pretty rundown.
"But it was fun. We ran into lots of wildlife."
He said all the markers are located on ranch land.
"We came across lots of water troughs and salt licks."
The Bureau of Land Management wasn't even sure the northwest corner monument still existed. However, Rogers' photograph shows that it still does.