The place where no one is poor

A view of Logan with the Bear River Range behind.  Taken from near Gossner's Cheese Factory, which sells smoked cheese curds, which can only be described as "dairy funk."  Below, a view of the smaller, steeper, and more rugged Wellesvilles on the opposite (west) side of Cache Valley

The Wellesville Mountains.  One solid ridgeline defining the western edge of Cache Valley

Cache Valley, which rhymes with stash and rash (both of which I am sporting right now), sits in the far north of Utah near Idaho and Wyoming.  It runs north into Idaho to Preston of Napoleon Dynamite fame.  Towns cover the slopes of the ranges that line the east and west side of the valley while farmland, landfill, and wetland make up the lowland.  It seems that nearly every city along the Wasatch Front (the west-facing slope of the Wasatch Mountains that rises up from the Great Salt Lake) has a prominent Mormon temple that is visible from miles out on the valley floor.  All of the temples are immaculate.  Mormon settlers and the LDS church loom large in the history of this area as I am finding out, and to no one's surprise they are highly present in the area still.

Logan Temple

Logan is no exception.  Grocery stores and restaurants can sell alcoholic drinks only up to four per cent by volume.  The only liquor stores are state-run liquor stores.  Nothing is open on Sundays except for Walmart, which is powerful beyond any religion.  The temple is the oldest temple still in use with original construction in Utah or something like that.  Near the temple up on the hill in Logan is Utah State University.  It has a beautiful campus and has some very cool programs.  UCC is run through the department of natural resources.  They have a campus bike shop that lets you do free maintenance on your own bike plus they do free three-month checkouts to students.  It's awesome.  And with all the hysteria over BJ pints, I haven't even had the chance to try the campus ice cream shop.  The locals are wild about Aggie Blue Mint ice cream.  Below I put a picture of Old Main Hill, which is on campus right next to my house.  It is asking to be iceblocked.  Although there is no student-led farm, there are some apricot trees by the football stadium that I will raid mercilessly when they get ripe.

The A lights up at night

PS. The title of this post was meant as a pun.  Either way, there aren't really any homeless people in Cache Valley.  Which almost makes dumpster diving an ethical mandate by the tenets of no food waste... almost.
PPS. My crew will be eating thirty bagels this week found fresh near Einstein Bagel Co.