Border Summit
In Utah and this part of Idaho some very low summits are
named and marked with a summit sign. In this case the
reason is historical. The summit was once on the
California Gold Rush trail and informational tablets along
the road side tell the story.
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1.(00.0km~0.0mi, 1853m~6079ft)
START-END EAST: jct Wy89 - US30 south of Geneva, Id
3.(02.4km~1.3mi, 1847m~6060ft) low point
2.(05.7km~3.5mi, 1938m~6358ft) TOP: Border Summit
3.(13.7km~8.5mi, 1832m~6010ft) START-END WEST: route
reaches Sheep Creek, south west of Geneva |
Approaches
From West. From its junction with Wy89, US30
barrels straight west up a hill on Boundary Ridge. But first
it crosses Thomas Fork, where a sign relates a story of early
capitalism along the California Trail ( more below ). About
halfways up the straight approach is a rest area. The top is a
road cut. But just a few steps further on the old abandoned
highway on the right waits a great view of the Sublette Range
and the swampy Bear River at its foot (picture beolow). It
gives the appearance of having climbed much more than was
actually the case.
From East. (described downwards). The descend seems
even smaller than the other side, even if the profile shows
them to be about equal. Maybe the reason is the lack of a
vista on this side. It's just a short roll down a grassy
ravine on the way to Geneva
Tours
Dayrides.
Montpelier > Geneva Summit > US30 south <>
short out and back to Raymond > Border Summit > Bench
Road > back to starting point: 50 miles with 1600ft of
climbing in 3:4hours (r2:10.9.17).
 History
Oregon Trail: In 1849 California gold seekers
started using a short cut to the Oregon trail, that roughly
followed today's US30 across Border Summit. On the lower west
side the road crosses Thomas Fork. By the early 1850s two toll
bridges had been built to cross the stream. The 1 dollar per
wagon fee was quite high for the day, and many poorer
emigrants still struggled to cross the stream. for free.
During the initial Trail days the difficult climb along the
route was not this little summit. Instead the road crossed
something called "Big Hill", visible from US30 a few
miles east of Montpelier. At least one emigrant noted in his
diary, that this was the most difficult hill to cross on the
entire Oregon trail east of Fort Hall. Enterprising emigrant
Tom Mc Auley soon built a toll road through the gully south of
this hill, following today's US30. The road was not maintained
after 1852 and fell again into disuse
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