The
alternate route to Bear River, which cut off from the main road beyond
Pacific Springs and drove across a waterless desert for almost sixty
miles, descended to the Green River valley down a rubble of clay, loose
stones and bits of slate near the mouth of Labarge Creek, as shown above in
one of J. G. Bruff's drawings. But whether you went by this way or by
way of Fort Bridger, you came at last to the intricate series of
ravines and valleys through which the Bear River flowed to the north.
"The descent of these hills was sometimes precipitous," wrote one of
the emigrants. For all its ups and downs (see below), the valley of the Bear was the best route to Fort Hall and the wells of the Humboldt.
