Bear Lake Vacation

What lurks beneath the waters of Bear Lake?

The legend of the Bear Lake Monster originally grew from articles written in the 19th century by Joseph C. Rich, a Mormon colonizer in the Utah/Idaho border area of Bear Lake, purporting to report second-hand accounts of sightings of the creature. But there are also accounts that Indians and mountain men like Jedediah Smith and Jim Bridger swapped stories about the Bear Lake Monster at their annual fur trading rendezvous.

In recent years, the monster is considered to be a tourist attraction—or is it? The last reported sighting of the monster was in 2004. The Bear Lake monster also appears in Animal Planet’s “Lost Tapes,” drama series, in which it is depicted as similar to a crocodile or a mosasaur.

• To follow a timeline of articles and other interesting information about the Bear Lake Monster, visit the Facebook page at Facebook.com/TheBearLakeMonster.
• To read a blog with interesting articles and posts about the Bear Lake Monster, visit BearLakeMonster.com.
• To follow stories and fun posts about the Bear Lake Monster on Twitter, follow @bearlakemonstr at Twitter.com/BearLakeMonstr.

And don’t forget about the annual Bear Lake Monster Polar Plunge!

The Polar Plunge is held every January at the Bear Lake State Park Marina in Garden City. The event is sponsored by The Bear Lake Chamber of Commerce, Utah State Parks & Recreation, and the Utah/Idaho Bear Lake Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau. The YouTube video below is from the event in 2012.