Tuesday, August 12, 2014

High Unitas Adventure

After living in southwest Utah for over 16 years we finally made it to the High Uinta Mountains located in the northeast corner of our state. What took us so long? It just seemed so far away and we didn't know much about the area. Now that we've been there, it won't be long before we visit again. The area has much to offer with over 1000 natural lakes, 500 miles of streams and miles of hiking trails. The Uintas run east to west for more than 60 miles, with rugged peaks, flat-top mountains, high cliffs, scenic basins, flower filled meadows and crystal clear water. We covered many miles on the dirt roads, fished a few streams and hiked to a couple of lakes. We even had 3 moose sightings!

We started out on the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway HWY 150

Our first stop was Provo River Falls

With over 1000 lakes to see.....Trial Lake was a beautiful beginning

Here is Kent at Teapot Lake

All this water has to go somewhere

Spectacular views

The famous "Mirror Lake"

We decided to hike into Ruth Lake

The wildflowers were beautiful

This marmot didn't seem to mind us

We had Ruth Lake all to ourselves

What a pretty setting

Looking back towards Mt. Marsell

On the hike out we spotted a moose

Some of Utah's major river depend on these drainages

Views along the North Slope Scenic Backway

An old cabin

The tent is set up.....time to cook dinner

Canadian bacon, mushroom and black olive flatbread pizzas

East Fork Smith River just over the hill from our camp

The sky threatened, but relented

First catch of the trip

We circled Marsh Lake where we were camped

The setting sun

Henry's Fork

Kent had a blast fishing the streams

Cutthroat trout

A cow moose and her calf along the West Beaver Creek area

No phone service, no traffic......a place to enjoy the quiet

Hole in the Rock Mountain

Hole in the Rock Spring.......very cool

Rain falling along the Flaming Gorge-Uinta Scenic Byway

We drove the entire Elkhorn Loop

Old Elkhorn Guard Station

A nice old barn

Climbing up above Whiterocks

Pole Creek

West Fork Whiterocks River was loaded with fish

Colorful Brook Trout

It was fun to sneak up on some deer

So there really wasn't a trail......

We thought the creek was coming from a lake

and we were right

Rasmussen Lake #2

Rugged terrain

Rasmussen Lake #1

Pretty moth on some flowers

This doe was trying to steal hay from the horse trailer

This was a very cold spring

What a neat wooden trough

Sunset along HWY 6

We stopped to check out Meadow Hot Springs, there are three pools

We are out in the middle of farm country

This is the second spring, it was a little cooler than the first

The third pool had a lot of fish in it, the first pool was being enjoyed by some people; otherwise I would have taken a picture

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