camping in the Uintas

It has been a very busy summer and it is coming to an end way too fast. Joseph and I decided to take a weekend and go camping in the Uinta's.  Since it was just the two of us we took our tent instead of the trailer.  There was a fire by Wanship where you start up the canyon and they had the road closed to traffic, so we went up through Evanston, where we dropped in from the North. We had plans to camp at Mirror Lake but the campground was full as well as the other campgrounds by the other lakes in the area.  We drove back towards Evanston where there are plenty of campgrounds but they are not close to any lakes so they are not as popular. We camped at the Bear Fork campground which is next to a river. There were only six sights.  It is lower than Mirror Lake so it was warmer which was nice since we didn't have use of our furnace, which is a nice advantage camping with a trailer, but it seems silly to haul a trailer for just the two of us for a weekend camping trip.

 We took a hike to Ruth Lake, which was a mild hike.  There were a lot of people there who had hiked in and were camping.

 We then continued our hike on over to Leary Lake.  It turned out that this part of the trail wasn't used very much as there is another trail to get there that it seems everyone uses instead.  Much of the trail was marked by rocks stacked up.

 Here we are at the tree line.

 A pretty meadow.

 Since we came home by way of Wyoming we decided to go on over to Fort Bridger. We have passed it many times and have never taken the time to stop and see what it there.

We enjoyed ourselves as well as learning about the different histories of the fort.  As it went from a trading post started by Jim Bridger to the early Mormons using it, then to a military base when Johnson's army came.

family reunion 2013

Our family reunion was held in Southern Utah this year.  One of the activities was hiking to Kanaraville Falls.  This is a slot canyon that you hike up the river to get to.  There are two falls. The first falls, you climb up a tree that had slats nailed into it like a ladder and ropes attached into the rock to hold on to, then you continue on to the second one where you can slide down if you are brave (or crazy) enough.  It was really a beautiful hike. Within the walls of the canyon the air was very pleasant and the water was cold but after hiking so far it felt great.

 McKenzie, Keith and Casey

 A group of the cousins

 Some were brave enough to slide down the falls.

 Relaxing before our descent back down to the heat.

 Myself, Katrina and Jim

 the top of the slot canyon....

.... to the bottom of the canyon.

 Mom and dad

 The cousins playing crochet in grandpa and grandma's backyard.

 This years' group; which is only half of us.  It seems to be getting harder to get everyone together.

With my parents and all but one sibling.  It was nice to spend time with everyone.