Archive for June, 2009

Uintas – June 2009

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

We made a quick trip up to the Uintas this past weekend to get the kids out to do a bit of camping. We stopped at the upper Provo river falls before we cruised up the canyon to find a campsite.

There was a fair amount of snow around the Trial Lake campground but we got a good spot 20′ form the lake. We set up camp and applied our bug spray and took a few photos just before it started to rain. We drove around the area a bit then over to the Crystal lake trail head to hike up to Wall Lake in the light rain and rolling thunder.

Wall Lake

As we hiked down the clouds started to break and we got a bit of sunshine and blue sky. We stopped for a while at the Lilly lakes area to take a few photos of the reflections.

We drove back to camp at Trial lake and made our dinner, the lake was absolutely gorgeous. After dinner we drove up to the pass to check out the sunset. We pulled into the parking area on the Bald mountain pass to see the storm rolling in. I got my camera set up and was able to get a few photos before the 40+ winds kicked up and I lost my hat. I packed my camera back in the car and scrambled around the cliff to retrieve my hat just before the rain started to come down.

Our view for dinner

Storm at Sunset

The rain came down long and hard so we went directly from the car to the tent and called it a night. The rain stopped sometime during the night and we awoke to clear skies and a very smooth Trial lake.

We ate our breakfast, packed up camp, and headed out. We drove around a bit more on some dirt roads before we headed down the canyon. On the way down we stopped at the Fairy Forest and let the kids run around and all got pretty wet while crossing the river. The kids really enjoyed walking the paths and looking at all the painted rocks. Pretty cool little spot for the kiddies.

pond

** update
To find the Fairy Forest drive the Mirror Lake highway from Kamas and park at mile marker 17 (40.592069,-111.01279). Follow the faint trail south through the campground, cross a small creek (could be dry), and then follow the path to the right. From your car to the Fairy forest is only a 5min walk.

Industrial Decay

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Clint and I tried to make plans to do a bit of hiking in the cottonwoods this weekend but due to the current snow levels we decided to try something that has been sitting on my ‘to do’ list for the last few months.

The first building we encountered was welded and chained shut but after a bit of looking around we found a way inside. Entering this building is a VERY bad idea .. rotting wood floors, collapsed ceilings, rusty nails, broken glass, displaced objects, and mine shafts makes this a dangerous place. We carefully picked our though taking a our photos.

 

 

 

We exited the building and started hiking up the mountain toward our next destination under dark skies, rolling thunder and a bit of rain. We followed the route I had mapped out on my GPS and three miles later we arrived at the second site when the rain really started to come down. We found our way in (also a bad idea for reasons listed above) and started taking our photos.

This site looked as if it could topple over at any moment.

The thunder was still rolling as we headed back down canyon. We hiked up the tailings pile and took shelter under the large conveyor belts as the rain came down again. Twenty minutes later we were shooting our last photos of this site before we headed back down the trail.

 

The largest building in the complex was very impressive, It has at least 8 levels and was constructed on a very steep hill. The lower levels are a tetanus shot waiting to happen with tons of debris form collapsed ceilings and pieces of broken equipment littered across the floors. I didn’t not take of shots of the outside to due rain but we spent a fair amount of time exploring the inside.

Ground level