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For the 5th of July my brother was in town and we made a nice day trip up in the Uintas with the boys.  We started off our day by hiking up to and above Ruth lake where the trail was extremely easy and a bit shorter than I had anticipated.

Ruth Lake

Kendall and Bowen looking at Ruth Lake and Hayden Peak

Woody loves hiking in the Uintas.

Once we made it back to the car we made lunch for the kids then drove back over bald mountain pass to hike to Wall Lake.  Kendall tested out his new tri suit in the cold lake by doing some cliff jumping  while the boys and I ate some snacks and watched.  Everyone at the lake was pretty impressed with Kendall’s fake belly flops.

The last stop of the afternoon was  Cataract Gorge. The road was longer and rougher than I had remembered and the water flow in the gorge was lower than I expected for this time of year.  Light and clouds were not even close to optimal for photos but regardless of the conditions Cataract is a fun unique place to explore.

The kids had a great time splashing and wading in the water and we were able to recover Anakin Skywalker from one of the deeper pools.

This weekend was Laniks birthday and he was overdue for a camping trip. He originally wanted to camp at “Simbas Rock” but the weather was still a bit too hot in the desert so we headed up to the Uintas. The skies were clear as we drove up the mirror lake highway but soon dark clouds started to roll in from the east. By the time were we descending to the Duchesne River from the Murdock Basin road the thunder was rolling but no rain.

We took our time once we arrived at the river and checked out the waterfall just above the gorge. After we started hiking it became obvious that Cataract Gorge was not really a good hike for a two year old so April ended up carrying Bowen most of the way. We spent a little over an hour hiking, throwing rocks in the upper part of the gorge before we headed back to the car.

Not long after we made it back to the car the weather took a turn for the worse and we chose to drive out the rough road rather than stay in the Duchesne River area. As we headed up towards the Murdock Basin the sideways lightning, hail, rain and thunder really started to pound. We spent a few hours driving around some 4×4 roads killing time waiting for the storm to pass and ended up near south west of Trial Lake. We took a long break out of the car and had a little birthday party.

Round two rolling in

With the new font rolling in we gave up on the Uintas and headed back west towards home. The birthday boy did not want to go home but camping some place else so we settled on a spot on the alpine loop. We set up camp just before dark and I took a few photos of the tent before the next storm rolled in and blocked out the sky. We were treated with an awesome lightning show in the distance for a few hours before the rain started to come down. It rained most of the night and in the morning we all awoke to some insanely loud thunder so We packed up camp and headed home first thing.

Near Trial Lake

6min star trails.

Most people would see this trip as a failure but I love nasty weather and the kids had a blast. Long story short this was a complete success in my book.