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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 past weekend April, the boys, and I made our first trip to the Uintas where the last of the snow was melting and the mosquitoes had yet to come out.  We headed out late Friday afternoon and set up camp just south of Trial Lake, we  made a short hike around Haystack Lake then drove along the Mirror Lake highway making various stops and shooting photos.
Haystack Lake

Lots of snow melt at the Bald Mountain Pass

Mini Pond near Lost Lake

Friday the moon was nearly full and there were plenty of clouds in the sky so I was unable to shoot any start trails but did shoot a few long exposures around camp.

Saturday morning the skies were clear and we were ready to hike. We left camp and arrived at the Pass Lake trail head and began our clockwise hike of the Lofty Lake loop at 10am. The trail to Reid’s Meadow was very wet with more than a few snow drifts that made it quite interesting for the kids.

Reid’s Meadow

The trail between Reid’s and Kamas Lake had a few steep loose sections but the kids did great. Once we arrived at Kamas lake we let the kids throw some rocks and wade into the ice cold water.

After our break we made our way up to Cutthroat pass where we encountered a large amount of snow.  We did a bit of route finding and scrambled our way around the deep snow up to Lofty lake.

We took a long break at Lofty Lake to eat snacks, filter water, take photos, and soak in the spectacular views.  With all the ice and snow Lofty lake was definitely the highlight of the hike.

Not much trail was exposed from under the snow as we made our way up to the pass so we scrambled across the rocks.  Little Bowen (3yo)  had a hard time hiking on the rocks and was a bit tuckered out and done hiking uphill.  We hiked back down to Scout lake and made it back to the  Pass Lake trail head at 2pm . The kids did an awesome job hiking  the loop and had a great time.

Scout Lake

After Lofty we drove up the Mirror Lake highway to Christmas Meadows where we wandered around the area for about an hour shooting photos.

Next was a quick stop at the Provo River Falls for a short walk along the trail before heading out of the Uintas.

Short fun trip.. I cant wait to go back.