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Published: September 9th 2009
Jennifer Visits Utah Section:
Our realized itinerary:
Friday night, August, 21, 2009: Northeast of Ogden, Utah in Willows (Wasatch-Cache National Forest)
Saturday, August 22, 2009: Wasatch-Cache National Forest to Flaming Gorge (Uinta High Wilderness)
Sunday, August 22, 2009: Flaming Gorge to Ashley National Forest (Henry’s Fork/King’s Peak Trail)
Monday, August 23, 2009: Henry’s Fork Trailhead to Dollar Lake (approx. 8 miles)
Tuesday, August 24, 2009: Dollar Lake Day Hike: To Gunsight Pass and back (approx. 7 miles)
Wednesday, August 25, 2009: Dollar Lake to Trailhead; then on to Still Water Nat. For. Campground
Thursday, August 26, 2009: Still Water to Mirror Lake (3 mile hike), then to Antelope Island State Park
Friday, August 27, 2009: Antelope Island State Park, Utah (22 miles north of Salt Lake City)
Saturday, August 28, 2009: Jennifer to Chicago (Airport); Dave to Dixie Nat. Forest, Southern Utah The following blog entries were written after returning to Chicago. During the 8 days that Jennifer visited (I picked her up at the Salt Lake City airport, blowing, once again, Sophie’s mind), we camped each night, beginning at the small Wasatch-Cache National Forest campground, Willows.
Although somewhat limited, highlights did include the hummingbird feeders and the fast moving creek that borders the campground. I went “swimming” in their twice, and the second time, I noticed that, no matter whether I sat in the two-foot pool of water on the side of the creek, or wedged myself between two large rocks in the center, where the water roared over me, there were hundreds of 4 mm black “worms” all over me, particularly on my shorts and legs. This kinda' freaked me out, and we packed up quick for our first real destination: The Flaming Gorge.
We headed north on Hwy 39, passing other campgrounds, all of which looked pretty full. Briefly leaving the National forest, we headed south on my old friend, Scenic Hwy 89, and then headed west on Hwy 80 into Wyoming. 30 miles later, we headed south on 414, having seen and traveled past large pastures of wind turbines and the Uinta Mountains, the nation’s only major east-west mountain range.
In Manila, we stopped at the Ashley National Forest Visitors Center, which, like most others that I had stopped at, proved to be both educational and useful. There’s a
Ranger on-hand to offer travel suggestions and we gathered maps, bought postcards, and learned of the 17-mile Sheep Creek geographic “loop,” which conveniently doubled as a “back in time drive,” as over a billion years, the earth had shifted as such to provide a visual span of a billion years. Signs describe the exposed rock examples, list the reasons that they arrived in their current state, and provided an excellent opportunity to shoot some pictures and look at (but not take) interesting rock samples. I picked up two large, smashed liquor bottles at a huge, squared, lichen-rocked presentation, which was located on a mountain top, with sparse trees complimenting the scene.
Arriving at the Flaming Gorge near 5 p.m., we past 3 campgrounds and settled into the one closest to the Visitors Center, which sits atop a bend of the dam/reservoir’s 400-ft vertical drop? The water looked clear and inviting, yet was inaccessible, except for a 15 mile car ride down to its surface. The campground, which had about 25 primitive sites, allowed us to camp within 40 yards of the canyon’s drop, and we were delighted to see minimal fence (only at specific viewpoints, the closest of
which was the next-to-last in campground.
While Jennifer attended a Raptor lecture at the center, I walked around, took pictures of Sophie and dried out sleeping bags, set up the tent, and worked on a few blog photos. I chatted for 30 minutes with a retired Florida couple, who were Republicans, but suggested that Obama is doing a good job as President, and “Sarah Palin was a disaster for McCain.”
Dinner was served just after dark, and I seem to recall that we went to bed shortly after dark.
Morning brought a bit more rim hiking near the campsite, then a stop at a natural lake near the area’s entrance. We watched various waterfowl for a few minutes. Jennifer is a 4-year birder, as was excited to begin to check off her first-ever Western species examples, thus adding to her “life-list.”
There is no direct/close east-west road, as the mountain range is quite high, so we were forced to backtrack into the small town of Lonetree to catch a dirt forest service road that will lead us to Henry’s Fork trailhead, the destination for our 3-day hike into the High Uinta Wilderness area. The
drive was nice, with few others in view, and us traveling through thick pine forests and nice views of the mountains.
We reached Henry’s Fork, one of 2 other trailheads that provide access to Utah’s highest point, the peak of Kings Peak mountain (elev. 13, 528). The campground was mostly empty; however, the trailhead parking lot was quite full, with about 30 cars. King’s Peak is a popular hiking destination, as with a (really long) day hike, the summit and a safe return are feasible. We knew that we wanted to stay in the National Forest, in a free area, so we drove about 3 miles west of the trailhead and found an excellent, wide spot with an “established” campground (fire pit, gathered wood, etc.). It was obscured from the main dirt road by a hill, and we were entertained by encroaching free-reign cattle, about 25 in number, eye us as the casually moved closer to our camp. We also walked for an hour across the dirt road, near the Henry’s Fork River, the origin of which we would tomorrow discover at Henry’s Lake, near the bases of large, rock hills and crags.
To reduce the
risk of fire, I gathered huge, available rocks and spit the large 6-foot rock fire ring in half, then set about building a fire, one of only two that I would make on the trip. It was rather cold this night, with the sun’s setting, it was in the mid-low 50s, eventually dropping into the 40s, plus, we had gotten $7 worth of firewood for free two days earlier when someone left it at their campsite (this is always my first move in a State Park is to peruse the other campgrounds and get the firewood for free). In making a good campfire, use a fist-sized ball of dried grasses at the center, and then carefully construct a teepee of sticks, with the smallest ones staked vertically near the center/base. After 10 minutes of prep work, we had an excellent fire. We sat and chatted, chuckling at Sophie, who often, when it gets cold and late, will skulk over to the tent’s door, signaling her desire to go inside to her sleeping bag.
After insuring the fire was indeed out, we stumbled the 10 yards through the cold and into our warm mummy bags, drifting off to a
deep sleep while thinking of our long hike tomorrow…
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