High Unitas Adventure

After living in southwest Utah for over 16 years we finally made it to the High Uinta Mountains located in the northeast corner of our state. What took us so long? It just seemed so far away and we didn't know much about the area. Now that we've been there, it won't be long before we visit again. The area has much to offer with over 1000 natural lakes, 500 miles of streams and miles of hiking trails. The Uintas run east to west for more than 60 miles, with rugged peaks, flat-top mountains, high cliffs, scenic basins, flower filled meadows and crystal clear water. We covered many miles on the dirt roads, fished a few streams and hiked to a couple of lakes. We even had 3 moose sightings!

We started out on the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway HWY 150

Our first stop was Provo River Falls

With over 1000 lakes to see.....Trial Lake was a beautiful beginning

Here is Kent at Teapot Lake

All this water has to go somewhere

Spectacular views

The famous "Mirror Lake"

We decided to hike into Ruth Lake

The wildflowers were beautiful

This marmot didn't seem to mind us

We had Ruth Lake all to ourselves

What a pretty setting

Looking back towards Mt. Marsell

On the hike out we spotted a moose

Some of Utah's major river depend on these drainages

Views along the North Slope Scenic Backway

An old cabin

The tent is set up.....time to cook dinner

Canadian bacon, mushroom and black olive flatbread pizzas

East Fork Smith River just over the hill from our camp

The sky threatened, but relented

First catch of the trip

We circled Marsh Lake where we were camped

The setting sun

Henry's Fork

Kent had a blast fishing the streams

Cutthroat trout

A cow moose and her calf along the West Beaver Creek area

No phone service, no traffic......a place to enjoy the quiet

Hole in the Rock Mountain

Hole in the Rock Spring.......very cool

Rain falling along the Flaming Gorge-Uinta Scenic Byway

We drove the entire Elkhorn Loop

Old Elkhorn Guard Station

A nice old barn

Climbing up above Whiterocks

Pole Creek

West Fork Whiterocks River was loaded with fish

Colorful Brook Trout

It was fun to sneak up on some deer

So there really wasn't a trail......

We thought the creek was coming from a lake

and we were right

Rasmussen Lake #2

Rugged terrain

Rasmussen Lake #1

Pretty moth on some flowers

This doe was trying to steal hay from the horse trailer

This was a very cold spring

What a neat wooden trough

Sunset along HWY 6

We stopped to check out Meadow Hot Springs, there are three pools

We are out in the middle of farm country

This is the second spring, it was a little cooler than the first

The third pool had a lot of fish in it, the first pool was being enjoyed by some people; otherwise I would have taken a picture

Mt. Moriah

We just returned from an adventure in the Mt. Moriah Wilderness of Nevada. It's not the kind of trip we do very often; in fact we haven't tent camped in years.....now we know why! However, camping was necessary due to the remoteness of the Mt. Moriah Trailhead. We traveled over two hours on 23 miles of dirt roads and never saw another vehicle. The scenery along the way was different in every direction; it's was fun to come upon a spring & guard station. We set up camp and explored the area in the evening. The wind kicked up during the night, so we got very little sleep. After a hot breakfast we set out to climb Mt. Moriah. It was tough, I knew it would be after my first glimpse of the mountain peak; after all, it is the highest in the North Snake Range and 5th highest in all of Nevada. The fierce winds didn't stop us from reaching the top; we were definitely challenged beyond our normal strength. Awesome views from the top made it all worthwhile, another once in a lifetime hike.

Starting up the 11.4 miles of dirt road to the trailhead

View of the valley below and the Schell Creek Range

Our first glimpse of Mt. Moriah

Nice grassy meadows along the way

Looking south to Wheeler Peak which we hiked in 2012

Dog Spring Guard Station is over 80 years old

Dog Spring was flowing with clear cold water

This is where we will start hiking in the morning

The sign shows there isn't an actual trail for Mt. Moriah

Old Basque sheepherder carvings

The closest lodging we could find

Okay it's not the Hampton Inn, but it'll have to do

Thursday evening we took a walk down the Big Canyon Trail

This would be gorgeous in the Fall

Evening sunset

The wind blew all night, the tent did a flip just after we crawled out of our sleeping bags

I decided to cook breakfast in the tent and out of the wind

Heading out on the Mt. Moriah Trail.....3 miles, oh boy!

A tagged Bristlecone Pine

We still have a long ways to go

A strange trail marker

Corral in the middle of nowhere

A lone Bristlecone shows how windy it can be here

Up above the treeline, it's about to get hard

At least we had lots of pretty low growing flowers to look at along the way

Great views along the way, too

A nice and necessary windbreak on the top

We made it!  2,200 ft. elevation gain.  Mt. Moriah is 12,067 ft.

Kent gives this hike 2 thumbs up, meaning it really challenged us

We signed the Summit Register, we are the third party to sign this year

Awesome views in every direction

Kent is looking towards The Moriah Table.....a hike for another day!

See we really did make it!  3 hours up.....not bad for us!

Hiking back down was easier than we thought it would be

Aerial view of our ascent of Mt. Moriah