Uintas

Last summer, when Billy and I first moved to Utah, my sister Molly came out to visit and we drove up into the Uintas mountains for some hiking and scenery. It's soooo pretty up there, and reminded me of the Lakes Basin area in northern California, where my family has been hiking for a few generations now. And luckily, it's only about a 45 minute drive from our house.

We took a quick hike in to a lake (I can't remember the name now, but there are THOUSANDS of lakes up there), got nailed with an out-of-the-blue storm carrying quarter-sized hail, then also stopped at Mirror Lake and walked around once the storm had passed.

The lake is just off the main road, not really a hike and not exactly off the beaten path (there were lots of campers, kayakers and fishers), but it's just such a nice spot and a nice place to stop and enjoy the scenery.

Billy and I didn't get the chance to make it back up until late June this year. We planned ahead, got ready to go and were so excited for a day of exploring. Unfortunately, it turns out that even halfway through the summer the Uintas weren't quite ready for visitors. There was still 3-4 feet of snow in some areas! We attempted to at least walk around Mirror Lake, but as the snow got deeper and I began to ponder hungry bears coming out of hibernation, we turned around and drove back to civilization.I made one more 2009 attempt on Mirror Lake this past weekend while my mom and dad were out visiting. I had been telling them about the area for a while, so we jumped in the car on Saturday morning and headed up. Hmm, turns out October isn't the best time to visit either! This time we didn't even attempt to walk around. We jumped out of the car, took some pictures, and jumped back in- all within about 2 minutes. Well, at least they've seen it now!

So I've decided there's one major difference between the Uintas and Lakes Basin; Up here it seems we have about a one-month window to enjoy the area. I'll have to remember this next year!