Uintah Fourth

To celebrate the Fourth of July we headed east to the cooler temperatures and magnificent scenery of Utah's Uintah Mountains--the only major east-west mountain range in the USA. Our neighbors the Hodsons joined in the fun. We followed another Scenic Utah Byway--Mirror Lake Scenic Byway (highway 150).

We listened to the whole cast recording of Hamilton on our way there. Sarah explained the plot to us novices and sang along with much of it (proving she was able to learn something in the depths of senioritis).

 We paralleled the Provo River for much of the drive. Our first stop were the multi terraced Provo River falls.

photo courtesy of Sarah Hodson

 Next stop was Bald Mountain overlook.

 Bald Mountain

 Bald Mountain overlook (looking west)

 A perfect recipe for wet, muddy bums.

(bum photos courtesy of Marie)



We drove up and over Bald Mountain Pass (10,759 ft.)--the highest road pass in Utah--to Mirror Lake which was packed with holidayers so we opted to have our picnic lunch at Pass Lake.

 Pass Lake with Bald Mountain and Reids Peak





 We then hiked the one mile up to beautiful Ruth Lake.

 The pond before Ruth Lake.

 Hodsons and Emmetts at Ruth Lake

 Cold, snow-melt water!

Will is always reluctant to go on "hikes" so I had to  entice him by describing easy "walks" of less than a mile, with water falls and lakes and the promise of an end of adventure milk shake. In the end he always has tons of fun exploring, climbing, hiking, swimming, sliding and balancing.

 North slope of the Uintah Mountains en route to Evanston Wyoming.

 Waiting for milk shakes at the one milk shake place in Evanston. (Sarah Hodson photo)