Backpacking in the High Uintas

Every year Jared and I brave the High Unita Wilderness to go backpacking for a week. This year we went with most of the Sorensen family, Jared's brother, and another one of Jared's good buddies.

Gorgeous waterfall just at the beginning of the hike. Jared and I were so impressed with ourselves because we packed so light. My pack only ended up being 25 pounds and Jared's about 40. It makes it way easier to keep up the endurance. I get dubbed "short legs" on these trips because their walk is my jog so I have to work extra hard to keep up the pace!

This year we decided to do our hiking in the Squaw Basin. We did about an 8 mile hike in the first day and found our camp just outside of a meadow. Then for the next two days we did some loops to nearby lakes.




All the beautiful scenery is what makes these trips so worth it. How you could you EVER believe there wasn't someone behind the creation of this world when you've seen it in it's full out glory?!?!






Lake 1: Rudolf Lake. By far the most fish were caught at this lake but none of them were over 7 inches long so definitely not worth keeping. We hiked up a very steep mountain covered in boulders to get to this lake.



Up another steep mountain...for perspective sake I was only like 10ft away from Lexi when I took this picture...that's how steep it was! And we were going up the side that wasn't as steep too!

Sam is the orange spot towards the top of the picture...it was so steep he was crawling with his hands!

As a total group, we caught about 490 fish (there were 11 of us). Jared caught somewhere around 70 and I caught 25. Don't worry, we don't keep them all. Mostly catch and release but I have never tasted better fish than in the High Uintas.

This was at lake 2: Mid Lake. I didn't catch anything at this lake but I took the opportunity and took a quick nap while Jared caught us some dinner!

Lake 3: Diamond Lake.
So on the shallow lakes after casting you had to reel your line in really fast so it wouldn't get caught on the rocks. Well I'm still learning and got my lure caught but I didn't want to go in the lake and get it because I had both heels bandaged up to keep me from getting blisters and we were about to leave the lake. So Amy Kate braved the frigid water and mossy rocks and saved my Jake's. Thanks Kate!

The hike back down to camp. Hiking down is harder for me than hiking up. It's so hard on your knees! I opt for climbing down backwards so that I don't lose my balance and end up being the clumsy one falling down the mountain....not okay.

We were a little past flower season but the wild flowers in the High Uinta Wilderness can be stunning! These are my favorite and I was SO excited to finally see some. This is a picture of an elephant flower. If I had a cool camera I would have taken a really close up shot so you could see that each flower looks like an elephant head...so awesome!
Other flowers include: Columbines, Blue Bonnets, Red Indian Paintbrushes, Blue Flaxes, Forget-Me-Nots, and More!

Lexie, Amy Kate, Blake, Walt, Sam
So this is a picture of us just after we crossed a rather treacherous stream...

Jared was the last one left...his friends thought this was a perfect time to get Jared. So just as Jared was about to cross rocks started flying into the water right next to him so they could get him off balance and into the water....I should have videoed what happened next. He eventually made it across but after all was said and done Jared had a wet foot and Blake had a nasty sore shoulder from Jared's fist...ahhh the bonding.

Lake 4: I'm not sure but this is either Rock Lake or Shamrock Lake...they all start to blend together.

This one was so beautiful because we came through the trees and about 100 ft straight down was this beautiful lake.



Last Lake: I'm not sure the name of this one but it is just West of Shamrock lake and Jared caught about 20 fish at this lake with just a fly and a bubble. It was almost every cast!

Ok so it's quite possible that Jared and I are taking WAY too much advantage that the both of us are jobless but I figure there probably won't be another summer that I'll be able to take so many vacations with him so why the heck not?!?!?