Ye Haw!!

A few weeks ago my Mother and I decided to put on our spurs and head up into the high Uintah Mountains with our relatives. It was the very definition of roughing it.

The place that we went to was of particular significance to my Grandpa. When he was little he would spend months at a time on the mountain herding sheep. He took us along trails that he remembered from sixty years ago. We also saw a campsite where they used to camp. Here is a tree they used for target practice.

Here Grandpa Jude is on his noble steed.

Here are the other members of our posse as well.
My Mom and Susan

JD and Whitney

Uncle Brad

Uncle Mitch

Marissa

Josh

Dace

The Herd


The first day it took us a while to get to the campsite. The trail was only marked by two old hatchet marks in a tree. We were all tired when we finally arrived at Deadhorse Park where we set up camp. We had a few fun moments while trying to get things put together My Mother and I set up our tent and others set up tents army Pancho's. We then started cooking dinner and finished the night off with some cobbler.







We were all smiles as we entered out tent. Happily warm in our sleeping bags and sweaters. Although it was the middle of July it was freezing at night. I thought the hard ground wouldn't be too bad because my air mattress popped almost as soon as I blew it up. Boy was I wrong!

Worst night of sleep ever, or should I say worst night of no sleep. Luckily the morning came and I survived with nothing more than a horrible back ache. Luckily, my aunt Susan was packing some 800mg IB Profen which saved my life. The next morning we woke up a little worse for ware but raring to go to Gilbert lake.



Little did I know that I was in for the adventure of a life time. We headed up to the top of the mountain and found ourselves face to face with the ledge of doom. No way was all I could think when they talked about finding our way down. We looked down the ledge and my hat flew off and down the mountain side. Here are some pictures of the first ledge we made it to. The don't do justice to how it really looked.





After passing Squa Trail and Shara Springs we made it to the bottom of the mountain all alive and uninjured (probably due to the many prayers I was saying down the mountain). The journey was definitely worth it. We made it down to the most beautiful lakes. We came down to the first lake and three moose ran up from it. We fished there for a while and then headed for higher ground. There were three lakes that emptied into one another. We had enough time to go to two out of the three lakes and fish. In the first lake the fishing was ok but it was amazing in the second lake. Altogether we caught about thirty fish. Uncle Mitch and I had a contest to see who could catch the most fish. I was winning until he pulled out a fish in the last second to make it a tie.



All too soon it was time to leave the beautiful valley and head back to our camp. Josh caught about 20 of the 30 fish and we decided to fry them up that night for dinner. We were all tired and looking forward to a better nights sleep. Uncle Mitch (the snorer) decided to make his own bed in the open air. Grandpa Jude told us stories around the campfire. When it was time to go to sleep Marissa decided to join us in our tent. Since my back was hurting my Mom decided to let me have her air mattress. We decided to put saddle blankets and pine boughs under the tent for my Mom and I would use her air mattress then... Five minutes before we went to sleep the second air mattress popped (I think it was the pine boughs). Needless to say another night of sleeping on the ground, ouch!






The next morning we packed up and headed back. We were all a little tired but happy to have spent the time together. It was an experience that we will all never forget.