Uintas - Moosehorn Campground

For our last camping trip before Kilimanjaro, we got a spot at Moosehorn Campground in the Uintas.  The camping season in the Uintas was very short given all the snow in the spring.  Amazingly, we were able to score three great campsites at Moosehorn.  The entire hiking group for Kilimanjaro was able to join us.  Moosehorn is located at about 9,700 ft in elevation, so it was good training for sleeping at high altitude.
 

We took the group on the Lofty Lakes hike through beautiful terrain. It was a great training hike and nice to get to spend some time with the group we would be spending a week with on Kilimanjaro.



Patty near Scout Lake





Jill and Ray at Kamas Lake

 On the back side of the loop, coming down through the forested area, we came across a huge moose just off the trail.  It was amazing how big they look up close.  It was a perfect way to end a perfect hike.

I don't have any pictures of the campground or the Tab!  I guess we were having too much fun hiking and hanging out.  I was a great weekend.  I would definitely stay at Moosehorn again.



Uintas - Lower Provo Dispersed

We finally made it up to the mountains this weekend, after waiting for spring to give way to summer this year.  Many of the lower campgrounds were closed due to flood warnings, but we found a great spot in the "dispersed" campsites above the Lower Provo Campground.  These "dispersed" campsites are great!!  They are improved sites with a flat area for the trailer and a fire pit, but no water or restrooms.  Best part is that they are free! 

North Fork of the Provo River

We had to keep our hiking to the lower trails as the snow levels above 9,000' were prohibitive.  On Friday evening, we hiked a couple miles in on the North Fork Trail.  Usually this trail can be done as a loop, but you can see from the picture above that a river crossing was impossible.  I have never seen this river so high.  It was incredible. 

On Saturday we did the Yellow Pine Creek Trail.  This was a pretty nice hike up a drainage following the creek.  The dogs loved all the water.  We didn't make it all the way to the Yellow Pine Lakes due to snow at the top and some difficult route finding, but it was a great day in the mountains.

The turn-around point, somewhere below Castle Peak

For the final wrap up on Sunday we did another new hike to Sunset Ponds.  We had three different maps of the area (as I like to be well prepared and do comparison research).  Sunset was only shown on one of the three maps, and it was NOT on the official map of the Kamas Ranger District.  Needless to say, it was a bit "primitive" from years of disuse.  But it was great for us, as NO ONE was on the trail.  We also got to practice our climbing and ducking abilities with the packs to get over all the tree falls across the trail.  We thought with the name "Sunset" that we would get to an overlook that was nice to see the sunset.  Instead, we were pleasantly surprised to get to the top and have a little lake.  So, now we call this one "Sunset Ponds." 

This is the start of the Sunset Trail (a little wet this year)

Mary taking a break with the dogs

Nice views before the top

Sunset Ponds