Uinta's and Strawberry's

More Weekends = More Adventures

Uinta Dreaming

Two weeks ago we took a trip up to the Uinta Mountains to climb, hike, fish, and spend time with friends. It ended up being a much smaller group than we had anticipated, and were wondering if anyone at all would be joining us when we left home on that Friday night. There ended up being seven of us there on Friday night, and just two of us staying Saturday night. Our small group turned out to be a good size for our climbing and fishing plans for the weekend.

Our basecamp for the weekend was a family A-Frame cabin complete with outhouse and no running water.

We stayed in a little A-Frame type cabin in the Manor Lands community just outside the National Forest area. At night we spent time talking, playing card games (UNO!!! was probably heard by residents way over in Kamas), and planning the crags/climbs we wanted to visit the next day.

We spent Saturday morning climbing the walls near Ruth Lake, along with A LOT of other weekend Uinta visitors. We made our way to Warrior Wall (because it was the least occupied wall at the crag) and found climbs ranging from 5.10c to 5.12b. Stoke was high and it was great to watch friends work and send some routes on this wall.

The views don't suck from this crag. Climbing above Ruth Lake in the Uinta Mountains.

After a few hours of climbing and lunch, we made our way to some Uinta lakes to fish the high mountain trout. Hopefully, we'd be successful enough to add fish to the dinner menu. It was a beautiful afternoon and, after trial and error, dialed in on the lures that were getting the bites. We had a successful evening of fishing and ended with 2 of the fish being large enough to add to our meal back at basecamp.

The high mountain fish, small as they are here, are often some of the best looking fish I find.

A good end to a good day with good people.

That night, the remaining members of our party headed back to civilization while we decided to spend another night in the mountains. The next day, before returning home, we stopped by some rivers and lakes to pull out the fly-rod in more remote areas.

We then made our way home, preparing for another week of work and busy schedules, while remembering the things that were said and experiences shared on another great weekend in the Uinta's.

Strawberry

The alarm sounded in our pitch black bedroom. I looked at the clock and saw the time 3:30 AM begin to illuminate the screen. A couple months, on Father's Day, we gave my Dad the gift of a fishing day at Strawberry Reservoir, located in the Uinta National Forest in the Wasatch Mountain Range. In order to get there before the sun rose, we had to leave our home in Kaysville at 4:00 AM. We rolled out of bed, made the 2 hour drive, and entered the lake on our rental boat. We were rewarded with stunning views as the sun rose on the smokey horizon as we left the marina.

The view of the sun rising as we departed Strawberry Bay Marina.

After a slow morning of testing our lures, flies, wooly buggers, flatfish, etc., we finally found the fish and how to bring them in. Once a fish was on, we loved waiting to see what kind of fish and how big it would be. We caught several rainbow and cutthroat trout ranging from 14 to 20 inches and as big as a couple pounds.

That night, after returning to Kaysville, we were exhausted. Not much more was done besides showering, putting on a movie, and heading to bed. It was a fun day for us, and hopefully a fun day for our Dad.

Now I'm looking to the future to see what the coming weekends are bringing. Bear Lake and California are coming up next, and they will be welcomed greatly after long weeks of work and constant business!