Uinta-Wasatch-Cache II

canyon road

This is my last post about our Uinta-Wasatch-Cache trip.

Some of Aspen, Gambel Oak and Maple trees started turning red and yellow early in September. Scenic canyon roads that run through Wasatch and Uinta mountains repeat the U-shape of the glacial-carved canyons characteristic for Wasatch range. There are seven such canyons. Little Cottonwood Canyon takes you to the Snowbird and Alta ski resorts, and Big Cottonwood Canyon – to Solitude Mountain resort and Brighton ski resort. If you want to visit famous Park City, home for the very successful 2002 Winter Olympic games, take the equally famous historical Lincoln Highway from Salt Lake City, and turn right at Kimball Junction. If you drive from the airport, it will take you about 40 minutes.

All the ‘bald’ spots on the mountain slopes in the picture below are the future skiing tracks, when they will be covered with the best snow in the world. The Park City Base Area was opened on November 18 ( some other areas on November 23), and it will be close for the summer  season on April 16 2017.

wasatch mountain state park

On our way to Uinta Forest we took the Mirror Lake scenic drive that parallels Provo River. If you don’t know it yet, Steven Shaw resides in the cabin high in the mountains. He is hunting and gathering wild berries, but he loves to have a sandwich now and again, and kind little children always bring with them a sandwich for Steven, and leave it on a rock.

provo river

Steven Shaw is very shy. He won’t show himself and you won’t notice him come and take your offering. We admired Provo river deep beneath our feet, and when we turned around, the sandwich was already gone. True story 😉

Provo River

After driving another few miles, we stopped at the Upper Provo River Falls. With seven rainless weeks, there was very little water flowing, but we could imagine how impressive  this three-cascade waterfall might look.

Upper Provo Falls

We drove to the campgrounds. I have no idea what is this mountain. All of a sudden the sky darkened and the colors became unusually saturated in the low sun. I rushed to take a picture.

uintas

The storm was short living, and after a couple of minutes it was warm and sunny again.

The wildlife in Uinta is abundant with species like Moose, Mountain Lion, Bear, Lynx and even Wolverine, but we didn’t see any of it. In my previous blog I posted two pictures of Mule Deer, and here is another wild beast – a Chipmunk.

chipmunk

I won’t tell you how many pictures of this Chipmunk I brought home. For many of you it is a waste of time and disc space, but it was a stellar day for me. We don’t have chipmunks in Ireland.

Look what he was doing! I didn’t know they eat flower seeds.

chipmunk

chipmunk

chipmunk

chipmunk

chipmunk

We had a great time and answered many questions like Who has cut the rock??

uinta

On they way back, most of us were sound asleep 🙂

2016-08-28-228

And here is my last picture. After taking off, our airplane made a turn, and we flew over Antelope Island  I wrote about last year. How cool is that 🙂

antelope island

Thank you for traveling Northern Utah with me. I am linking this post to the blogs that feature wildlife photography: NATURE IN THE FOREST OF DEAN AND BEYOND, Travel and Wildlife Adventures and Victor Rakmil Photography. Please visit and follow these blogs!

inesemjphotography Have a wonderful weekend!

128 comments

  2. Haha! Beware of the chipmunk! They’re so sweet you could melt away from all that sugary syrup 😉 And I would never think it a waste of time or disc space! Soooo cute!!! 😄 Would probably have tried to trick it home with me if I didn’t knew it was much happier there 😉

      1. Happy New Year, Inese!!! 😄 Wish you a wonderful year full of love, happiness and great adventures (from the latter I totally expect to see photographs from you 😉)!
        Yes, I know exactly what moments you’re talking of- they’re so wonderful and special! 😄 Hope you’ll have many more of them this year! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

        1. Thank you so much Sarah! This is going to be a year of good changes, because I think there is nowhere to go unless we turn back – the world has hit the bottom. xxxxxxx

  4. I’ve lived in chipmunk territory my entire life and i have photos of those little rascals too.
    🙂
    They will eat flowers in a garden though, not so popular with them.

  5. Steve is so lucky to have a sweet, precious one to visit from a distance and leave a sandwich for him, too.
    I enjoyed seeing the wide variety of natural gifts with my favorite the cascading waterfall.
    The chipmunks were cute! xo

  6. I enjoy the virtual trip to Utah with you. These are fantastic views and pictures you have. I have not seen any real chipmunks yet but your chipmunk pictures are cute. I would surely take a bunch of pictures of them too (for some reason I can also do the same with cat 🙂 ). Thank you for taking us along.

    1. Thank you so much for your visit! I am glad you love my chipmunk 🙂 It is a very small animal, and it moves very fast. Taking pictures of a chipmunk is a challenge, it is why I was so happy that this one was brave and didn’t run away from me. Animals are so cute, and I agree with you that it is difficult to stop taking pictures and walk away 🙂

  7. The chipmunk and granddaughters are lovely. Thank you for the trip.
    (And since I am going on another trip on Monday and will likely be out of the Blogosphere for a while…) Merry Christmas and a very happy New year 2017, full of Health, Love and Happiness. Brian

  8. I think it’s adorable how you enjoyed the chipmunk so much! If there were more people whose heart was as gentle and kind as yours, then there would be greater hope for this planet. Your camera is a paint brush in your hands, Inese — glorious “paintings.”

    1. Thank you so much, Francis! I am trying to keep my blog schedule, and post something new on weekends, but I don’t have time for driving around these days… Good to have a stash of photographs to choose from 🙂 These were taken in September. Thank you again for stopping by!

  12. Thank you for your blog…Just want to wish you the best in upcoming year of 2017, and Happy Holidays. Great success in your work….

  13. I noticed an amusing illusion in the next to last chipmunk photo. At first glance, it looks as if the chipmunk has jumped straight up from the rock in the foreground and whacked a volleyball back over a net (out of view to my left). Chipmunks are common where I live, but I have yet to see them play volleyball.

    1. Thank you for your comment! It does look as you say 🙂 I took so many photographs of this chipmunk, that if I lined them up I could make a ‘moving pictures’ book 🙂 He was all over that rock, and he sat still only when he ate 🙂 Up and down, several times. It was quite a show.

  14. What a gorgeous place! Love the “Tale of the Sandwich”.
    The chipmunk is soo cute.(maybe a chipmunk got the sandwich?) I have never seen one in real life. I want to, but all I get is squirrels, mostly grey, sometimes brown and on rare occasions a reddish tone.
    Thank you for all the great pics!

    1. Thank you Sheldon. It is a massive forest, and a great hiking area for those who are fit and fearless. I am neither, unfortunately, so I only admire it all from the car window 🙂

  19. Lovely tour. The Upper Provo River Falls might have been less impressive than they might have been, but look at that lovely rock structure! Who did cut that rock? (You can’t leave us hanging like this)

  20. Breathtaking scenery, Inese, especially cloaked in those vivid, autumnal colours. A wonderful list of species, too, and its probably for the best you didn’t come head to head with a few of them! Like you in Ireland, chipmunks are a novelty to me, and they certainly get up to some antics, as shown in your photos. The story of Steve is very touching. His life out there must be tough in the winter and it’s lovely that people (including your little granddaughters) take him sandwiches. And I’d loved to have heard your explanation about who cut that rock!
    Such an interesting and informative post, and your gorgeous photos bring it to life.

    1. Thank you so much, Millie! Some chipmunks learn to beg, and take food from your hands. Last year I posted a picture of such bold chipmunk we met during our Bryce canyon hike.
      The sliced rock looks very intriguing. May be Paul Bunyan did it?

      1. Ha ha. Paul Bunyan would certainly be strong enough, as well as having wonderful skills with an axe!
        Chipmunks are very cute and I’ll have to take another look at your last year’s post.

  22. I truly enjoyed this walk in the woods of Utah, Inese, and I chuckled at the fun series of the chipmunk. I could watch chipmunks all day, they’re so playful and quick and rambunctious. And then I came to my blog referral link at the bottom, and what a pleasant surprise that was. thanks so much, my friend. I am honored to be among the wilderness links. and now, I’m going to Part I.

    1. Thank you so much for loving the chipmunk 🙂 I think he was posing me purposefully, because the other chipmunks kept their distance and were running around with the speed of light 🙂

  24. Both your posts from Uinta-Wasatch-Cache are lovely! I have never been to Utah so this was a nice introduction for me – beautiful scenery. I love the chipmunks as well, they are so cute and curious creatures. We don’t have them in Norway either so it was a treat experiencing them in Canada. I have like a million chipmunk photos:)

    1. Thank you so much, Inger! I am so happy to hear that you have a million of chipmunk photos 🙂 It means that you know how excited I was watching this little guy 🙂

      1. I was sitting on a rock at the top of a mountain. I think he was used to people feeding him, he seemed to be begging at my feet, then the next thing I knew he was running up my rucksack onto my back. You can see him on my Twitter profile!

  33. Ms inese, these photographs remind me of the two years of tech school I attended in Denver, Colorado back in the seventies …Thanks for bringing up so many colorful memories.
    g

  34. Beautiful photos, Inese. I love the little one in pigtails in the platinum grass with her frog (?). The sandwich story was great too. And chipmunks, ha ha. They are cute and entertaining. We do have lots of them over here. They love sandwiches 😀

    1. Thank you so much, Diana. I have no idea where this story comes from. I guess it is my Son-in-law family folklore, but the girls take it very seriously 🙂 The pigtailed owner of the frog learned to speak very early, and is a storyteller in the family 🙂

  35. That was an amazing journey for you…the true story is especially fascinating.

    I hope to be around the same places in a week’s time (actually, covering Nevada and Arizona) 🙂

  36. I remember the big worry about the Olympics being in Utah was the quality of the coffee! Mormons aren’t supposed to drink anything caffeinated. The Wasatch mountains are lovely though. Nice pics!

    1. Thank you so much! There are many non-Mormons in Utah, so I guess they have a stash of coffee 🙂 That shouldn’t have been a worry :). I remember that the snow was a big concern indeed. My daughter was there during the Olympics. I still keep the souvenirs, and her interpreter’s badge. The Salt Lake Olympics had fewer sponsors than any other games, but they were very successful economically, and all the buildings and other structures are still used. I would say that every third family there has a skier or a snowboarder 🙂

  41. Wonderful photos, Inese. I love the chipmunk! I don’t remember ever seeing them anywhere else I’ve lived, but we have them in DC. Crystal loves to watch youtube videos of them! Her favorite is The Family of Chipmumks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM8-ZMEe6CM
    She even smacks the TV (apparently they are misbehaving).
    Oh, by the way, I’m giving you a shout out next weekend at my 1920s party. Put on your gladrags and bring your dancing shoes. Mega hugs.

    1. They are common in Siberia and other countries in the region, but I guess they never venture anywhere else. I was so delighted to see one that close.

  46. Another gem to conclude a series we shall miss. A little gentle satire did occur to me when reading that in Ireland there are no chipmunks. At the time I was thinking that St Patrick only got rid of the snakes; hadn’t realised it was the chipmunks as well! Forgive me!

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