Utah

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.

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.

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 😉

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 🙂

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!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Summer is long gone, but I still have some pictures from my holidays that I haven’t shared yet. I will mix and divide them between two blog posts.

This canyon road goes through Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest all the way from Utah to Wyoming. There are countless opportunities for hiking, but with our newborn baby we only did what we could 🙂 These pictures are simple snaps, our family memories.

Jordanelle Reservoir is a good place for landscape photography with all those mountain layers that change the view as you move along the road. This picture was taken from Kamas side of the reservoir, on the go, from the car window. Water level is too low this year, which is not good at all.

This cute barn in Kamas looked more beautiful than ever adorned with sunflowers.

There are many lakes of all sizes in Uinta forest. I am not sure but I think this is the Trial Lake.

Somewhere around the Mirror Lake Drive we saw a family of Mule Deer.

More finds 🙂 A Hawk Moth caterpillar …

… and a wasp nest.

Young explorers had a field day 🙂

Uinta forest and mountains are home to moose, elk, mule deer, black bear, cougar and many other smaller animals and birds. There are more than 1700 miles of trails, and people of any age and ability level can find something suitable to spend a day in the wild.

I will share more Uinta pictures in my next blog.

Big Cottonwood Canyon Road takes us to the Silver Lake.

The trail around the lake is only a mile long, easy and family friendly. Half of the trail is a boardwalk, and the other half goes through the forest. If you are in wildflower photography, Silver Lake is the place. There are more than 100 species of plants, among them Shooting stars, White bog orchid, and Elephanthead orchid. I took a picture of wild Columbines…

… and Aspen trees, still green.

Sunset over Silver Lake, the end of the trail.

On our way back home we were lucky to observe Mammatus cloud. I was absolutely stunned and almost forgot that I had to take pictures. It is all I have got as we had to turn.

I am linking this post to the blogs that feature travels and far away land : Global Sojourns Photography, Adventures , Two Brown Feet, Image Earth Travel. Please visit and follow!