Northern Utah

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!