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| Our campsite. |
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| View out the back of the rig. |
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| One of the lakes. What a view. |
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Two miles high; one thousand lakes
We hiked by only 14 of them, but per my hiking book the Uinta Mountains in northeastern Utah have more than one thousand lakes and ponds. Our campground, Lake Washington -- named for what else, the lake you can see behind our motorhome below -- was at ten thousand feet, more than twice as high as Salt Lake City. That kind of altitude means it gets cold early in the season so most of the other nearby campgrounds (there are dozens in the Uinta's) closed this weekend. And the leaves were already turning. It's fall.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
A weekend in Hades is not all that bad
We spent Labor Day weekend at Hades Campground in the Uinta National Forest. There are dozens of campgrounds in the Uintas and probably hundreds of trails. It is amazing that so much wilderness is close to a metropolitan area.
We didn't start looking for a site until 2 weeks before the holiday, so there was not much choice of campgrounds, let alone individual campsites. I called the Kamas Ranger District and got names of a few places that might still have spots, and then Jim made reservations. He picked Hades -- about 40 miles southeast of Kamas and about 80 miles from Salt Lake -- because the reservation page said it was only partly in the shade and we wanted to use the solar panels on our rig. And, one web site described Hades Campground as “stunning.” After being there, I’d call it “unkempt.” There was trash (including half a page of instructions about how to co-exist with bears) in our site, plus the campground was next to a funky dude ranch called “Defa’s” and the only trail from the campsite was stopped by a fence because Defa's is private property. Some sites on the river that would have made for a prettier experience.
Friday night we walked up the road near the campgrounds and saw deer. The next day we walked to a campground higher up the road called Iron Mine and took a shorter hike that night, so we probably did about 7 miles, but most of it was on the road with pick up trucks and other big vehicles rattling by.
After all that bitchin' and moaning we really do like new places, so I'm glad we went.
We left a day early, stopped at a park in Heber where I made lunch, and were soon home. And we still had one full day of holiday left. I liked that, too.
We didn't start looking for a site until 2 weeks before the holiday, so there was not much choice of campgrounds, let alone individual campsites. I called the Kamas Ranger District and got names of a few places that might still have spots, and then Jim made reservations. He picked Hades -- about 40 miles southeast of Kamas and about 80 miles from Salt Lake -- because the reservation page said it was only partly in the shade and we wanted to use the solar panels on our rig. And, one web site described Hades Campground as “stunning.” After being there, I’d call it “unkempt.” There was trash (including half a page of instructions about how to co-exist with bears) in our site, plus the campground was next to a funky dude ranch called “Defa’s” and the only trail from the campsite was stopped by a fence because Defa's is private property. Some sites on the river that would have made for a prettier experience.
Friday night we walked up the road near the campgrounds and saw deer. The next day we walked to a campground higher up the road called Iron Mine and took a shorter hike that night, so we probably did about 7 miles, but most of it was on the road with pick up trucks and other big vehicles rattling by.
After all that bitchin' and moaning we really do like new places, so I'm glad we went.
We left a day early, stopped at a park in Heber where I made lunch, and were soon home. And we still had one full day of holiday left. I liked that, too.
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| I need to get a good camera so I can take really good close ups. |
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View from the back of the rig.   |
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