Wasatch Mountain State Park

 

I left Deer Creek State Park on Tuesday. Since Wasatch Mountain is only 15 miles away, I drove an extra 20 minutes to visit Park City. This is a neat historic town. Famous for it’s powder skiing in the winter, there is still a lot to do there in the summer. I saw many people with mountain bikes and Main Street was packed with shoppers and folks enjoying a meal outside.

 

When you enter Wasatch Mountain State Park, the first thing you see is the golf course. This very popular 36 hole course has held many USGA events.

 

The Park consists of 22,000 acres in Heber Valley backing up to the Wasatch Range. The nearby towns of Midway (3 miles away), and Heber City (7 miles away) have all the supplies and dining options you need. There are 3 campgrounds here. Oak Hollow has no hookups and is for tents only. Mahogany and Cottonwood have hookups and don’t allow tents.

I stayed at Oak Hollow #6, a nice shady site next to the creek:

 

This is an “Old School” State Park. It was built when the concern for camper’s privacy was more important than cramming in as many sites as possible. You do not see your neighbors. There is a 20 - 30 foot buffer of trees and shrubs separating the sites. Below is a view from the entrance of my campsite looking down at Deer Creek Lake. You can see the driveways branching off the main road:

 

Some of the nice things about going camping are getting away from traffic, televisions, and telephones. But you also get away from laundromats. That made Thursday laundry day!

 

After hanging the clothes, I elected to go on a short hike. There is a trail leaving my campground that follows the creek. It is about 3 miles round-trip with only a few hundred feet of elevation gain. Below are some photos:

 

It was cool and shady along the trail. I noticed some interesting flowers so I stopped to take some pictures. The key to taking close-ups like these is to open up your camera’s aperture to it’s widest setting (the smallest number). This creates a narrow depth of field and lets the background become blurry. Below are some examples:

 

I enjoyed my stay here. I will be heading to Rockport State Park, about 40 miles away, for the next 3 nights.

Why do flies think that they can land anywhere they want? Eyebrows, ears, nose and toes are all fair game for them. Friggin buzzy rat bastards.

So I keep a small microfiber towel handy. When a buzzy lands on me, I snap at it with the towel. Musta offed 15 or so today. Then the clean up crew arrives. Ants love to collect rat bastard buzzy bodies and haul them off. Hah! Looks like that last buzzy was only stunned. He’s fighting the ant all the way back to the hole…to be eaten alive. Sweet dreams, buzzy.

Regards,

Greg

Utah Lake and Deer Creek State Parks

 

I left Scofield State Park high up on the Wasatch Plateau and headed down to Provo and Utah Lake State Park.

Utah Lake is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the west, yet receives only 15 inches of rain per year. At this popular fishing hole, anglers can cast for channel catfish, walleye, white bass, black bass and several species of panfish. The lake is big, over 96,000 acres, and is extremely popular for boating, sailing, canoeing, and kayaking.

Here are photos of the lake and the marina:

 

Leaving Provo, I headed up UT 189 towards Deer Creek State Park. The drive winds through Provo Canyon and you pass by scenic Bridal Veil Falls. Yeah. I wonder if they stole the name from Yosemite or vice versa.

The campground is set in the southwest corner of Heber Valley on the lake, which is 6 miles long and has 18 miles of shoreline. It also offers some of the best fishing in the State of Utah. It is one half hour from Provo and one hour from Salt Lake City, so it is very popular. A concession on the lake offers a restaurant, boat rentals, gasoline, and supplies.

Here are some photos of the lake:

 

The pictures above were taken on Monday, the one below was taken Sunday when the sun was shining. You can see all the people out on their boats:

I camped at site 6 in the Great Horned Owl campground. Very nice spot with shade and a great view. See for yourself:

I will be traveling on Tuesday to Wasatch Mountain State Park. This is Utah’s most developed State Park, and yes, it has a golf course! I will be staying there for 3 nights in order to check out all it has to offer. That’s it for now.

Regards,

Greg

Scofield State Park

 

The drive from Huntington State Park to Scofield State Park was only about 60 miles. I passed through the old towns of Price and Helper and the turned south on UT 96. This road actually joins UT 264 which takes back up the mountains to UT 31. They call this the “Energy Loop” as it passes high through the mountains and features several still functioning coal mines. It is kind of bizarre to turn a corner on a high mountain road and see a huge coal mine.

Scofield State Park consists of 2 campgrounds, Madsen Bay and Mountain View at 7600’ of elevation. The former offers no hookups or showers while the latter is fully developed. Both offer launch ramps and Mountain View offers slip rentals as well. There is a small store 5 miles away in Scofield that carries supplies and gas.

The Lake itself is good sized, and there were plenty of people out on the water. Fishing is very popular, with some good sized Brown trout being caught. Here are 2 photos I took from my campsite:

 

Both campgrounds are on the water, but only Mountain View has any shade. Below are lake views from Madsen Bay and Mountain View respectively:

 

Scofield is a very small town, but they do have some bargains if you are looking for some vacation property. This home below is only $2K, but is does need some work:

 

Finally, a brief word on nutrition. As you all know, Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Tacos are the best meal. So I think it was appropriate to have some tacos for breakfast this Saturday Morning:

I did get the attention of a local who smelled it heating up, so I had to share some:

Who could resist a face like that! He did not like the dollop of homemade habanero salsa I dropped for him. After giving me a scathing look, he scampered away. That is what I was trying to accomplish. You should never feed the wildlife, no matter how cute they are. Moving up the food chain, hundreds of bears have had to be killed due to careless campers not storing their supplies properly. They start associating humans with food, and that is not a good thing.

I am heading out Sunday July 24, stopping by Utah Lake State Park, and the camping at Deer Creek State Park. Till next time.

Regards,

Greg

Over The Hills and Far Away

 

 

I left Yuba State Park early Wednesday morning. I stopped at Palisade State Park, went over the Manti-LaSal Mountains, and ended up at Huntington State Park. About150 miles all together.

Palisade State Park would be a great place to camp. The nearby town of Manti has gas and food and the campground even has a golf course right next to it! Below are some photos of the lake and a campsite:

 

About 40 miles North along Utah 89 is the town of Fairview. This is where Utah 31 starts. It is a beautiful 47 mile long road that takes you from the desert, up through a nice cool forest, and then back down into the desert. Don’t get me wrong, I like the desert, but nothing beats a forest for me. There were many lakes along the way. Here are some photos:

You can also practice your “Avalanche Beacon” skills here:

A meadow with a small stream running through it:

 

I finally made it to Huntington State Park, watched the sunset and hit the sack.

 

Thursday Morning I drove down Utah 10 to Millsite State Park. Another pretty campground with a small lake AND a golf course. Most of these high desert campgrounds have reservoirs and golf courses need a lot of water, so I guess they go well together. Here is a picture of the lake:

After getting back to camp, I took campsite photos at Huntington. The lake here is bigger than Millsite, but the campground it close by Utah 10, so you do get some traffic noise. Here is a photo of Huntington Lake:

 

I will be heading to Scofield State Park on Friday for 2 nights and should be updating the blog again on Sunday. You get bonus points if you realized that the title of this post, “Over the Hills and Far Away” is a Led Zeppelin song…

Regards,

Greg

Arrived in Utah!

 

I left at 4:45am on Monday morning to head out on my adventure. My GPS had the distance as being 583 miles to the Oasis Campground at Yuba Lake Park.

But first I had to pass through Vegas. It seems like they are always doing construction on Interstate 15:

 

Around 4:00 pm local time I finally arrive at my campsite:

This campground is very aptly named Oasis. It is located lakeside in the Utah high desert. Luckily I made reservations as the campground was full…on a Monday! The reason for it’s popularity is that has 2 campgrounds with boat ramps, and Utah’s only boat-in campground. There are also OHV trails nearby. Camper’s can launch their boat at Oasis and leave it tied up on the shoreline:

Tuesday morning I took campsite photos here at Oasis and then decided to drive to the other side of the lake to get campsite photos at Painted Rocks Campground. The Ranger told me about a shortcut that would save me some time. Below are some pictures of the “shortcut”:

 

It worked out fine! I will be leaving here on Tuesday and heading to Huntington State Park. There is a very scenic route I want to try, Utah 31, so hopefully I will capture some fun images.

Regards,

Greg

Getting Ready to Roll!

 

I will be hitting the road bright and early next Monday. It’s 520 miles to my first destination.

Here are the main campgrounds I plan to visit.

In Utah they are:

A.   Yuba Lake State Park

B.   Palisade State Park

C.   Huntington Lake State Park

D.   Millsite State Park

E.   Scofield State Park

F.   Utah Lake State Park

G.   Deer Creek State Park

H.   Wasatch Mountain State Park

I.   Rockport State Park

J.   Starvation State Park

K.   Steinaker State Park

L.   Red Fleet State Park

 

In Colorado they are:

A.   Highline Lake State Park

B.   James M. Robb State Park

C.   Crawford State Park

D.   Vega State Park

E.   Yampa River State Park

F.   Stagecoach State Park

G.   State Forest State Park

H.   Boyd Lake State Park

I.   St. Vrain State Park

J.   Cherry Creek State Park

K.   Chatfield State Park

L.   Mueller State Park

M.   Eleven Mile State Park

N.   Navajo State Park

O.   Mancos State Park

 

I will be driving my Honda Element, the PERFECT camping vehicle:

 

I will also be breaking in my new tent, a Big Agnes Jupiter’s Cabin. It replaces my old Eureka Backcountry 4, pictured above, which was finally sent to that big campground in the sky by my brother’s cats.

Here is a picture of the new tent from a 3 day trip last month:

I took it up to Palomar Mountain and was impressed by it’s performance in the rain for the first 2 days. At least it was sunny the last day I was there…

I visited Palomar Mountain State Park and Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.

Here are the videos of those campgrounds:

Thanks to McDonalds and their free wi-fi, I will be able to update this blog every 2 to 3 days. So keep checking in and see what trouble I will be getting myself into!

Regards, Greg