Adventuring {Salmon Run at Causey}

Last year, we learned about the yearly Kokanee salmon spawn that happens in some of Utah's reservoirs each fall, including our nearby Causey.  We did the hike and absolutely loved it, and decided that we wanted to make it a yearly tradition.  Fast forward to this year, on Monday, September 18th, and we found ourselves packing up sandwiches, water bottles, jackets and kids to make the roughly 5 mile round trip trek to witness the red fish again.  Callie was a super hiker, and made it all the way to the fish on her own two feet!  (Milestone for her: longest hike yet!)  We made pretty good time getting there, despite having to step aside for lots and lots of hikers passing us going both directions (it was quite the highway!).  We found a spot to eat our sandwiches and peek at the tough red swimmers, fighting the current to stay where they were or move further upstream.  Sam was pretty excited to see them himself.  He thought they were cool.  As did the rest of us.  We didn't stick around too long since we wanted to get back before dark (and, it turned out, a storm coming in).  Hiking back was a lot more work (for me, anyway) since I was packing Sam out and Gregg got Cal on his shoulders  (Talk about tough dad! he carried a kid both directions, with a few thousand feet of climbing!)  We made it back to the car almost exactly three hours after we started, with sore shoulders, backs, legs, and feet, but a definite sense of accomplishment and an appreciation for the wonders of nature.  We also have a new plan for next year (and all subsequent years until the kids can hike the whole thing by themselves): canoe!

Starting out on the shores of Causey Reservoir.

Yep, she's leaf-picking.  Always.

Here's the stream that feeds the reservoir,
and where the fish migrate to each September.

Dinnertime!

 

Kind of hard to see because of the glare, but all those red
specks in the water are salmon.

 

Her legs were asleep from riding on Gregg's
shoulders, so when he set her down to walk
for a stretch, she collapsed on the trail in a fit
of giggles.

 

My favorite view of the lake, about a mile (?) up the trail.