Uintas Campout

We took our Trailer 2.0 out for its first official campout the first weekend in June (the 4th-5th). Our intention was to camp at Christmas Meadows, which just opened the day we were headed there, but since we couldn't make reservations for opening weekend, and we didn't want to drive the trailer down four miles of rough dirt road only to find it was full and have to turn back around, we ended up just picking a spot closer to the highway in Bear River Campground. It turned out to be a swell little spot, and we had the campground (all four sites) to ourselves! We loaded up and headed out Friday at lunchtime and spotted a couple of moose on the other side of Monte Cristo!

Once we got to camp, we set up the trailer (lickety split) and hung out around camp. Gregg broke out his new birthday hammock and got comfy. We explored a little trail that took us to a calmer section of the river. We read. We sat. We walked to the end of the campground and back all by ourselves (that was Cal's big independent thing!).

Eventually we drove to Christmas Meadows. Turns out the campground was not full, but the good spots were already snagged. We were happy with our decision to stop where we did. And now that we know how the trailer handles dirt and paved roads, we can try again in the future. We parked at the trailhead and wandered down the soggy trail for a while. It was so peaceful and beautiful. After our walk we pulled out the stove to make "Ponderosa Pizza" (just tortillas with sauce and cheese and toppings, warmed up on a frying pan with a lid to melt the cheese on the camp stove) on the picnic tables at the trailhead. Mmmhmm! What a way to eat pizza!

This was supposed to be the trail, but instead
was a spring runoff stream. We sat in the shade
and threw rocks in the water and then turned
around to head back.

Hashtag girl!

On Saturday morning, we woke up, ate breakfast, broke camp, and parked our trailer in a dispersed campsite along the Lily Lake Road. (Shoulda just camped there in the first place - it even had a picnic table! Next time!) With the trailer stowed, we continued on up the rocky dirt road toward Lily Lake. Eventually, it got so rough and gnarly that we parked the car and decided to hike the rest of the way to the lake. How gorgeous was that! It was a gorgeous morning and the lake was as still as a mirror. Fantastic!! We tried to walk around the lake but lost the trail partway, so we turned around to head back to the car. As soon as we reached the car, Sam realized he left his hat on the shore, so we actually drove back to the lake to retrieve the hat (it wasn't as bad of a road as we feared at that point after all ;).

Being brave together.

After Lily Lake, we hopped back on the Mirror Lake Highway to cruise for a bit. We ended up at Washington Lake Campground, where we did some reconnaissance for our upcoming girl's camp to be held there in July. (Our camp leaders had reserved a group site, but had never been there to see what it was like - that was stressing me out, even though I wasn't in charge of camp, so I took notes and pics of all the group sites so I could report back on the situation.) 

We walked to Washington Lake on a little trail out
of the last group site - still some snow on the trail!

bonus video!

"frogs!"

Another group site to snap pics of - and this is the one
that our ward had (I didn't know that before we visited).

 We headed back to Lily Lake Road to pick up the trailer and then continued on home through Evanston (with a stop at Wendy's for an early dinner - it's tradition!).