Park City, UT

We arrived at the state park outside Park City along with 40 mph winds. The park sits on a reservoir in the canyon, so, hoping these winds aren't the norm here. The temps are suppose to get up into the mid to high 70's for the next couple of days, but, then another cool off. There aren't many people camping today but the weekend was full and they must get a load of boaters in the summer because the marina has a huge parking lot.
Jordanelle Resevoir

Day 1 - Mon, Sept 30, 2013
Today, we decided we would do the scenic drive up to Mirror Lake via the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway in the Uinta Mtns, even though we got a late start. Just being lazy. We are allowed to do that sometimes. We had decided to make the stop in Park City just because it was a short drive from Salt Lake and it would cut the drive time down when we headed to Moab. It is really a very pleasant surprise, so beautiful and the colors on the mountains are stunning. As we head into the Uinta Mtns., we run into about a dozen olympic trainees going the 23 miles of the byway, getting in shape for olympics.
These guys have tons of endurance!

Next, we come upon some wild animals roaming the roads. Okay, not exactly wild, but, they were on the road!

We stumbled upon the Provo River Falls hidden away on a turnoff. This turned out to be a great stop; not only beautiful falls, but, we decided to take a short hike up to the top of the falls. The only problem, we would get to the top and on ahead, there would be more falls. We went up until the river flattened out and decided to turn back and resume our course. What was really nice, we only saw two other people walking around up there! After the previous NP's we've been to, this was a nice change.

We continued on up to Mirror Lake which, I assume, was suppose to "mirror" the surrounding snowcapped mountains. Unfortunately, the wind is galing (if that is a word) thus, no mirror on the lake but there were some people out there fishing, if you can believe that. It was COLD!

Headed back down the mountain from Mirror Lake, we take another side trip up a gravel road. A couple of miles up the road, there is a turnoff to Lamar's Meadow, sounds good. Well, the road is not for our truck, maybe a bulldozer,it is so rocky and has large trenches in it. So, we decide to walk up. We had some absolutely beautiful views going up and the trek wasn't too bad being on a pseudo road. Too bad, we never reached the meadow because we decided we better turn around after close to 2 hours. We looked at the GPS when we got back to the truck and the "road" was on there, but, went forever!

Continuing on, we take another detour through the Uinta Nat'l Forest. This would take us for miles and miles across rolling hills with beautiful scenery. We eventually ended up not THAT far from the campground!

Just before we hit the main road, we ran into a "herd" of sheep with their sheep dog!

Day 2 - Tues, Oct 1, 2013
Government SHUTDOWN.....we will see how it effects us on our trip as we proceed.
We decided we better get a little earlier start today then we did yesterday. Headed over to the the Olympic training facility where they still practice for the ski events. We watched practice for some of the jumps for awhile and then headed out towards Sundance (no, we did not see RR).

KerPlunk!

Headed over the Wasatch Mountains for some beautiful scenery viewing. We are also checking out some hiking places for tomorrow. Hopefully, the weather will be good for us!

This mama and baby moose were playing in the water of a little lake coming down the mountain.

Came down the mountains on the Provo side, so, had to drive around the mountains through the pass to get back home.

Getting back to the campground, we stop by the marina to check it out. The boat ramp is waaaaayyyyy long. I guess the water really comes up when the snow starts to melt.
Pic taken at top of boat ramp; arrow shows truck at bottom.

FInally, an evening with hardly any wind, so we are going to take advantage and build a fire. As usual, Bob did an excellent job on the fire and, sitting out, we had a few visitors down at the lake front.

Day 3 - Wed, Oct 2, 2013
Headed to Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains to Brighton Ski Resort. We found a nice hike going up the mountain down from the resort which goes by three lakes.
Mountain in background we are headed up!

Once we got past the ski resort trails and lifts, it got really beautiful. The weather was crisp, around 42º when we started out but it sure felt colder when we got up top and in all the wind! What was really great is we only ran into a couple of people going up and while we were up there. Things picked up as we started down and saw a few more people. I guess they wanted to take advantage of such a nice day because 3-4 inches of snow is predicted for tomorrow here.
looking down on Brighton Resort
trail going up
Lake Mary
Lake Martha
Lake Catherine

Day 4 - Thurs, Oct. 3, 2013
It's cold, suppose to snow here tonight so probably good we are moving on. Headed to Moab, UT and will see if we are going to be able to get on the roads in the Nat'l Parks.