Rainy Day in the Uintas

It may have been sunny and 95 degrees in Salt Lake yesterday, but at Mirror Lake it was 51 degrees and raining. I had thought about hiking up Bald Mountain, but that's not a good place to be in a thunderstorm. Today I read that a woman went missing there over the weekend. The sheriff found her car at the Bald Mountain trailhead this morning. From KSL.com:

Search teams looking in

the Bald Mountain

area for missing woman

July 27th, 2009 @ 5:12pm

SUMMIT COUNTY -- Search teams are looking (in) a remote area of Summit County for a missing Salt Lake City woman. Family members last saw Gina Ramos Trujillo, 48, at the Soapstone Campground Saturday just before noon.

Monday morning, deputies found her vehicle at the Bald Mountain trailhead, but at this point there is no sign of her.

Trujillo is 5 feet tall and weighs approximately 145 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing grey sweatpants, a light brown T-shirt and tennis shoes. If you have seen Trujillo, you are asked to call the Summit County Sheriff's Office at 435-615-3600.

This snowbank blocks the trail about halfway up the mountain.

This is what the trail looked like last week at the snowbank.

This is what the weather looked like yesterday from inside my car.

A lot of the early-spring flowers are gone, but it's still spring up here. The meadow just across Hwy 50 from the Mirror Lake turn-off is full of all colors of flowers.

Some rude person parked in my favorite beaver-watching spot, so I spent a couple hours just looking at flowers and trees. Here are a few:

Just below the Bald Mountain lookout.

It looks like Mirror Lake itself got a real workout this Pioneer Day weekend.

Pioneer Day

Pioneer Day started with a little kayaking at Jordanelle. I haven't been for at least three years, maybe a lot more, and my shoulders are feeling it today--muscle burn and sunburn. I started at Rock Cliff, paddled to the main body of the lake against a little headwind, crossed the channel as fast as my arms would pull to avoid being run over by a ski boat or wave runner--4.7 mph against the wind--and looped back with the wind, about six miles total.

I also swam a little bit. The water is warm. The boat has two hatches that seal with rubber gaskets, which have completely rotted over the years. No one had gaskets, so I used man's best friend: duct tape, with some electrician's rubber sealing tape. That worked just fine.

In the evening we had a barbecue, kiddie pools (2), and fireworks at Dad's, but I forgot to take my camera.

Tetons and Yellowstone on the 4th

This weekend started when Jared wanted to go camping somewhere nearby on a weekend in May. The following weekend was Memorial Day, and on the weekend after that Sara and Jared were going to Hawaii. I suggested that we go on a long weekend, when Jared doesn't work on a Friday and Monday. The closest choice was July 4th, and we decided (not sure who "we" are, maybe me) Jackson Hole would be fun. Pretty soon, the trip turned into the Annual Bar J Jackson Fireworks 4th of July Celebration.

Most of Nancy's and Paul's groups decided to go, and Dad (Janet and Jennifer were in Arkansas). Chieko and I decided to take Elliot, since John's family, except John, was in town, and we thought Elliot and Jackson would have fun together. Then Sara wasn't feeling well due to her pregnancy, so her group dropped out. So we decided to take Jackson and Elliot. But then Elliot got sick, so we headed out on Friday morning with just Jackson. Later on Friday, Sara called to say they had decided to come after all, but too late for the Bar J.

This is all so confusing.

The Bar J Wranglers were great, as usual. Jackson clapped along with every song.

Jamie convinced me to get up at 5:15 on Saturday morning to take pictures of some old barn.

Jamie has better pictures of the barn than I do, so I'm just posting this one that was my experiment. You can see Jamie's pictures on her photo blog. I post most of my Jackson and Yellowstone pictures at gallery.mac.com/michaelastle.

An old log house just a short distance up the road toward the Gros Ventre slide and lake used to give some ranch family a great view of the Tetons.

By the way, the hot springs near the beginning of this road are great if you don't mind moss, tepid water, and a kid catching skeeters with a little old net he found. Chieko and I checked out the springs on Monday morning, but we chose to skip the soak.

These two made friends immediately.

On Saturday we drove to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

This isn't a good picture of a grizzly that lives just north of the Flagg Ranch, but grizzlies aren't so keen on people taking close ups.

We high-tailed it (but not over 45 mph) back to Jackson to watch the fireworks. Paul and the Scotts saved a great spot right at the bottom of the Snow King ski lift and run. Pieces of fireworks fell on us throughout the night; we were that close. Following are a bunch of pictures of the fireworks.

Finale

The kids had been collecting sticks for a campfire, but because we got back to camp late on Friday and Saturday Number One, we built a small fire on the morning of Saturday Number Two.

Tanner brought this to me, put it in my hand, and asked me what it was.

Tanner

Jamie and her troop headed back to Colorado Springs, or Oklahoma City, or wherever they call home now.

Sara and her clan had big plans to go to Old Faithful and then swim in the Firehole River near Madison Junction.

We got a pretty late start and made it only as far as Old Faithful.

Sara's group then headed toward West Yellowstone and home while Chieko and I drove back to our camp at Gros Ventre.

This bison is scratching his neck on the sign. After a good scratching, he turned and walked across the highway without even looking both ways.

On Monday morning Chieko and I drove down the Moose-Wilson Road.

During her college days Chieko worked at the Rockefeller's J-Y Ranch on the Moose-Wilson Road. Rockefellers donated the ranch land to the Grand Teton National Park a few years ago, and today there is a Rockefeller Preserve with a nice visitor center and some hiking trails.

We hiked to Phelps Lake, which is on a three-mile loop trail. It's a pretty easy climb up along Phelps Creek.

The Rockeller lodge and cabins where Chieko worked used to be on Phelps Lake, but all the buildings have been move to the Rockefellers' remaining ranch property somewhere to the south and to Colter Bay, where they're used as employee housing. The Preserve has been returned to nature.

Before we headed home we drove a ways up the road between Jackson and Moran Junction for one last look at the Tetons. With the late spring and all the water this year--more than I've ever seen in the lakes and streams--the desert flowers were still in full bloom.

We thought this cloud over the east side of the valley looked like a giant gorilla blowing on the Tetons.