Gorgeous Mirror Lake Scenic Drive

Sept. 16.  What a wonderful drive up through more mountains with great views, beautiful lakes, and fall colors!  The state legislature designated SR-150 as a scenic drive in 1933, running east from SR-32 in Kamas to the Wasatch-Cache National Forest boundary.  In 1953, it was extended east and north via Mirror Lake to the Wyoming state line.  The road is the highest paved road in Utah when it crosses Bald Mountain Pass at an altitude of 10,715 feet.  On the way to Kamas, we stopped at the Jordanelle  Reservoir overlook.  The red foliage on the mountains just gets more colorful!  Love being out here in the mountains in the fall!!  Jordanelle Reservoir is fed by the Provo River.   Another dam?  Of course, Doug has to stop and see it!  You can see the highway between Heber and Park City.
 
Off we go up onto a higher bluff at Kamas.  Then we turned onto the nice paved road towards the canyon of homes tucked here and there on the mountain sides as we headed up into the higher wilderness.  Loved driving through the fall leaf change, mountain views, and the serenity of just being out in the woods exploring a new area.  There were right many other folks up there for this time of the year and on a weekday. 
  
Well now, just about everyone knows how crazy I am about the west and especially horses, cowboys, ranches, rodeos, etc.  Things of the real old west.  After travelling for 12 years I FINALLY got to see a real cattle drive, cowboys driving 500 head of longhorns, as part of Frontier Days in Cheyenne, WY.   Well, I posted recently about seeing another small cattle drive near Salt Lake City.  Now,  I got to see one more!  All  along the scenic byway are yellow signs to watch for cows, since the  mountains are “open Range”.  There was even a digital sign on the side of the road flashing “slow, cows in the road”.   A bit amusing.  Then several miles further up the road, we see several cows together in the road.  “Wait! There is a cowboy driving them!”   Oh, boy!  Another cattle drive!  Okay, I calmed down and realized there were only about 10 cows and the cowboy was in a ball cap and tee shirt.  I didn’t care, a drive is a drive no matter how many cows are in it!  It was fun to see.  Who would have thought you would have seen a cattle drive way up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere just trotting down the road!   We saw just a few more cattle scattered in the brush along the road when we came back down. 
 
We then stopped at the Provo Waterfalls.  The falls are right off the road with steps and paths to different viewing areas.  These were really nice pretty falls. 
   
We began to see Bald Mountain as we got closer to Mirror Lake.  But first we stopped at Teapot Lake along the roadside.  Beautiful!  There are many lakes up in these mountains but you have to hike to most of them.  Small Lost Lake was across the road from this lake but not nearly as big or pretty. 
 
Then we reached Bald Mountain.  The landscape from the overlook at the summit beneath Bald Mountain was fantastic.  The white dot in the 3rd picture is a lonely little camper out in the meadow. 
  
The best was saved for last! Gorgeous Mirror Lake! It is just a few miles beyond Bald Mountain.  It was just so beautiful up there!  There is  small campground, day use area, and picnic area.  Some folks had their horse trailers and horses in the day use area getting ready to ride some of the trails. 
   
We walked around part of the lake, and I walked further on the boardwalk over the marsh grass to see the scenery around behind the trees to the right.  The views just kept getting better and better. 
 
Even Bald Mountain looked pretty good from the lake.   On the way back we drove through a nice new campground that had plenty of room for big rigs.  There were paved roads and sites right on a lake.  That is one we will certainly keep in mind if we return to this area. 

It was a terrific  drive and awesome scenery!  Golly, do we have to leave!?