Oh, boy! Oct. 2 was a blue sky day, just as we hoped it would be! Loving where we are with such mountain views to greet us each morning! Here we go again for the pretty 45 mile trip back to the lake through the fall colored mountains. Yep, the cows are still out on the road! “Move over, Bessie! We have places to go and things to see!”
We just knew the snow capped mountains against a blue sky would be so picturesque. We sure were right! We could hardly wait to get to the higher elevations and the lake!
We made our 3rd stop at the Bald Mountain overlook. So scenic over the distant mountain ranges!
Then we came around the same bend, as yesterday, to another fantastic view of Hayden Peak at the same overlook. Awesome! Plus, we stopped for an after snow photo at the Hayden Peak overlook closer to the lake. Now that really would make a great Xmas card!
The views at Mirror Lake were so beautiful! I just kept clicking away with my camera! There were several other people out to enjoy the views. It was a bit warmer at 34 degrees, rather than 24 the day before.
I took the tri-pod and hiked further around the left side of the lake on the snow covered boardwalk across the marsh grass to get better views of Hayden Peak across the lake.
Then I hiked to the right of the lake to an area I had not explored before. Got great views of Bald Mountain behind the lake. The trail was a bit treacherous because any water puddles were still frozen over, but worth the effort for the views. We spent quite a long while at the lake. I hated to leave! We just soaked in all the beauty. This really is a hidden gem that will go in our memories as one of our favorite places. Just an amazingly beautiful place!
Of course, we had to stop one last time at Teapot Lake for the ‘after the snow’ picture to compare to the day before when it was still snowing.
The rest of our adventure was further back down the drive. A brochure in town referred to Wolf Creek pass as a pretty drive. We wanted to go ahead and drive the Wolf Creek highway while in the area rather than go all the way back to town and drive back to the area another day. Doug had looked at the map the night before and found a short cut from the Mirror Lake drive over to the Wolf Creek highway. So as we passed through the town of Kamas on the way to Mirror Lake, we stopped at the Ranger Station to see what kind of road the shortcut was. Turned out it is a ‘forest road’, meaning it is a dirt road. The Ranger assured us it was a decent dirt road and plenty wide enough for our truck. Of course, when I hear ‘dirt mountain road’, I get nervous and worry about being on an open narrow road on the very edge of a mountain! But we hate to pass up more adventure! We were pleasantly surprised!
The 7 mile dirt road took us into beautiful areas of Aspen groves scattered along the way. It was a bit bumpy but not too bad and really was a pretty drive.
The road led us around small mountains and up and over pretty open meadows that gave us nice views of the area and other mountains. The white dots in the last 2 pictures are campers! We were surprised to see so many RVs up in the woods along this road in the middle of nowhere. You do need a ‘Wilderness Camping Pass’. There was even a big lodge and cabins up there. We even passed a large horse trailer with 4 horses in it. Must be rough on those horses legs! Plus, the RVs that were up there were probably totally rearranged by the time a site was found! Like other areas around this part of UT, there are ATV, hiking, and horse trails all over the place. Seems to be the favorite pass time for any free time, and it is also hunting season, which may explain so many RVs in the woods.
It was nice to hit the paved highway the rest of the way to Wolf Creek Summit at 9,485 feet. There was no snow left up there except for on the very top of the trees. There really wasn’t much to see up there and there is a very small campground at the summit. We were glad we didn’t make an extra trip up there, but it was a pleasant drive back down from the mountains to town.
Nope, didn’t see any more cows on the dirt road or at Wolf Creek! We did see a few deer in the woods. But I was hoping to see some elk or moose in the meadow at Wolf Creek. Guess they knew the camera happy lady was coming! We enjoyed our road trip and really had a beautiful day with such amazing scenery!
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