Chowin' in the Uintas - Ruth Lake campfire meal.

While we’ve done a lot of car camping this year, there’s always something a little different about packing it in. We did it once last year, and while it didn’t turn out to be the greatest of trips, we thought we’d try it again. The kids are another year older, and another year independent-er. This means, in outdoorsy terms, that Tory can walk on his own a lot farther.

It was a fun, spontaneous trip that the kids loved. I’m really glad they love the outdoors as much as mom and dad do.

Marcus, Kari, Tory, and Tegan look out over the Uintas.

Right after Grandma Pat and Grandpa Gary left Tracy and Marcus showed up. Literally. Same day. Again, not a whole lot of pictures were taken, but I did get a few of the day we spend hiking Bald Mountain in the Uintas. It was really fun having so much family around for a few weeks, and I hope they had fun too.

Tory collects rocks for chucking.

We make it up to the Uintas quite a bit every summer, this year a little later than usual due to our extended winter/lack of spring. We spent just one night and then hiked the next day. These hikes are still short, but I’m guessing in the next few years they’ll stretch out longer with some overnight hike ins.

Tory takes it off trail. Click the pic for more of this schtick.

We always go to the Uintas to camp, because it’s relatively close, and so very woodsy-mountainsy. But we like to explore new places too, so we treked on up near Powder Mountain to a place that looked pretty good on the map. The bummer part is that lots of other people had that same crazy idea, and there was no room at the inn. So we drove around for a while, detouring at a road that read “National Forrest access.” To me, that means there’s probably lots of little roads here and there that one could pull off on and find a little spot to camp. Neeuuop.

Long boring story short we ended up back in the Uintas 4 hours later, and vowed never to try a new place again. At least not until next time.

We camped and hiked for the weekend with Michelle, Sam, and Soph, and had quite a nice time chllin’ in the woods. We even had to swat at some mosquitos, which I thought were extinct here in Utah. What? What’s that I don’t hear from my Minnesota friends?

Tory and Soph are starting to become real troopers in the field, both hiking most of the way there and back. I think we made it all of 3 miles in! Actually, I carried Tory most of the way back on my shoulders after he fell into the drink and soaked himself from the belly down.