PASSED THE 86 YEAR GOAL & ON TO 87 -"LEAVING NO TRACE!" in GROVE CANYON - ON TO TOURING THE HIGH UINTAS WITH SHORTEST ROUTE TO DEADHORSE & CRATER LAKES-Utah's deepest at 147 feet, NOW WITH SPLAKE!

**MY GOOD DEED FOR MY 86th BIRTHDAY ON APRIL 19th**

The Law: LEAVE NO TRACE!

**I CELEBRATED MY BIRTHDAY WITH A HIKE UP GROVE CANYON…and AGAIN FOUND IN THE STILL BLEAK LANDSCAPE SOME GREAT……**

…..VISIONS OF NATURE

**BEGINNING with one you’ve seen BUT WORTH SEEING AGAIN…..**

….A JEWEL STUDDED CONGLOMERATE –-My “QUEEN OF ROCKS”—

A new *OREGON GRAPE PLANT* **sprouting**

**….and a tiny *HEAVENLY WILDFLOWER.*..so tiny most hikers don’t notice it.**

….and another of the more than 100 varieties of FOOTHILL WILDFLOWERS I have photographed and identified in the Wasatch and High Uinta foothills. Also so tiny most miss it and I had to use my Nikon camera to get this shot.

**This WILDFLOWER was photographed several weeks ago way up high along the trail in a spot warmed by the sun, but it is now sprouting down lower along the trail.**

**I failed to give this photo the depth of field I needed, but it is another of the early beauties in the canyon.** **I’ll get a better picture on the next hike**.

**Here’s one near blooming that will be a beauty I’ll photograph on my next work-out, not classified as a wildflower, rather a shrub.**

THEN WE COME TO ONE STILL MOSTLY DORMANT–ONE THAT MOST WOULD FIND SORT OF DRAB & UGLY….BUT you’ll see for me it was BEAUTIFUL–*SCRUB OAK,* or correctly, *GAMBLES OAK.*

Me calling it “beautiful” would have many calling me “CRAZY” for which I’m proudly known–even a BYU Agronomist/Animal Husbandry professor who visited me on my dairy in Guatemala began calling me a “RODEO CLOWN” because we didn’t use neither alfalfa, nor silage–both staples in the dairying industry in Utah. I rather showed him our lush pastures–a grass with 23% protein, the same as alfalfa, with our cows pasturing 24 hours/day, 365 days a year….and me laughing at him like a RODEO CLOWN…..

ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK!

I still love to call myself a RODEO CLOWN!

ON THE LEFT IS *SCRUB OAK* BEGINNING TO SPROUT ON MY LAST HIKE. IN THE MIDDLE IS THE WAY IT WILL COME TO LIFE WITH REAL STUNNING BEAUTY, & ON THE RIGHT THE GREEN THAT WILL SOON DECORATE OUR BLEAK FOOTHILLS.

**I CONVERT SCRUB OAK INTO BEAUTIFUL RUSTIC FRAMES**. The stunningly beautiful picture in the frame is of TRIANGLE MOUNTAIN & RECONNAISSANCE LAKE, considered by me as *ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OUTDOOR SCENES IN UTAH*. It is located off-trail in the Rock Creek Drainage of the High Uinta’s South Slope.

AGAIN ON THE LEFT WE SEE WHAT NORMALLY WOULD BE SORT OF DRAB OR ROUGHLY UGLY SCRUB OAK, but on the RIGHT WE SEE HOW I WOULD TURN IT INTO BEAUTIFUL FRAMES I WOULD MAKE FOR MY FRIENDS in a TINY WOOD WORKING SHOP IN A SHED when we lived in Springville, Utah.

Here we meet another sort of unattractive tree/shrub that decorates the foothills. It is called *CLIFF ROSE,* which soon I will show you how **UNBELIEVABLY BEAUTIFUL IT BECOMES .** Next, below I will show you what I do with its elegant wood disguised with its rough bark–which WOOD IS ALSO STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL as you see below what I do with it.

**Here we see one of the legs of a coffee table I made for my daughter. I’m sure you can now imagine creating with it other VISIONS OF NATURE, like lamps, etc.**

SO, my BIRTHDAY PRESENT for me was to again get way up the mountain with a beautiful view of Utah Valley–and get just a little stronger, with slightly improved balance–preparing me for the HIGH UINTAS come summer…in my 87th year.

A BIG PART OF MY PREPARATION IS TO SOLVE THE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE PROBLEM. Part of that was forced on me during my year+ of being a cripple and losing 32 pounds, but I have now noticed some of it coming back. So, I experimented with myself and learned that after eating EXCESSIVE SUGAR>>MY BLOOD PRESSURE WAS HIGH FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS. Even more so did my BLOOD PRESSURE GO UP FOR TWO DAYS AFTER EATING EXCESSIVE ITEMS WITH SALT like you see to the right below..so I grabbed some of the things responsible for both problems, and…..

….. BURIED THEM IN MY GARDEN PLOT TO FERTILIZE MY: DANDELIONS & the Guatemalan “Miracle Weed” MACUY.

Soon I’ll get around to telling you all about those two items and my diet.

……and my BIRTHDAY PRESENT FOR ALL OF YOU has been the MAGNIFICENT VISIONS OF NATURE ….I have shared with you in this post…..now I want to share with you some of the

HIGH UINTA WILDERNESS.

THIS WEEK WE’LL CONTINUE OUR TOUR AROUND THE WILDERNESS AREA, HEADING FOR THE WEST FORK OF BLACKS FORK (of the GREEN RIVER) with our first target being DEADHORSE LAKE we see below.

Below we will look at a map showing the area accessed on the NORTH SLOPE ROAD, the junction with the West Fork road about 18 miles from the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway.

FROM THE JUNCTION YOU GO ABOUT 5 MILES EVENTUALLY COMING TO A CROSSING OF THE RIVER WHICH SOMETIMES CAN BE DIFFICULT DEPENDING ON THE TIME OF YEAR AND HOW HIGH THE RIVER IS. YOU’LL SEE AFTER A FEW SCENICS THAT I HAD TROUBLE.

**ONE CAN STOP AND CAMP MOST ANYWHERE with WONDERFUL SPOTS CLOSE TO THE RIVER WHERE HUNGRY BROOK TROUT ARE WAITING FOR YOU.**

**THE SCENERY IS WONDERFUL, BUT HERE, AS WAS THE CASE ON THE East Fork of Bear River, THERE ARE SIGNS OF FOREST FIRES IN THE PAST….SO BE VERY CAREFUL.**

WE HAVE NOW COME TO THE CROSSING OF THE RIVER. AS YOU CAN SEE IT IS LATE FALL, EVEN WITH SOME SNOW ON THE MOUNTAINS ALREADY, SO THE RIVER IS LOW. I CROSSED SAFELY BUT ON THE OTHER SIDE REALIZED I HAD A PROBLEM YOU SEE BELOW.

I THOUGHT I HAD GOOD ENOUGH TIRES, BUT THIS WAS THE SECOND TIME IN AN ISOLATED AREA I HAD TIRE TROUBLE–THAT LEFT ME WITHOUT A SPARE, SO I HAD TO CAREFULLY GET BACK TO CIVILIZATION. I THEN GOT A MUCH TOUGHER TIRES, AND JUST TO BE SAFE I ALWAYS CARRIED 2 SPARES– & WOULDN’T YOU KNOW IT……. I’VE NEVER HAD ANOTHER FLAT!

THE TRAILHEAD IS ABOUT ANOTHER MILE FROM HERE, and THEN FROM THERE A 7.5 MILE HIKE TO DEADHORSE LAKE. BUT LET ME MENTION RIGHT HERE THAT ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE CANYON THERE ARE HALF A DOZEN SMALL ISOLATED OFF-TRAIL, SELDOM VISITED, LAKES YOU CAN SEE ON THE ENLARGED SECTION OF THE MAP BELOW.

**FOUR OF THE SIX HAVE TROUT, 2 WITH BROOK, AND 2 WITH NATIVE CUTTHROAT TROUT.**

FULL INFORMATION ON THE LAKES IS FOUND IN MY BOOK WHICH YOU CAN GET FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS AT THE END OF THIS POST.

**HERE WE ARE AT DEADHORSE LAKE. THE HIGHLINE TRAIL ZIG-ZAGS UP TO THE PASS ON THE UPPER LEFT FROM WHICH I’LL INSERT A PICTURE PREVIOUSLY USED–BUT WITH A PURPOSE.**

THE TURQUOISE COLORATION IS DUE TO GLACIAL TURBIDITY AT A CERTAIN TIME DURING THE SUMMER. **DEADHORSE LAKE** has **TIGER & CUTTHROAT TROUT.**

In the right center of the photo is seen EJOD LAKE. Small and not very deep, but has Cutthroat trout the reproduce naturally.

From Deadhorse Lake, to get to CRATER LAKE, you backtrack down the trail to a junction with the West Fork trail, and you continue on the HIGHLINE TRAIL climbing RED KNOB PASS from which, in the photo below, we look back towards Deadhorse Lake and Pass. The weather is a bit tough–which photo, along with the next, were purposely included so you’ll l always be warned that the weather in the Uintas is usually unpredictable….or maybe predictable as it almost always rains some daily…..usually in the afternoon. SO ALWAYS GO PREPARED FOR RAIN WITH A PONCHO THAT WILL ALSO COVER YOUR PACK–unless you have a rainproof cover for you pack as I do.

***Once again this picture and the next were taken in the Fall, with the frost having turned the green grass to gold.*** **Deadhorse Lake is in the upper center of this picture. Deadhorse Pass to the upper left of the lake.**

**FROM RED KNOB PASS WE ZOOM IN ON EXPLORER PEAK with a sliver of CRATER LAKE VISIBLE IN THE GLACIAL CIRQUE .**

From the Pass you zig-zag down some and then go off-trail crossing arctic tundra to the base of Explorer Peak where you can camp in the trees along a nice creek that comes out of the lake. From there you can climb up to wonderful CRATER LAKE, which is Utah’s deepest lake at 147 feet. Traditionally it has had brook trout, but a few years ago Tiger trout were planted to help keep the population of brookies down–and let some grow bigger, and provide some tough fishing. Then a couple of years ago 700 SPLAKE–a cross between brook and lake trout were planted. I haven’t heard how they have done, but they have the potential of growing real big and should do great in Crater’s clear, deep waters.

With this photo we have come FULL CIRCLE from where I started this week on my FACEBOOK PAGE. Here I was attempting to climb up a chute to get up on the saddle for the ONE “PERFECT PICTURE” but a snow drift, seen in the previous picture stopped me. But I still got a pretty good picture of this……

ONE LAKE IN THE HIGH UINTAS NO ONE SHOULD FAIL TO GET TO.

FOR FULL INFORMATION ON THIS & OTHER AREAS, AS WELL AS TOPOGRAPHICAL MAPS WITH ROUTES, DISTANCES & LABELS — get an online copy of this book, some have called THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UINTA MOUNTAINS, send me $20 (don’t be afraid of sending a $20 bill as we aren’t south of the border) along with your email address, and I will immediately email you the link to download the book with my permission to share once with a friend. Or, send $25 for a thumb drive that will have the book, plus The History of it’s creation as detailed in a speech I gave at the Utah Valley Historical Society; plus my CHECKERED HISTORY & VISION QUEST–0-22 years. Send to:

Cordell Andersen, 444 Elm St., American Fork, Utah 84003

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PASSED THE 86 YEAR GOAL & ON TO 87 –“LEAVING NO TRACE!” in GROVE CANYON — ON TO TOURING THE HIGH UINTAS WITH SHORTEST ROUTE TO DEADHORSE & CRATER LAKES–Utah’s deepest at 147 feet, NOW WITH SPLAKE!

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