Chris turned 30 at the end of August and I'm just now posting the pictures... better late than never though, right?? We had some cake the night before so that the next morning we could leave bright and early for the High Uintas. Chris has always wanted to hike King's Peak, and his birthday weekend was the perfect opportunity.
I was a little apprehensive seeing as I hadn't ever really done a real backpacking trip before. This hike was 28 miles round trip... to the highest peak in Utah... and we were going to do it in 3 days.
I put a smile on my face though, and was actually pretty excited to spend the weekend in the beautiful outdoors with my handsome husband.
Chris carried most of our gear but I still had to take a few breaks :)
And about three miles into our hike, it started to rain... a lot. It was a GOOD thing we bought those $3 ponchos the day before. Silly me thought we wouldn't need them. I was WRONG.
We were super happy to finally get to dollar lake (where we had decided to camp the first night) so we could get out of the rain and finally get warm.
The next morning we woke up to a beautiful view of the lake. It looked pretty sunny too so we were optimistic about being able to make it to the top. But as we started along the trail it started to rain again, and then it hailed. And the giant dark cloud that loomed over the peak wasn't very inviting either. We decided that the trip would still be a success, even if we didn't make it to the top... and we turned around to head back to the car.
And of course, about 30 minutes after we left, the clouds parted, the sun came out, and it turned into a BEAUTIFUL day. The mountain behind Chris in the picture below is Kings Peak. It was BEAUTIFUL and would have been even more beautiful from the top of the peak, but we'll have to try for it again next year. Hopefully by then I'll be a better backpacker.
The hike back to the car was awesome... and it was really nice to be able to actually SEE how pretty it was. When we were hiking the day before we couldn't see very much considering the crazy amount of rain that was falling from the sky.
We stopped by a river, hiked up to alligator lake, and I did a little dance when we got back to the car.
It started pouring again on the drive home and I wasn't that sad about
the fact that I was in a warm car and not out there hiking... or hiding
in a tent. And, I actually had a great time, despite the weather. I
can't wait for next summer when the sun decides to shine again so that
Chris and I can go on some more backpacking trips.
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Here's to a great weekend, with my awesome husband... So glad he was born so that we could find each other... and spend his birthday in the beautiful Uintas.
