To the Boulder Top

With all the visits I make down to Torrey, Utah, including several drives along Highway 12 over the big behemoth of a plateau called Boulder Mountain, I've often gazed upon it wondering what it would be like to take a backpacking trip there, but then always put it off in exchange for trips down into neighboring Capitol Reef, or the Escalanate area, and so on. 

That changed this summer when my friend Devin reached out wanting to do a early season trip up into the Uintas.  The snowmelt and high run-off factor as a result of the big winter we had ultimately scared us off from that idea though and so he came up with an idea to go backpacking down on Boulder Mountain.  And what an idea that turned out to be! We made it happen and I was utterly blown away with how how much more awesome that mountain was than I could have ever imagined.  Devin's friend, Dane, would join up with us, and thus, plans were finalized.

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A Provo Paradise

This past winter and spring was good to the Wasatch Mountains, as well as much of the West, piling up the snow then bringing lots of rain which gave way to a lot of early summer greenery.  This was experienced first hand when I was able to take my son Lennox out for a night to enjoy a slice of green mountain paradise right above our town of Provo.

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A Night on Y Mountain: Another Daddy-Daughter Backpacking Trip

Having successfully completed a trip out with Ellory the night before, it was Willow's turn to get up into the mountains.  She's a fan of hiking the 'Y' above our neighborhood.  I offered her the opportunity to go higher above it and she bit.  She'd get another big choice to make along the way...

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Backpacking Horsetail Falls: An Overnight Daddy-Daughter Trip

A week after taking out Ellory and Willow respectively, it was on to round #3 with Raylee.  Again, due to snow melt along easier trails in the Uintas, we stayed closer to home where I decided to introduce Raylee to Horsetail Falls.

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Backpacking Grove Creek: A Daddy-Daughter Adventure

With school out for the summer, it was time to start up the annual one-on-one trips with my kids whom are old enough to do some backpacking or camping and retain some memories of it.  For this month, my days off work were Sunday-Tuesday.  In the past, I'd start with my oldest and work my way down each of my kids.  This year, things were switched up a bit, starting out with my 2nd oldest, Ellory.  For this trip we set off for one my favorite spots in the Wasatch this time of year, Grove Creek and the flats above.

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Backpacking 'Pleasant Pocket Mesa' in Capitol Reef NP

Having recently celebrated Jessica's birthday, I had planned to gift Jess a night off from the kids and out in the backcountry.  As we typically do, we traveled to Torrey to spend Memorial Day weekend with her parents and made plans to do some backpacking in Capitol Reef National Park while there. The route we ended up on was a reverse of the loop I had done two years before as well as being the latter section of the Beehive Traverse I had done last fall.

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Backcountry Post Meet-up at Temple Mountain

For years now, I've been a member of a forum called Backcountry Post, or BCP for short.  In April, a meet up was organized for members and the location selected was in the area of Temple Mountain in the San Rafael Swell.  It was an opportunity meet up with some great people who also love the outdoors, some for the first time while yet others, a reuniting.

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