High Uintah Trip

On July 29th, I went on a 4 day back-country horse riding/fishing trip with my dad, my two brothers, and a family friend. This was a trip we used to do every year with my dad, brother and all the other men in the extended Hill family. It has been 10 years since we have been able to go, so this year we finally were able to make it happen again only with a few less people. And this time it was pretty cool having my little brother, Aaron, make the trip with us. We packed our horses and rode 9 miles into the High Uintahs in northeastern Utah. Every day we rode horses to a different lake where we would fish and spend the afternoon enjoying the cool mountain air. I think the temperature might have reached 70 as a high and cooled down at night to a wonderful 40 degrees or so. It was a great trip and we had a blast getting away from the stresses of life. I love being able to camp in the wilderness and only see a few people all four days. The fishing was awesome and the horse riding was unbeatable. You can't see scenery like this every day!

The next picture is of one of my "huge" fish I caught just before dark. The four of us caught 107 fish over the 4 days we were there. The smallest was only a few inches long and the largest fish was about 16 inches. The fish don't grow very large in the Uintahs but they are super feisty and put up a great fight. The majority were Brook Trout but we did catch a few Cutthroat Trout as well. There is a river close by our camp which we used to take an afternoon swim. BUURRRRR!!! It sure felt good to be clean afterwards but it took a lot of courage to jump in. The first jump in every day nearly makes your heart stop but hey, once your body is numb then the second and third jump aren't so bad. This is practically glacier water because it is coming out of the mountain at 11,000' elevation. From left to right is myself, my older brother Jared, my younger brother Aaron, and my dad. This particular spot was about 6-8 feet deep. Call us crazy, but we had a ton of fun! Bring it on polar bear club!!!!

Here is a very funny movie clip of myself and Aaron taking our first jump in the river on the third day. We new it was going to be freezing because we had done it the day before. This time I told Aaron that the first one out gets the soap. Because the sooner you get the soap, the sooner you can lather up and jump in again to wash yourself off -which means less time standing around in the wind freezing to death. As you will see, I conquered the battle and my poor brother ended up getting stuck on the side. He later had to dig dirt out of his finger and toenails because he was clawing so vigorously at the side of the bank. And Yes, I did scream like a girl when I jumped in:) If only you had been there.

Every day we would hobble the horses in the meadow next to camp so they could graze. Hobbles are kind of like hand cuffs for horses. Pioneers used them and a lot of people nowadays with horses still do. We hobble the horse's two front legs so they can't run away from camp. They hop around in order to eat the grass of their choice-- kinda like an all you can eat buffet. And no, it doesn't hurt them.

This is just one of the beautiful sunsets we witnessed while camping. A little bit of heaven on earth if you ask me. The High Uintahs are definitely one of my absolute favorite places to visit. It was a great experience spending time with my family and friend while doing some of my favorite things...fishing, camping, and horse riding. Gotta love it!