Fall Camping In the Uintas

If there is one thing we love it is fall camping in the high Uintas. Typically we camp in Soapstone Basin several times a season, but this is the first time we've made it up there this year...we're branching out more in our camping locations for sure. We've also become a bit more spoiled. We're not satisfied with weekend camping trips anymore, we want a MINIMUM of three nights! Last year we threw a rod and ruined the engine in our truck on the way home from soapstone. Well, we had the engine replaced and have driven all over the state towing our trailer and it's been awesome. Last Thursday we packed up and headed out, so excited to enjoy the chilly air and warm fires. The truck was doing great...until it wasn't. Just before our exit John looked in the mirror and saw we were smoking or something. Immediately we pulled over and John saw that it was oil. Bummer. My heart sunk knowing we couldn't risk more problems with our truck. We planned to have the boys drive this truck in high school since it's so big, beefy, and safe. John called our mechanic neighbor who had replaced the engine. He told us to check a couple things and if our oil stayed in the safe range to go ahead and continue our trip. It was only two miles until our exit so we kept going. We pulled into Park City and took up a fair amount of parking in a parking lot. John checked the oil and it was about gone...and we had left a steady trail of oil on the road behind us. We dumped 7 quarts of oil in just two miles! Carson was heartbroken. He had been such a big help in loading the trailer and packing up, he fully understood the work that went into this trip. I was trying to think of anyway to salvage our trip, including camping in our driveway...not quite the same.

John called his "buddy" to come and tow our trailer home and we'd call a tow truck for our truck. A couple minutes later we received a call from this same friend saying he was going to tow our truck home with his 1-ton dualle and would then give John this same truck to use for the weekend. We were happily shocked. No one is allowed to drive his truck, so the fact that he trusted John enough to take it was flattering.

Anyway, I sat in this parking lot for 6 1/2 hours!!! Well, we went for walks along the trail, but stayed close by so no one would steal our pile of stuff on the sidewalk or try to park too close to the trailer and trap us in. Oh it was fun. Finally I let the boys watch a movie, eat popcorn and cookies, while I entertained baby J on the bed. The time went by quick and it wasn't terrible, but wasn't the way I wanted to spend my day. At least we'd headed out early so we had the day to get everything in order.

When John finally returned we hooked up and headed up the mountain as fast as we could. Thank heavens for powerful flashlights because it was dark as could be up there. Once we reached the vicinity of where we wanted to be I jumped out of the truck and would check various spots to see if anyone was there. Thankfully we know the area well and know where to look for spots so eventually I found us a great spot with an awesome view. We pulled in and got everything set up and sat down to enjoy our traditional first night Brats and Doritos. Baby J was exhausted so I quickly put him to bed. John and I planned to sit out by the fire with the boys for a couple hours, but turns out the boys were tired as well and begged me to set up their beds for them. I think they were both asleep in record time.

In the morning we had sausage, waffles, hash browns, eggs, you know, the usual. I let Jameson crawl around and he quickly became filthy. The trip was rough on him because he couldn't just go explore. I'm officially excited for him to be walking next summer. He took EIGHT steps in physical therapy the other day. He is sooo close to walking-just very cautious. It's okay, because I've enjoyed him so much.

Katie and Kurt came up Friday night. It's fun to have friends who will drop everything and come camping if they possibly can. We don't have a lot of couple friends so having ones who love to camp as much as us is wonderful.

We took our new puppy with us and he was so good and so much fun. We've only had him for a couple weeks and he is the best puppy! So far we're concerned with how it's affecting Jameson's masto, especially since he's had a surge of new spots, so we're not sure if we can keep him, but I'm giving it some time since it'll break the boys hearts to sell him. I even love this puppy and I am not an animal lover. It makes me sad since we carefully picked this dog since he doesn't shed and is hypoallergenic. We just never know how anything will affect baby J.

In our exploring we found an old (and I mean decades and decades old) Ford truck just sitting in the middle of the forest. Go figure. It's been used as target practice and the boys had so much fun playing in there. They even went down one night and lit a lantern to watch it shine through the bullet holes.

Katie and Kurt left Saturday night, which gave us a chance to really focus on the boys. It wasn't as chilly as we would have liked, but the weather was gorgeous. The truck needs some type of new seal on the block which is covered under warranty, so hopefully it'll be up and running again in time for one more trip in early November....brrrr!

 

I wish so much that my baby J was in this photo with us.

Jameson pretended to drive for a half an hour. He loved it.

John helped the boys climb up to this hunter's platform. It made me a bit nervous since it was so high, but it was solid.

I hate that I have to keep baby J away from the puppy.

I would pay big money for a cute shot of my three boys. Baby J is not much for picture taking. I wanted a picture in their matching Columbia jackets so badly since they are the only matching jackets (or clothing of any kind) that I've found in sizes for all three of them.