Tour of 8 Lakes

We took the whole family on a backpacking trip in the Uinta Mountains starting at the Crystal Lake Trailhead. We hiked two miles in to Long Lake where we set up camp. No one was camped by us or anywhere near the lake that we could see. Most hikers go in farther, but since we had little kids and a late start, we only made it this far before we were in danger of losing daylight. It turned out to be a great campsite with a ready made fire pit. Why didn't we bring marshmellows?! or Bratwurst?!

The next day we hiked a big loop (6 miles) and saw a lot of lakes. Island Lake, Fire Lake, Duck Lake, Pot Lake, Weir Lake, and Marjorie Lake were the main lakes we saw along with a few various unnamed ponds. We saw some of the lakes by accident as the trail wasn't always clear, and we ended up taking a longer loop than we expected. But such is the nature of most Graf hikes.





This was Rachel's favorite way to travel. We fully intended to stay two nights, but that evening the weaker members of our family (all of us over the age of 10) started to reflect that since we'd seen all we wanted to see, that it sure would be nice to go home to our own warm, comfortable beds. However, the younger ones really wanted to stay, so we decided to tough it out. Very shortly thereafter an unfortunate incident occurred which resulted in the loss of our entire supply of toilet paper. Now whether this incident was intentional or not (the unnamed culprit, who's name rhymes with 'trysta', claims it was an accident), we will never really know. But the truth remains that this was a camp with 5 girls. Although we love being close to nature, if that closeness involves using leaves instead of t.p., then we are out of there. We had just enough time to pack up and get to the trailhead before it got dark.

Here's the two youngest hikers headed for home.
End of the trail...almost.

We thought we would reward ourselves with shakes at a drive-in in Kamas. We got there at 9:30 on a Saturday night, but it was closed. Ice cream at the grocery store seemed the next best option, but the grocery store was also closed! Not having ice cream when you really need it--now that's roughing it!