Manti-La Sal with Uncle

Uncle Stephen was kind enough to invite me along on an ATV adventure in the Manti-La Sal Mountains above Mayfield, Utah with him and mythical J. Wayne Francis. The day was beautiful and the outing was extremely enjoyable. We had a small cock up early on when we lost J. Wayne, but our mad tracking skills led us up the Beaver Creek Trail where we eventually found him. We had a great return route planned, but lingering winter snow and fallen trees on trails, made us return to base by the way we had come. That, however, is always fine because, from the other direction, everything has a completely different perspective. Up on top the land flattens out and seems to go on forever as it sweeps away in every direction. The high altitude, at about 10,000 feet, meant that it was cool on a day that hit near 100 in the valleys below.

 DAT and SKT on the move

 False start up the road without J. Wayne

 Headed up the Beaver Creek Trail looking for J. Wayne

 Wild flowers galore

Mary's Nipple was in our view most of the day

 Up into the aspens

 Where the aspens meet the pines

 Back on track towards the top where we encountered J. Wayne

 By Woods Lake we had reconnected

 Reconsidering the route

 This beautiful canyon was supposed to be our route down

 You can't tell from the photo, but this trail over 

the cliff (see above) was almost straight down

 Because of fallen trees, we had to turn around at this creek and head 

back up: Uncle's new rig made the steep climb without a hitch

 At the top, the world spreads out forever

 Dickie does his thing

 The lake whose name I can't discover

 Our last chance to take our chosen route back down 

ended in a field of snow

 Island Lake from the summit

 These Manti-La Sal Mountains remind me of Cedar Breaks less the red

 The same trail down, but from the other direction was great

An unexpected field of color we almost missed

Uncle in his new rig

What a treat for old guys! Going to the tops of the mountains without hiking is wonderful. That's all for now.

OXO

D.