High Uintas

GPX File
Google Earth

Blogspot apparently, doesn't like my actual content, so you'll have to scroll down to see it. Stupid WYSIWYG editors. It even PREVIEWS right!! Oh well...

This is the same clearing, from a different angle. From here, I'm kinda shooting back towards the way that I came. There were several people camping in this area, it looks like a good place TO be camping. I'm guessing that if the weather is nice, you'll usually find people here.

I almost missed the spot where the road splits and heads away to Strawberry Peak. (If you've got the GPS file, it's the waypoint marked as "Oops.") The road (trail) to Strawberry Peak was pretty darned rocky. There were a couple big mudholes, as well. It's definitely better suited to a four-wheeler than a motorcycle. I thought I'd dump it more than once in either the mud or the rocks.

After clearing all the muck and rocks, and once I got close to the summit, it broke out of the trees into just beautiful views of all the surrounding areas. Here, Strawberry Reservoir is visible in the distance. The area was some of the most beautiful I've ridden through. Turned out to be some of the most treacherous as well.

This is looking back through what I just rode up to get to the previous picture's location. Doesn't look too bad, does it? This spot wasn't. Hardpack, and only a few rocks. Prior to this location was pretty bad, though.

Sheep! This is RIGHT beneath the summit of Strawberry Peak. I was more than a little surprised to see sheep way up here, but they apparently weren't surprised to see me. They kept their eyes on me, but didn't show any signs of getting agitated and wanting to run off. They probably see a lot of ATVs come through this area during hunting season.

Looking north-ish past the sheep into one of the beautiful vistas beyond. I was pretty darn pleased with myself for choosing this area to go riding in.

Now, this part of the trail was quite nice. But above and below this was pure hell. If you're following along with the GPS file, there's a way point marked "OMG!" And yeah, the portion of the trail between Strawberry Peak and the waypoint marked as "Junction" is just awful. Nothing but softball-sized rocks (and bigger) and the trail is positively packed with them. I ended up sliding sideways down the trail more than once as I struggled to keep the wheels below me. I don't think I'll probably ever take this route again.

The trees were gorgeous. Green, yellow, red, orange... You name it, I pretty much saw it.

This is actually taken some point past the Junction waypoint. I had initially planned on going south at the Junction (a route I've been on before) but I still had plenty of daylight so opted to follow a trail that I had laid out for a future ride. This was taken out east of the Junction waypoint. Not sure how far... I actually did end up taking the entire extra route that I was going to use later. Took less time than I thought it would.

This is still somewhere between the "Junction" waypoint and the "WTF" waypoint. Not sure where. I need to get a GPS that can plug into my camera and automatically load the lat/long into the picture.

THIS was actually taken past the "WTF" waypoint. What was the WTF? Well, at the point I hit the WTF waypoint, there was a sign saying no off-road vehicles. I figured that since my bike is also street legal, that wouldn't be a problem. So yeah, I just kept on truckin. I did see a HUGE elk. He ran parallel with me about 15 yards away before crossing in front of me and running off. Had at least 7 points on each side. Some hunter sure missed his chance. I'm glad I saw the elk and a hunter didn't. Anyway, I belive this is Hobble Creek, and it runs very close to the road.

The sides of the ride were just littered with campsites like this one. It'd be a great place to go out camping some time. Not during hunting season, though.

MORE TREES! This was taken from the same spot as the campsite pic above.

The cows and their corral. No cows in it, but there are a LOT of cows on the road between the WTF waypoint and the end of the ride. Be on your guard. Also, watch out for trucks barrelling down the road around the corners.

The road ahead. At this point I was nearly out of the canyon. The road was (obviously) paved, and it was nice to make up some time as the sun was going down. I still made it back to Orem with a bit of daylight left. I definitely pushed my luck, though.

This was really a stellar ride. One of the most beautiful I've been on, and certainly one of the scariest. I really don't think I could be convinced to come down this side of Strawberry Peak again. At least not without a lighter bike and much better tires. It's a miracle I never dropped the bike as it is. I cam mightly close more than once. If you've got excess testosterone you need to burn off, though, this might be a good ride for you. Make sure you bring your camera and a full complement of your protective gear. You just might need both.