Ruth and Jewel Lake

Dave took a week off work for our "vacation from home." We decided with gas and lodging prices being what they are, we would stay at home and plan a week of day excursions for our family. On Monday, we went to 7 Peaks together and had a great time. On Tuesday, we headed off with my dad to the Uintah Mountains to hike, relax, and enjoy the surroundings. It is quite a drive to get to the trail head of Ruth Lake, and after a couple hours of driving, I was thinking that these mountains don't look that special and that maybe we should have spent less time in the car and just headed to Provo Canyon or Little Cottonwood Canyon. My impression changed as soon as I got out of the car. It is amazingly beautiful up there and so worth the drive! This first picture is before we started our hike. That is Mount Hayden in the background. I didn't know it when we started out, but we would use that mountain a lot to help us find our way back. Here are the kids on the snow. There were still many patches of snow still on the ground. In several places the snow was soft, and we would sink down past our knees!
Here is Bryce next to a small waterfall. There were streams everywhere created from the excess run-off from the snow melting. It was so relaxing to hear the trickling water along most of our hike.
Me and Lindsay. This is Ruth Lake. It was awesome! My favorite thing about the day was how isolated I felt. We only saw a few other people the entire day. This is also the only part of our hike that had an actual trail to follow. From here on out, it was climing rocks, and choosing our own way. At Ruth Lake we sat down and ate lunch while the kids skipped rocks.
After Ruth Lake, we headed out to find my dad's favorite lake: Jewel Lake. As soon as we left Ruth Lake, Lindsay wanted to be carried and ended up on my back for a while. We came to another lake we named "Frog Lake" because of the constant croaking from the frogs. We tried to find and catch a frog, but they would stop croaking as we got close so we couldn't see any frogs. This is me and Lindsay in front of Frog Lake.

My dad and Brayden decided to go scout for Jewel Lake while we hung out at this lake (I don't remember what we named this one). We probably saw 8 to 10 ponds or lakes throughout the day.
We found Jewel Lake! The kids liked climbing over the rocks, and throwing rocks in the water. It was so peaceful here, and I felt like I was in another world apart from it all.
The kids were determined to go in the water even though it was FREEZING! You can tell from Natalie's expression just how cold it was!
Natalie took a pretty good picture of me and Dave at Jewel Lake.
This is my dad, Lindsay, and Natalie on "Natalie's Rock." My kids loved that my dad thought to name a ton of landmarks after them!

This is the gang at "Lindsay's Brook" at Jewel Lake.
We headed from Jewel Lake up the brook for awhile. This is Jaron traversing a log.

Lindsay was getting tired, but the boys were dying to explore further. The boys went off with my dad, and Dave and I took the girls to head back. The boys found an area where an avalanche had come through earlier and left destruction in it path. We had tons of rocks we hiked over, and it was a good thing I had Dave with me, or I would have been pretty lost. We finally made it back to Ruth Lake and the trail! This is Dave and Natalie at Ruth Lake.
At the end of our day, driving out of the Uintah's, we decided to stop at the Provo Falls. They were a lot bigger than I expected, and I was glad we stopped to see them. Here is a picture of Brayden at the Falls even though the falls aren't in the pic. The kids also enjoyed the fairly tame chipmunks at the Falls.

We finished the evening by stopping at the Dairy Keen in Heber (the hamburger joint with the train). I had never been there before. We had a great time, and finished off our hamburgers with Grandpa treating us to shakes. What a fabulous, exhausting day! Dave has even agreed to go tent camping in the Uintah's next year. That tells you how awesome it was because Dave hates tents!