I'd rather be camping...

Our church scheduled a Married Couples camp out at another "thirty minutes away" campsite, this time a place called Tanner Flats.
Little did we know that that the over 40 aged married wouldn't attend at all....we were the old folk amongst the 20 and 30 something crowd.
They brought their babies...one baby was three weeks old!
We were without an infant relative ourselves but made do with rocking other people's wee kinfolk.

The flowers this time of year are so beautiful...don't you love the freckled face on this lovely stream side flower?

 

I took this picture on my own; Bernie just saw it and said he had fished this hole the first day of camp without me.

Love the green cast of the water.
This particular stream is a "do not touch" stream.  It feeds the water needs down in the SLC and so campers are NOT ALLOWED to touch the water.
Psh.
Oh well. 

Well at least photography is allowed. 

The "main" wild flower event was up the road at Albion Basin. So many people were up enjoying the wildflowers there that there was no parking to be found!
We enjoyed another area nearby.

Not too shabby flower and view wise.

 

 

Mounds at the base of flowers catch my eye...

(The hiking menfolk immediately suggested that each other step on the ant hill. 
One of the women said "Jr. High...you guys are NOT in Jr. High any more!"
I am pleased to say that none of the guys took the dares to step in the ants.)

Totally love this photo. 

The babies were hiked along with us...this lass was four months old.

And this one was 13 months old.
The gear they have for babies now days just astonishes me.
We were told these were not really the coolest baby carriers...

Mama Deer doesn't mess with back packing her babies around...don't you love the baby spots?

The surrounding mountains apparently had trouble deciding what color to be.

We were hiking right under a ski lift.
 I liked the Alta signature motif of a stylized snowflake being part of the design.

Obviously an easy trail if the moms are in flip flops.

 I do love this view!
Switzerland...I get memories of Switzerland with each glance.

The super bright pink wild roses really knocked my eyes out.
No pale shy pink going on here.

Love this shot too...just wish I could have had my tripod for a clearer shot.
Might run up there again for another photo op.

The Indian Paintbrush growing with a perfect background. 

The pink tinged morning glory like flowers were growing just a foot away from the white version.

Wondering if they are different plants or ???

 

Nice little hike, nice little overnight camp out.
Our car is kind of staying loaded with our camp gear for now.
It is just so easy to pop up our tent, unroll our sleeping bags and spend the night up in the mountains right now.
Frankly I have little motivation to do much else.
Can you blame me?
Just wish my fellow camera toting bloggers could come along for a photo shoot day trip with me.
Seriously.

(If you think you might enjoy seeing the wild flowers photos full screen, click HERE and enjoy a slide show of the shots.)

Camping at Redman

Camping at Redman...a campground thirty minutes from our house and considerably higher up in the mountains.
When the weather is too warm at home, camping where the temps are twenty degrees cooler is just great!

We always try to get campsite #13 as it is has a nice stream running along beside it.

Even when afternoon rains are part of the deal, it is still nice to be up there.

Jeff's family got the site on Thursday night and stayed through Saturday day.
We came up Friday night, went home, came back on Saturday afternoon, when we pitched our tent.
We  then stayed through Monday morning.
Luke...camping for the first time at age 3 months.

No, he didn't actually get held every single minute.

Sometimes he just kicked back in a camp chair all by himself for awhile.

Bernie fished the stream and yes he did catch fish that he released.

When the sun broke through we took a few family memory shots.

 

 

Dad always seem to clown around with their kids, don't they?

 

(I should mention that the camp ground has about 50 sites and three were in use while we camped...)

 

Monk's Hood was blooming all over the grounds.
Can you see the "hood" and the praying hands inside robe sleeves?
Don't you just love flower names that describe other things and make you think?
Like Crane's Bill and Snapdragons...

We enjoyed the wildlife...and I rued the fact that I rarely had my telephoto lens on my camera when the wild life was most colorful and active.

 

This just in...squirrels are not locovores.
They will eat papaya which clearly is not grown anywhere in the mountains of Utah.

 

 

We really didn't do much while we camped.
Bernie read "Killing Lincoln", I had a new cell phone and was trying to figure out all the functions and loading aps.
But I did manage to get a little photo time in between rain showers.

Kind of interesting how on one side of the natural dam the water was frothy/scummy and on the other side it was crystal clear.

On Sunday Bernie and I decided to hike up to St. Mary's Lake, which is about two miles round trip and about 7,000 ft climb.
Or something like that.
As we were walking along a trail a fox came trotting along.
He left the trail and cut the switchback, blowing past us like he was totally used to seeing humans hikers.

 

A pink variety of Indian Paint Brush.

By the time we got to the lake the heavens had opened up.
That didn't stop Bernie from wetting a line...

 

It is awfully pretty up there...

 

 

Makes me think of photos I have seen of the coast of Maine.

Once puddles started forming I was ready to start hiking back.

 

The trail was rapidly becoming a stream bed!

 

Hiking with a telephoto lens on the camera body is just to heavy around my neck.
I did carry the telephoto lens with me, but was reluctant to switch to it in the rain.
So bear with me for the blurry bird photo...

 

Happily the bird kept hopping closer to me. 

I am guessing it was a baby due to the short wing feathers and the fluffy back.
Bernie thought it was a Pine Gross Beak.
I think it was an immature male Pine Gross Beak from what I could see once I looked it up later.
Pretty little guy...

 

The clouds kept training by over the mountain tops.
After the hike I was soaked...and hungry.

I didn't need to ask twice...lunch at the Silver Fork Lodge?
Absolutely...and it is only five minutes from our camp site.
We didn't even bother to go back to the camp site; we just rolled in "as is" fresh off the trail.

Soaking wet, no comb, no make up, no problem!

Hot tea and Turkey Chili never tasted so good.
The hot apple crisp for dessert was pretty darn good too.

Monday morning dawned sunny and bright.
The streamside flowers reflected beautifully in the water.

These flowers were in "bloom"..that is, they brown nubs pop open to a speck of orange and that is that.
I now call them "Goth Flowers" due to their lack of petals.
Some of them do have a faint chocolate scent!

Either you like them or you don't...I think they are interesting.

I still am in awe of the fact that I can go camping in a place that looks like this so close to home.

Or just go up for the day and evening for a campfire if we want!