Saturday, August 30, 2014

Mirror Lake in the High Uintas

 Mirror Lake is 53 acres in size and sits at an elevation of 10,000 feet. Because of the shape of the lake, it is bigger than it first appeared. Snowmelt made for a squishy hike on the trail that encircles the lake. Some of the trail had boardwalk, but sometimes, even it was covered in puddles. (Should have worn my boots!)





That same moist soil supported thousands of mid-June "spring" wildflowers.




We recognized the ones above as the same trout lilies we so admire in a woodland in south Georgia.



The lake is home to three kinds of trout: rainbow, brook and tiger.


There were large, noisy squirrels in the woods around the shoreline.


And  birds we did not know. My best guess is this is one of the 940 different sparrows that popped up on a search.




This one was a flicker (woodpecker) but has orange on its tail feathers. Ours have yellow.


 Little streams rushed in to to replenish the lake's cold water.

 

While the weather conditions did not create the mirror on the lake, it was certainly a scenic and beautiful place. At one time while we were hiking, the wind came roaring in a rather alarming way, since we were on the far side of the lake from our car. It was calm as quickly as it had come.




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