Sunday September 13, 2009-Priest Gulch RV Resort

Today we took a trip up to the Alta Lake which is about 30 miles away from our park and very high up in the mountains. As you can see from our GPS, it is over 12,000 feet high, and actually ended up being almost 11,300 feet above sea level. All of us were affected by the altitude, since we are all from the Gulf coast of Texas and not used to the thin mountain air up here.

This photo is along the mountain road to the lake at the site of an old abandoned mine. You can see some of the old houses, the road and of course the breathtaking mountains shrouded in clouds in the background.

This is a view of Alta Lake with the snow-capped peaks in the background. I'm not certain how large the lake is but I'm told that there are actually three lakes that are similar in size within easy walking distance of each other.

This is another view of the lake with a rock slide area behind it. This is called an alpine wall and apparently comes down to the edge of the lake.

Another breathtaking view of the lake and the mountains and snow behind it. This area is gorgeous but it was COLD! The thermometers showed 48 degrees, but with the wind and cloudy weather it felt much colder to us. As I said before, the altitude took its toll with us and we all suffered from the thin air.

A little duck came along and seemed to pose for me to take a picture of it. It didn't seem to be afraid of humans at all and just paddled along without a care in the world.

This was one of the first views of the lake. I can't say enough about this gorgeous area.

Still another view of the lake with a pine tree in the foreground. There were a surprising number of people camping in this area. One man who has been camping up here for about a week had his dog loose, but after we had a chat with him about his aggressive dog, he put her up inside his popup camper.

This is one shot of the second lake we went to today, Trout lake which is much closer to our park. Ricky and Dee had come to this lake before we went and caught their limit in a short time. Today we didn't have that kind of luck and only one fish was actually caught. Ricky and Harry both caught fish, but they got off before being landed. Dee and Judy didn't have any luck at all and didn't catch anything. I will have more photos of this lake in tomorrow's entry.

When we returned home, we fixed bacon and tomato sandwiches with some Bloody Mary and other "adult" beverages. I think most of us went back to our trailers and took naps and just rested up. We got together again about 6 when Ricky built a fire in his firepit. Harry and Judy fixed a peach cobbler that we all enjoyed. We were all still full from our late lunch so we didn't fix a supper meal. We sat out and visited until a rain shower put our fire out and we all went home.

So long.