trout creek guard station - part 1

Up until last weekend I couldn't have told you when the last time was I went camping, but now, after last weekend, the clock has been reset - we went camping last weekend!  After dropping B off at the kennel, we drove east nearly all the way across the state on Utah-40, passing through the teeny towns of Fruitland, Duchesne, Bridgeland, Myton and Roosevelt, plus a whole lot of nuthin', to get to Vernal, Utah, which is near enough to Dinosaur National Monument that every other shop and motel had a dinosaur motif going on.  Then we drove north from Vernal for twenty miles on a paved road (191), and then northwest for another twenty miles on dirt roads until we got to the Trout Creek Guard Station in Ashley National Forest, in the Uintas range.

Trout Creek Ranger Station, elev. 9300

Built in the early 1930s (along with all the other Forest Service ranger/guard stations in the area, only a couple of which still survive), the TCGS sits at an elevation of 9,300 feet, at the northern end of Trout Creek Park, a verdant cow pasture with many creeks and streams and a population of range cows, both curious and cautious about us.  The supercute (and clean) cabin has two rooms and an excellent porch (I love porches), is plumbed and has a shower although the water is currently turned off, a propane stove and fridge, solar-powered lights, bunkbeds and a double futon couch, a kitchen table with four chairs, a woodstove inside and fire-pit outside, screens on the windows and plenty of dishes and silverware of varying condition.  There was firewood stacked on the porch and more filling half of the garage behind the cabin - H was immediately in heaven and started chopping wood for a campfire as soon as we'd unloaded.

Fenceline art shot

Other outbuildings include a small barn and an outhouse, both of the same vintage as the cabin and garage, and a newer vault toilet, as well as a split-rail corral in the woods and a larger barbed wire fenced pasture.  There were cowpies everywhere, so we had to watch where we stepped as we explored, finding a hiking trail out back and a quickly running, clear stream, perfect to use for washing hair and dousing campfires.  The temperature had dropped from 88 in Vernal to 59 as we headed into the forest, the sun mostly out but dark clouds building to the north/northwest.

Looking west over the little barn 

to Leidy Peak (photo taken Monday a.m.)

H built an incredible campfire, lighting it with one match and using neither newspaper nor lighter fluid.  We ate our al fresco dinner of chicken and broccoli alfredo and had s'mores (and PBRs) as the sun went down and the incredible stars came out.  Sitting there, listening to the range cows moo, we could feel ourselves relaxing bit by bit; we'd just gotten to TCGS and we already loved it.