Saturday, October 10, 2015

Provo River Falls and Mirror Lake, Kamas, Utah.

October 10th, 2015 at Provo River Falls and Mirror Lake, Kamas, Utah
‪#‎unplugged‬ ‪#‎terrysweekendadventures‬
The Mirror Lake Highway begins in Kamas, Utah and goes all the way up to Evanston, Wyoming. The falls are 24 miles east of Kamas, Utah up the highway, which follows the upper Provo River almost all the way up to where it starts in Wall Lake. As you go up the highway, you can see a change in the type of rocks that make up the mountains. The sides of the mountains look like bricks have just fallen off of them and made enormous piles that goes all the way to their flat tops. Because the rocks have broken up like that, it makes for a very cool hike up the Provo River Falls. Instead of just on big waterfall, there are multiple little falls that look as if they are running down staircases. There are small, sub 8 foot cliffs, that you can climb, but be careful of the wet areas that are extremely slippery. During the spring, the canyon gets very full, but during the late summer and fall you can get down in the canyon. Because the water is so low, it creates pools that have tiny fish.
We walked and climbed about a quarter mile up the canyon and then came back down the opposite side. We didn't even notice that there was an obervation area to overlook the largest cascade until we were nearly back to the parking lot. We recommend skipping the touristy observation area and look at them up close.
Mirror Lake is only about 15 minutes up the highway, so we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon there. There is plenty of parking and camping around the lake, so finding a spot for us wasn't difficult at all. The main parking lot is only about 200 feet from the lake and there is an very easy path that you can take that circles the entire lake. Part of the path is a boardwalk that takes you over some marshy grasslands. Walking at a leisurely pace will only take about 30 minutes to get around the lake. There are also signs for several other trails that will take you out into the woods and surrounding area.
We tried our hand at fishing and caught a lot of moss. Fishing is supposedly good in the lakes along the highway, but we didn't manage to catch any. It didn't look like anyone else was having any better luck so it could have just been the time of day.
On the drive home, we saw a number of deer right next to the highway and one that nearly was hit by the car in front of us. The highway also goes through an open cattle range, so watch out for the livestock. This was by far the most fun we have had at any waterfall so far and look forward to exploring the rest of the Mirror Lake Highway.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)