The following was their experience, written by John...
We took Grandpa Roland Powell along since we were returning to one of my favorite fishing spots as a kid. I stayed up until after 3am to finish packing all of the backpacks with the necessary gear. We left Wellsville Thursday morning (August 8th) to make the 4+ hour drive. Along the way we could see lots of dark clouds above the Uinta Mountains so we decided to just camp in Yellowstone Canyon (in Utah, not the national park) in one of Grandpa's tents.
We picked up Grandpa in Altamont, where Grandma dropped him off with his gear. We headed north from there, through Mountain Home along a paved road until we were halfway across the Ute Indian Reservation lands. We then started on a dirt road which took us up into the forest and into Yellowstone Canyon. The road was bone shaking rough, which required us to drive much slower than normal. Along the road Grandpa was able to tell about helping to build the road when he used to be a part of the Utah National Guard. They were taken up there for training and he was even able to take a helicopter ride up to Moon Lake. He even pointed out a rock with they blew up to make the dirt road. They drilled holes and filled it with nitrogen and dynamite to ignite it. We were able to see the large rock which had been split apart.
As we pulled down into Yellowstone Canyon, the boys learned that Grandpa Powell used to drive from Altamont up to Crystal Springs Ranch to home-teach a family. Grandpa used to also ride his horse from Altamont all the way up into the Uintas when he was a kid. The boys saw the Ranger Guard Station where I stayed a few times during one summer while working for the forest service. I was doing some work up Hell's Canyon between Mill Park and Cow Park. I loved working up in the mountains for the US Forest Service, which I did for two or three summers.
We drove through a few campgrounds and as we arrived further up the canyon. It started to rain, so we continued to drive up to the end of the road and then back to the Riverside Campground. There was only one other group in that campground. We found a nice spot for a tent near the Yellowstone River. We waited for a short time until the rain to subsided then threw on some rain ponchos due to the light sprinkles coming down and started to setup camp. First we went fishing on the river then cooked up our dinner with a Jet Boil backpacking stove (wow, that thing heats water FAST). The boys learned how to use a fly fishing pole and also a spinner on the river. They caught several fish and kept three of them which we cleaned and saved for breakfast the next morning. Zach pointed out several purple wildflowers along the river banks.
The tent was missing a pole and so we improvised in setting up the tent with some poles from the shade. That night the rain storm cleared out and at one point Quin woke me up as Mother Nature was calling him at 2 am. Quin enjoyed this time because he was able to see a shooting star. The starry sky was amazing with so many stars visible – much more than can be seen at home. Quin even pointed out the Milky Way.
We all slept well that night. I felt quite refreshed after almost nine hours of sleep, more sleep than I had received in a long time, especially more than the four hours from the night before. We woke up to blue sky with only a few small clouds. We loaded up our backpacks and made the drive from Yellowstone Canyon and up Hell's Canyon, to the Long Park Trailhead, near the top of Petty (aka the area near Lake Fork Mountain). Along the drive up Hell’s Canyon, Grandpa told of hunting with his dad, Cloyd Powell, in the canyon. They once shot a buck deer in a rocky clearing above the road and were able to clean it and roll it straight down to the road. He thought that it was a five point buck which they shot.
Grandpa said that the first time they found Toquer Lake is when he was hunting for elk. They had gotten up on one of the baldies (a rocky mountain peak, devoid of trees) and were looking down on Toquer Lake. As a youth, me and my family made several trips to Toquer Lake. We would fish along Fish Creek until we reached the lake, catching lots of pan sized fished (or smaller). We would usually catch a few healthy 12-14 inch fish in the lake. The trail was difficult to find, but after many years we were able to piece together where the different segments were. The trail was then much easier to find and follow. It seems that there has been a lot more traffic up to the lake over the last few years. It was funny though that we ran into four guys who had been up in the area for four days looking for Toquer Lake. We saw them about less than a quarter mile from the trailhead. The group hadn't found where the trail started after a small meadow. They found water, but never did find the lake, even after trying to use a map and compass.
Of course, me and my Dad were able to easily find the trail and follow it directly to the lake. There were a few logs across the trail, but most of the timber had been cleared away. The trail is quite rocky, so we had to watch almost every step that we took. Zach and Quin did a great job of hiking, even with their 15 pound packs on their backs. My pack was probably a little over 55 pounds and Grandpa’s pack was probably 25 pounds (+/-). The temperature was great for hiking. Grandpa used our telescoping walking poles which helped him keep his balance, and the boys each found a nice pair of sticks to use as their walking poles.
At Toquer Lake there was an excellent camping spot just downstream of the outlet. It was on the outskirts of a small meadow and next to the trees and rocky terrain. We found a soft, flat, grassy spot to setup our tent. An existing campfire was built with great logs to sit on for three sides of it. Someone had even placed a large flat rock on the corner of the logs as a table. It worked great for cooking our meals. We arrived and set up our tent quickly before it rained. The temperature was dropping because a storm was coming in. We headed to the lake to fish for a short time. Grandpa caught a healthy 12-13 inch fish, which was kept and later cooked up for dinner. It was soft and delicious after cooking it in aluminum foil in the fire.
While at the lake it started to rain and we heard far off thunder. We put on our rain gear and headed for the tent as it started to pour. We hung out in the tent for almost two hours until the storm let up and the thunder and lightning went away. We were all a little bored, but played some guessing games, read from the scriptures, and even played a couple of games on my phone. Of course there was no cell phone coverage up there, which was nice for me not to worry about work at all. It was a little scary for a little while when the lighting and thunder came within a half a mile or so from our camp. The thunder would echo across the bald mountains and timber canyons. Quin was the most nervous. He does not like loud noises at all. (He even wears ear plugs while watching fireworks.) The temperature dropped to around 50 degrees, but everyone stayed warm and dry.
After the rain finally let up we gathered some firewood, built a warm fire, and cooked up our dinners. We filtered some water from the nearby Fish Creek, which meanders out of Toquer Lake through the meadow, between the large rocks and trees. The boys chased a few fish around as they tried fishing with a spinning rod. After dinner we were able to fish for short time until it became dark. We went back to camp and enjoyed the fire until it died down to embers. Zach and Quin decided that it was best to hang their food and smelly stuff away from camp. We searched in the dark and found a nice branch in a grove of trees across the stream from our camp, and then we hit the sack.
The next morning we woke early to frost on the outside of the tent. There was a nice mist across the meadow from our camp spot and the lake was beautiful (had to walk a couple hundred yards to see the lake). The sunrise was glowing as it started to shine across the tops of the trees and into the meadow. We quickly packed up our gear, since there were a few white puffy clouds around. In the high country you never know when it will rain and those white puffy clouds can quickly gather to form large grey thunder clouds. We dried out our rain gear and attempted to dry the tent, but it wasn’t going to dry very fast so we eventually packed it away still a little wet.
Grandpa headed out with the boys, while I finished packing the tent and fishing poles. Just after hitting the trail I found a pile of bear scat, so it was good that we had hung our food. We all made good time as we hiked out (2 hours for just approximately a 3.1 mile hike); including stopping on the trail above Fish Creek to eat wild raspberries and to take a potty break.
We arrived back at the trail head and covered our packs with a tarp in the back of the truck just in time before it started to rain. We then drove over to the Mill Park area where me and my family used to camp a lot in my youth. We looked over the rocky point down into Cow Park where we saw a herd of cows grazing.
Many times as a youth, me and my family (Grandpa Cloyd Powell family, Eschlers, Larsons, and even the Remingtons) would hike into Toquer Lake while we were at our annual family reunion in the trees directly north of Mill Park. There was a small clearing in the trees which was secluded from the roadway. Many great memories were had there camping, climbing trees, chasing squirrels, watching wildlife, eating, digging a latrine, cooking directly from the fire, playing games, collecting rocks, keeping watermelon in the snow banks, and playing with cars and toys in an old, rotten, fallen down tree.
Afterwards we drove down the canyon and saw two – two point bucks in the lower part of the canyon. We continued our journey to Ballard (next to Roosevelt), ate lunch, and then made our way back to Wellsville to the much warmer and drier weather.
One thing that we noticed is that the Uinta Mountains were quite green and beautiful. This was surprising compared to the bone dry landscape along the Wasatch Front and Cache Valley where there isn't a lot of irrigation water. Even the landscape around Altamont was fairly green. The air was much clearer, which seemed to help me recover quickly from a cold that I started with earlier in the week.
When asked what their favorite part of the backpacking trip was, Quin said catching a fish and starting a fire after the rain storm, and Zach liked catching some fish.
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