Fly-Fishing: Big Sky of the Uinta Mountains

The nearly 2 billion year old rock core of the Uinta Mountains is surrounded by a younger set of sedimentary hogbacks. It is between these tilted layers that this "big sky" valley opens the mountains to a series of broad meadows and a less cramped feel. In most of the Uintas, the streams cut straight through this outer shell, however, here, briefly the river runs among the eskers and behind the hogback before cutting through.

What you don't see (or hear) was the pounding rain that had me put a pillow over my head at 11:30 pm the first night. No sleep and the kind of storm to raise the water and flood the low camp that I so enjoy - along the old river-ford road. Even had the lightning storm stopped, sleep wasn't likely until after moving to higher ground - which was done in the heaviest of the storm. Good move - the USGS gauge shows a tripling of the flow which came within four inches of topping the bank. The rise was from under 100 cfs to over 350 cfs. Beautiful "iffy" mornings with lumpy clouds - and rainy afternoons. The video came together well even with short time on the water each day.