For Vince’s 23rd birthday we embarked on an ambitious adventure: drive to the Utah/Wyoming border to hike the highest point, King’s Peak in the High Uintas Wilderness. Unfortunately we failed.

Days before the trip we still could not decide on where to go. Yosemite was out because we were sick of California. White Sands were out because of no desire to go to New Mexico. And Yellowstone was out because of severe winter weather. While googleing trips I found a small blog entry on King’s Peak; standing at 13,528 feet I figured it wouldn’t be much of a push since earlier we had conquered Humphrey’s Peak. Plus, it is a backpacking trip that can be extended for however long we saw fit. So with a couple of days remaining before we left I went to thrift stores to find wool/rain jackets/anything warm. Monday morning at 12 am we packed up our 45 degree sleeping bags, ill-fitting warm clothing, and our naive belief that we were prepared and headed off to Utah via the I-17 towards Flagstaff.

Vince drove while I slept and soon I woke up and we were in Flagstaff. We got out to get gas and it was cold and windy! I thought to myself “This is not a good sign”, but of course we were not ready to give up because of a bit of cold in Flagstaff. Once back on the road I fell asleep again and didn’t wake until the sun was rising and we were already in Utah. Utah was beautiful with the leaves changing colors and the many small towns.

It was truly exciting driving through the small towns and seeing everyone wake up and going to jobs. We really started to get pumped for our hike. Once all the commotion was over I fell asleep again. When I woke again I found a nervous Vince slowing down to the side of the road. We were being pulled over! The cop was nice enough but took a long time. After the drama I took over driving until Wyoming to let Vince rest and calm down. The drive to Wyoming was uneventful just a stop at a Utah REI to get a map of the area we were heading towards.

Once we crossed the border of Wyoming I was thrilled, I have an odd fascination with little visited places especially since the entire state of Wyoming has less people than the city of Phoenix! I woke up Vince and did a cowboy yell because of the state of excitement I was in. We didn’t get to stay in Wyoming for very long because to reach the High Uintas Wilderness we had to do a loop back into Utah.

The skies looked like snow as we were hopping on the gravel road to the wilderness but we were both too excited to care. The mountain loomed in the distance covered in snow and we both began to get a little giddy. Would we be able to pull off backpacking in cold weather with our meager winter gear?

We were the only ones camped out. The only other car there appeared to have been there for a while and the drivers were probably halfway up the mountain. “Oh well, we’ll stick around and test out the night”.

Dinner consisted of some freeze dried food which actually was quite delicious and a comfy fire. Once the fire began to die and we became colder we jumped in our sleeping bags with all of our clothes on and prepared for a cold night. The temperatures were expected to be in the high 20s and at first we were sleeping happily and comfy. Around 10 o’clock we woke to light rain and freezing butts. We both tried to get back to sleep, but I was creeped out and there was no way that we could warm up. Reluctantly we dissembled the tent and stuffed it into Vince’s trunk. We hopped into the car, backed away and drove through the forest feeling saddened by our failure before we had even started. But things were not completely terrible! We got some soft snow that was lovely while safely driving with the heat on.

Driving back through Wyoming was quiet and calm. The highway was pitch black with an occasional billboard and we drove for two hours trying to find a hotel! That goes to show you that Wyoming really is a small state. We plan to go back to King’s Peak and truly conquer the beast but we are waiting for June which is the ideal time to go.

Some words of advice to those who think that they can takle cool weather with nothing: you can’t do it! Get a properly rated sleeping bag (ours were 45 degrees with a liner and that did not help at all!) and have excellent and lightweight winter clothing (layers! windproof/rainproof jacket! a shell! gloves! beanie!).

Stay tuned for the next part of our adventure: Driving through Wyoming! *more exciting than it sounds*