Every year, we ride in the Reader Creek drainage at least once. John Reader grazed sheep in the area in the early 1900's. Thus, the name.
When we hiked up Reader Creek last week, Steve and Daisy stopped to check out this pond.
Most of the caddis in the pond had made homes in bits of grass, something we hadn't seen before:
Steve removed one from its home to identify it.
Unless they decided to share, one of them had to build himself another grass casing.
She had apparently been sitting on a nest, which you can see hidden in the tall grass on the left in the photo above. The eggs are shown below:
Any guesses on the bird's identity? This bird resembled the mother, but I'm not sure it's the same species:
Reader Creek is a pretty little stream:
Looking down into its clear water, I spotted this trout. From its markings (black spots and faint pars marks), it appears to be a native cutthroat, although I can't see the red line on its throat.
We didn't fish, but someone has been here before us. Unfortunately, they left their garbage behind:
The Reader Creek trail, up the Whiterocks drainage north of the Uintah Basin and southeast of the High Uinta Wilderness area, always makes a fine hike or ride this time of year. The trailhead is about 10,000 feet, and the ground can be marshy near the stream. 
Look closely, and you'll see lots of diminutive wildflowers. Here's an alpine forget-me-not, much smaller than a fingernail: 
Alpine laurel is a beautiful flower, of the heath family:
This American globeflower is showy, too:
Daisy kept smelling the air, scenting elk:
We heard them. First, there was a bugling sound, (yes, I know that's usually the sound bull elk make in the mating season, but that's what we heard) then short high-pitched calls. Finally we saw a group of elk cows in the trees.
We saw it briefly in the open before it met with its mom and melted into the spruce forest.
I believe this is Chipeta Peak (12,200 feet), named after the wife of Chief Ouray, a Native American of the Ute tribe. Here they are together:
Their Uncompahgre band, along with other Ute groups, was relocated from Colorado to northeastern Utah in 1880. At one time, all of the southern Uintas was part of a reservation granted to the Ute Native American tribe, but they lost a large portion of this land in subsequent treaties. After Chief Ouray's death in 1880, Chipeta continued as a leader of her people, living on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation near Fort Duchesne, Utah, until 1924. Chipeta was born a Kiowa Apache, but was raised by the Utes. Her name means "White Singing Bird" in the Ute language.
Daisy, for her part, fixed her fervent gaze on the stream, fantasizing about fetching:
For a challenge, Steve tried fishing from Boss's back, very carefully. 
Boss was fearful of the fly rod at first, thinking it was a fiery fiend, but he soon finished fidgeting around the field and faced the stream, figuring there was no point in fighting his fickle fellow.
Steve went back to finding fulfillment through fish, but with Daisy and Boss's assistance. With two sharp-eyed friends on the lookout, how could Steve fail to find trout aplenty?
We recently rode up to an isolated lake at 10,800 feet (3300 m), making our way through a half mile of pristine forest to get there. The lake is too shallow for fish, so there's not enough foot or horseback traffic to establish a trail. Steve pointed to a dark spot in the dwarf willows growing above the opposite shore. To me, it looked like a blob, but Steve was sure it was a moving blob.
A moose.
Wait. What's that emerging from the bushes? 
Yes, it was mama, right there near her youngster.
After staring in our direction for a few minutes, they hustled away. Baby kept looking back over his shoulder, wondering who had come visiting and why Mama thought he should be afraid.
To view other fascinating critters, click here.
Only 1.6 miles from where Reader Creek crosses the Chepeta Lake road, the creek drops over a sheer quartzite cliff for a fall of about 30 feet.
Steve checks out the creek above the falls. Daisy really wants to join him.
Columbines cluster on a rock ledge, fed by spray from the falls and the soil they can gather from cracks in the quartzite.
We followed an easy and half-hazardly cairned trail to the falls. On the way back, we make our way upstream along Reader Creek. Steve catches and releases a few cutthroat. The number of brook trout who jumped on the hook outnumbered cutts 10 to 1. 
Steve throws her a tiny Brook trout, which she shakes and spits out.
She thanks Steve anyway, with a little kiss on the ear. 
For views of a plethora of fascinating worlds, click here.
Many trails in the Uinta Mountains have few, if any, signs. The sign above indicates where the trail is supposed to go, but following a trail is sometimes problematic.
When a trail is invisible, there are occasional cairns, usually 2-3 rocks on top of each other, not huge ones like this. Perhaps the boy scouts needed a project?
We began our hike along Reader Creek at 10,200 feet (3100 m). Good thing we're relatively accustomed to the high country, or breathing while alive would have been challenging, not to mention breathing while hiking. (Just kidding. It's really not overly difficult when you're acclimated.)
Daisy had a fantastic time running in the high meadows.
The creek has lovely cascades. The DWR (Utah Department of Wildlife Resources) elecroshocked Reader Creek a few years ago to remove the non-native brook trout. Supposedly they have replaced the brookies with native cutthroats, but we didn't see many fish of any kind.
We took a break at one of the many lakes in the high meadows above Reader Creek. 
The meadow near the creek and lakes has a six inch cushion of spongy growth. Stepping on it is like walking on air. I suspect there is a botanical term for this kind of growth, but I don't know it. 
Dark clouds moved in by early afternoon, which kept the hike cool. We walked 7 miles with no raindrops, enjoying a fantastic alpine day.
