Big Pack Mountain

On Friday, we trailered the horses south of Ouray, Utah (named after a Ute leader of the late 1800’s, now part of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation), and across the Green River to Willow Creek. This area is all BLM land, with a lot of oil and gas wells and a few active pumping units. We parked next to a bubbling spring that adjoins a small pond, saddled up, and headed out across a dry desert landscape.
The roads were sandy and allowed for easy cantering for miles at a time. In the first hour, we covered 10 miles.
After that, not only Daisy, but even the horses were ready to cool off by eating snow.

Our destination was Big Pack Mountain, at 6600 feet. At this time of year, we can’t go much higher without reaching a prohibitive amount of snow on the trails, so desert rides like this one are our best, and warmest, option.

We rode along this ridge. (Enlarged, you can see Steve, Boss and Daisy.)

This trio reached the top first.

From the high point, the view was of vast, wide open spaces, one of Utah’s greatest features.
On the way back, we had views of the High Uintas, our summer riding heaven.
Clocking in at 21 miles, 1600 feet elevation gain, in about 3.5 hours, this was our most ambitious ride so far this season.

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