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.This calf was a little slow to seek shelter. (At least I think it's an elk calf... I don't claim to be an expert, and it was a long way away.)
We saw it briefly in the open before it met with its mom and melted into the spruce forest.Back at the trailhead, we had a view of another snow-covered mountain:
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.
