Strawberry Valley - 8/30/14

The Strawberry Reservoir is located about 20 miles south on Highway 40 of the Mountain Valley RV Resort where we are staying and is within the Uinta National Forest. The area was first explored by Europeans in 1776 during the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition in 1776. Below is a plaque at the Visitor Center.

View of the valley from the Visitor Center.

The Uinta National Forest was initially part of the Uinta Forest Reserve so designated in 1897 by Grover Cleveland. The name is derived from the Ute word for pine forest. The Uinta National Forest merged with the Wasatch-Cache National Forest in 2007.

The original dam was built in 1922 by the U.S. Reclamation Bureau. In 1972 a larger dam was built by the bureau about 8 miles upstream expanding the reservoir to 4 times the original size of 283,000 acre-feet. Today, the Strawberry Reservoir is one of the best trout fisheries in the western United States where trophy-sized  rainbows and cutthroats are found.

Views at Strawberry Bay Recreation Complex.

Marina on left.

Osprey on mast.

Additional views.

Wildflowers.

En route back to Heber City, we stopped at Daniels Summit where there is a lodge, restaurant, general store, and gift shop. Loved the huge bear at the entrance to the lodge.

Beautiful log home with large aspen stand located across the road from the lodge.

Continuing north on Highway 40, we noticed that the leaves here are already starting to change!

Autumn will be here soon!

Final shot of valley.

This was a quick scenic drive and we enjoyed seeing the reservoir and marina. Of course, that always makes John yearn for our boat, Destiny, that we had on the Chesapeake Bay (and sold when we decided to become full-time RVers).

The Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest is huge, 1.6 million acres, primarily in Utah (81.2%), Idaho (16.4%), and Wyoming (2.4%). We hope to see more of it before we depart Tuesday for the Grand Canyon.

Website: www.fs.usda.gov/uwcnf