To Find Solitude and Beauty, Thank the Sheep?

Vic and I just returned from a week in the mountains of Utah, and we were blessed to be in some of the most beautiful country of God's glorious creation. We left on Saturday fully intending to stay a day or two at different locations though out the Northern Utah area. However, we set up camp at Fishlake in the Fishlake National Forest and stayed for the entire week. The Lake offers a number of great camp sites and we choose the Mackinaw camp site as it offered the best locations at the edge of the Aspen trees. (And showers!)

We set up camp on Saturday evening and were treated to a mother deer and her baby right at the back of our camp site. That was just the beginning as we were able to see many, many deer while staying in the area.

We spent 6 nights in the same camp site as each day we explored around the Fishlake area; Johnson Reservoir, Fremont Creek, and Mill Meadow. We found wonderful fishing spots along the Fremont River and meadows in the high country. We fished creeks as high as 11,000 feet and I caught the largest fish of my life. I caught a 36 inch Tiger Muskie, a hybrid cross between muskellunge and northern pike, and Vic tried to help me bring it out of the creek, but it had teeth! When she saw the number and size of teeth, she lost interest quickly. We did manage to get a couple of pictures while in the water. I had never heard of this kind of fish and was caught off guard, catching such a large fish in a mountain stream.

Most of our trip was spent exploring new areas and taking great pictures. Vic loves her new Canon and the telephoto lens came in so handy. If you would like to see some of the pictures (click here.)

Ok so what about the title; "Thank the Sheep?" The area that we visited was made possible by the protection of the National Forest Service under the direction of President Roosevelt in 1907 in response to the local citizens. Over grazing of the mountains by transient bands of sheep was crowding out the domestic stock belonging to valley residents. Over grazing damaged watersheds, resulting in flash floods that damaged the communities and affected the irrigation lands. So if it had not been for the sheep, we would not have the 1,461,228-acre Fishlake National Forest that we have today. And, we would not have had the fun and refreshing we had as a result of the "sheep".