Summer’s swan song heard in Uintas By Dustin Hughes [email protected] The morning of Aug. 22, the crown of Leidy Peak in the High Uintas northwest of Vernal glistened with new-fallen snow. It was, said the campground host, the first snowfall of the season. The autumnal equinox – the official start of fall and end of summer – was not to come for another month on the calendar, on Sept. 22. But in the high elevations of northeastern Utah, the snowfall on Aug. 22 marked the real end of the short summer. Perhaps coincidentally, only the day before students across the Uintah School District said goodbye to their summer vacations and returned to class for another year of learning. That conspicuous calendar date – the end of summer vacations, splash pad visits, barbecues and just hanging out with friends – was likely the reason the campground at Browne Lake was so deserted. Only a retired couple in an RV at the end of one loop, and an unknown person across the way who was never heard from nor sighted save for a puff of wispy white smoke each night and this reporter’s family were camping on the National Forest’s picturesque site. The days were warm – into the 70s – and marked by frequent afternoon thunderstorms. The nights dipped down into the low 40s, not nearly as cold as winter will get, but cold enough to see one’s breath at the start of the day and to make the morning coffee just as valuable for the warmth in the hands as the kick in the pants it delivered. Down on the Basin, temperatures were set to bounce back up into the 90s for highs – winter will be longer coming there – but up here, soon the lakes will be frozen over and the forest roads closed. Soon, hopefully, a healthy snowpack will blanket the Uintas, staving off another summer of drought. Soon winter will return. For now, only a brief and ethereal dusting of snow signaled the turning of another page in nature’s eternal calendar.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 22:15:04 +0000
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