Car Camping

I was invited by Kyle to go camping in the Uinta's with his friends. The plan was, I was going to meet up with them later that night because I wanted to spend some time with my sister before she left the next morning. I know there is no service up there so Kyle arranged to meet in Kamas (the city right before you go up in the Uinta's) at 11.

As it turned out, Kyle drove up with his friends in one car to meet up with Whitney. He left all of his stuff in that car and got in the car with Whitney so she didn't have to drive a lone. The guy didn't make sure they were following him and drove like a crazy person and they lost him and ended up driving the wrong way. So by the time I got to Kamas, they were just getting to Kamas  too (which worked out great for me). So we would go find the group together. Problem was, we all didn't know where Cliff lake was (where the group was supposed to be). There is no cell service up there and it was dark, so if you don't know where you are going, it's hard to find people.

I asked some locals if there was a sign for Cliff Lake before heading up. They said yes. Well, if there was a sign, then I wasn't worried... except for hitting a deer because I know there are tons up there. Anyway, we followed each other up the mountain and I stopped and looked at every sign and never saw a sign for Cliff Lake. This is when we knew we were in trouble. Once we got to Mirror Lake, we knew we had to turn back because there isn't a lot further than that. We did get out and stare at the stars for a little while though because they are amazing up there. We could even see the milky way. So beautiful. That was a good break because it only got more frustrating from there. They thought their friends would be wondering where we were and would go back to where there was service to leave us a message of where they were thinking we would do the same. So we drove ALL the way back down until we got service. Nothing. No message from them. At this point we knew we weren't going to find them, but I looked up directions to Cliff lake anyway while I had service. Turns out Cliff Lake is a hike... not a camping spot. We did drive to the parking lot of where you would park to hike there. It was full and they didn't see their car. At this point it was 1:30 in the morning and we were tired and realized that the group wasn't looking for us... so we camped in the parking lot in our cars. Whitney was planning on sleeping in her car anyway... so she set it up to do so. I wasn't planning on camping in my car, so I didn't set mine up that way, but I just put down one of the back seats and set up my sleeping pad and sleeping bag and blanket and pillow and I was good to go. I wondered what it would be like to sleep in my car, now I know it actually isn't that bad. In fact, I would love to put the entire back seat down and set up the entire back like a bed and go drive somewhere pretty and sleep there in the car. I think I will add that to my summer bucket list. My car has so much room, I think I could do great things with it. Before going to bed, I hung out in Whitney's car though to hang out and talk with Whitney and Kyle. Her little car surprisingly had a lot of bed space. Even though Kyle's friends suck, we had a great time car camping in the Uinta's.

We found out the next day on the way home when we had service again that not only did they not look for us because they for some reason thought we were "a lost cause" but they even switched lakes of where they camped and didn't even think to tell us. SO inconsiderate. I would never do that if I put a group together to camp... but that is just me.