Wasatch Mountain State Park

Our fearless photographer on assignment left Deer Creek State Park on Tuesday. Since Wasatch Mountain is only 15 miles away, he drove an extra 20 minutes to visit Park City. This is a neat historic town. Famous for its powder skiing in the winter, there is still a lot to do there in the summer like mountain biking, hiking, shopping, eating …

When you enter Wasatch Mountain State Park, the first thing you see is the golf course. This very popular 36 hole course has held many USGA events.

The Park consists of 22,000 acres in Heber Valley backing up to the Wasatch Range. The nearby towns of Midway (3 miles away), and Heber City (7 miles away) have all the supplies and dining options you need. There are 3 campgrounds here. Oak Hollow has no hookups and is for tents only. Mahogany and Cottonwood have hookups and don’t allow tents.

Our photographer stayed at Oak Hollow #6, a nice shady site next to the creek:

This is an “Old School” State Park. It was built when the concern for camper’s privacy was more important than cramming in as many sites as possible. You do not see your neighbors. There is a 20 – 30 foot buffer of trees and shrubs separating the sites. Below is a view from the entrance of my campsite looking down at Deer Creek Lake. You can see the driveways branching off the main road:

Some of the nice things about going camping are getting away from traffic, televisions, and telephones. But you also get away from laundromats. That made Thursday laundry day!

After hanging the clothes, he elected to go on a short hike. There is a trail leaving my campground that follows the creek. It is about 3 miles round-trip with only a few hundred feet of elevation gain. Below are some photos:

It was cool and shady along the trail with some interesting. The key to taking close-ups like these is to open up your camera’s aperture to it’s widest setting (the smallest number). This creates a narrow depth of field and lets the background become blurry. Below are some examples:

Regards, Park Ranger