Hiking King's Peak

Last week, my husband and about 23 other men and teenage boys in our church went on a hike to King's Peak in northeast Utah. It's the highest peak in Utah. They left early Thursday morning and got home about 4pm on Saturday.

My husband said it was a very challenging hike, especially the last mile or so. The parking lot starts at about 9000 feet elevation and the peak of the mountain is 13,527 feet. They hiked in about 7 miles the first day and set up camp. The next day, they hiked the remaining 7 miles to the peak with day packs and then returned to their base camp. Saturday they hiked out and then drove home.

It turns out that the Uintah mountains were a dangerous place to be in last weekend. Three little girls got struck by lightning, a 74-year-old man got lost in the mountains, and a boy who would have turned 18 on Sunday died on a campout with his Scout troop, probably from altitude sickness. I feel fortunate everyone from our group returned home without significant injury. A storm did roll in on Friday afternoon when the last members of our group were on top of the mountain and they just about got nailed by lightning. As they stood there, they could hear buzzing from the electrical charges in the rocks and the long hair on a girl at the top was standing straight up. So they decided to leave and after about 200 yards lightning struck the top.

I'm glad that my son and all the boys got to do something pretty challenging on this trip--every teenager needs those experiences. My husband said the one thing they would change is to have better food. Everyone brought their own and it was lacking somewhat. Fortunately the mosquitoes weren't bad like they were for my friend who hiked it last year.

King's Peak is the second one from the left.

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