July 4th was a good time up in Park City. They have a nice parade that comes down the main street with all the shops etc.. There was a ton of traffic and people everywhere so we parked the truck at a school outside of town and rode our bikes into town. Genius. Prolly would have missed the parade if not for the bikes. The parade was neat, with local business, organizations and govt agencies all doing themed floats, bikes, walking, etc.. I still like the Mammoth 4th of July parade better, but this one is pretty good.
After the parade we walked up and down the closed to traffic main street. We visited some businesses and had some libations. Eventually, we made it back to the No Name Bar, a bar I would recommend, and have been to 3 times now, the same number of times I have been in the city.
After some lunch and drinks we rode down to the town park where there was a rugby game and lots of people and vendors. We absorbed the locale for a bit and wanted to get home to figure out our plan for dinner and fireworks.
We ended up staying in the RV park, as I really enjoy being up on top of Marge, and the entire valley, 360 degrees, had fireworks. Most of them were just local citizens doing it up in their neighborhood. It was really cool, but we had to keep our heads on a swivel to see all the best designs.
The next morning was my birthday and I wanted to finish up fixing the RV fridge (great birthday huh). I ended up getting it dialed in and then we went out to chinese for my birthday dinner. Quality was OK and we had a nice time so overall is was a nice birthday.
The following day we explored in a town called Midway, near Heber City, up on the hillside of the Wasatch Mountains. That city is cool. Its themed like an old swiss village with frescoes painted on most of the houses and buildings. There is a sign on the road in that reads “Willlkommen” and lots of houses fly a swiss flag out front. We quickly found a cute old school gas station/malt shop themed coffee shop with Herbie the slug bug out front and really eclectic decor inside and out. Coffee and food was delish. With our bellies full, we drove around and had some new experiences.
It seems there is an area near the city called Soldier Hollow. This is where the cross country skiing and biathlon (ski and shoot) events were held for the Salt Lake Olympics. Now its a tourist center, golf course, hiking and mountain bike trails. On our way to the other side of the city we enjoyed driving through some neighborhoods looking at the fun architecture. We ended up down a dead end, and as we were exiting to the main street again, there were two sand colored pugs standing in the middle of the street, staring us down, with no human. I stopped the truck about 50 yards short of them, as they weren’t moving, and couldn’t help but laugh at this silly situation. What happened next made us LOL. They started walking towards us, with swagger. You know, the side to side gate that says, “This is my block, Why are you here?” No barking, no excitement, just confidence and wisdom. At this point we realized we were gonna get shaken down by a pair of the coolest bullies on the block. When they finally arrived on the drivers side of the truck, I was reaching for my license and registration. I rolled down the window, and they finally started to give me a piece of their mind. That is when I finally pulled away. I have decided I need a dash cam, that scene was priceless and I hope my words did it just a little justice.
Moving on from our pugfrontation, we drove up the hill a little bit and found a resort like residential area that maintained the swiss theme. It was pretty great. A few golf courses and the Wasatch State park filled this area out.
We stopped at a cool looking resort as it said something about scuba diving in a crater and this is something we just did in Playa Del Carmen, so our curiosity was peaked. The resort, The Homestead, was an old plantation type home that was built out, has a golf course, and has this big rock mound crater thing. Well, you can climb up some stairs and look down into this crater filled with water (and people). Going around the side, you can enter into a tunnel through a steel door, and eventually arrive at a desk with some scuba equipment. We enquired about what the heck is going on, and asked to look around. It seems the water is quite warm, and fed by natural springs. The resort built a dock inside and they give scuba lessons and certifications in this cavern. The water is about 60′ deep they said, and it’s pretty clear. We debated scuba diving it, but it was quite warm outside, and the water was warm, so we decided to just grab a few photos and move on.
That evening I made it out for a quick scouting/fishing trip to the upper part of the Lower Provo, below Deer Creek Dam. I generally like as much seclusion and virgin water as I can find, so I drove as far down river as I could, on a small road off the highway, then walked down the railroad tracks a bit until I found a great little fishing spot. I was able to walk out on a point and run my bounce rig (Strike Indicator, double nymphs, and 6 split shot at bottom) down a nice seam between a fast deep run and shallow back eddy. I hooked up on the first cast, and knew I was in the right place. I caught a few more there, and then started hunting all the other little holes around this spot with not much luck. It was getting late so I decided to start my way back up the river looking for any holes that may present themselves.
I found a little path down to the river through the thick bushes and managed to wade out above a strong rapid. I tossed my rig out and let it hang in the current, under some overgrowth and above the rapid. BAM! Fish on. I was able to net a beautiful 18-19″ brown. Nice. Then I tossed it out again and drifted it past a big rock and BAM! Fish on. A few moments later I had a very similar brown gracing my net. I think it was the previous fishes brother. It was getting dark as I released this leviathan back to the depths, so I grabbed all my gear and headed back.
The next time I got on the river was with Chase, my raft. I found a raft company that, for $10, would let me park my truck at their place, and load my raft and stuff into their trailer that they use to take their rafts up to the dam. I rode up in their van that hauled the rafts. All the rafter people were looking at me like the black swan, as they are wearing shorts and life vests and I was wearing my fishing pants, carrying my rods, etc..
When I got there I took my time setting up so the rafters/tubers could get gone and I could fish in peace. Another raft/tube crew showed up as I was shoving off. I guess on these hot days the tube hatch lasts most of the day.
I found a few places to pull over and fish, with little luck. Then I reached the stretch of river I was at earlier. It was packed with rafters who were pulled over and taking a break so I kept on. Rounding a corner I found a nice run so I pulled Chase over and anchored him up in a riffle. I got to the bank and walked downstream a bit, heading for a nice looking hole. When I got there, I remained hidden behind a bush and threw my nymph rig down a nice looking seam in the current. First cast the strike indicator goes under and it is game on. The fish starts screaming line off the real and I don’t see him for quite some time. I finally was able to get some line back and then make my way down into the water and realized I left my net upstream on the boat. For larger fish, I like to net them as to take better care of them than with the smaller guys. I start making my way upstream and the leviathan is still way down stream in the deep water. As I get near the boat a few rafts come around the corner, uh oh. I try to make sure they see me fighting the fish on the left side of the river so they will stay on the right, but that is prolly too much to ask of these knuckleheads. One of them came within 5 feet of me, and directly over my fly line and fish. Ugh. To my surprise, Moby remains on the line. I decided to try and get the GoPro going so I could share this with you. The best parts of the rest is in this video.
The rest of the day I had a few non-descript hook ups. Some while i was floating and others while wading. The lower Provo proved to be a fun river with some hangry trout.
The next few days I found myself contemplating life, golfing and dinking around on the middle Provo river. I also made it out to the Park City Gun Range and sat through a class for my concealed carry permit. I don’t really want to conceal carry, but its for when I carry my bear gun fishing, and when rangers give me crap, if I show them my permit then they will relax a little, I hope. However, after taking the class and test etc.. I found out Utah wont issue me the permit until I get one from South Dakota, the state of my residence, but I need to go back out there again to process it over the counter at the Sheriff’s office after residing in the state for at least a month. Arg….. Oh well to that one. But I did at least learn a bunch of cool stuff.
Now its off to Flaming Gorge area and the Green River! Im so excited.
Here are a bunch of other pics from the trip.
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