Moose haven

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The gnarly rocks protruding up from the canyon walls watched over me as I began the hike up through Dry Canyon. The trail was not very steep in most places, until near the top. I did encounter cows along the way (luckily no bulls), and I was glad I saw them first before I heard some of the low sounds they made, or I would have been worried about what the hell was making that sound. There were a few mosquitoes, but not bad by South Carolina standards. When the trail starts getting hard to see near 8700 ft., somebody has tied little plastic ribbons on the bushes marking it for a ways. When those ran out, I pretty much went straight up to the ridgeline at about 9000 ft. At about 9100 feet there was a moose just ahead of me among the trees. I followed the ridgeline up through the trees more or less straight to the summit. The last 600 or 700 feet of climbing were very steep and just bushwacking, but no big deal. Temperatures were near ideal for the hike, which was 5.2 miles and 4600 ft. of elevation gain. The view included the High Uintas far to the southeast, an odd red butte off to the east that really stood out because it was the only thing that color, and the ridge just west of Bear Lake, which looked deceptively close. There is an elevated box with some papers in it so you can sign in and leave controversial political messages for subsequent hikers to read. I was surprised that there is no USGS marker, none that I could find. It took me 2:49 to go up and 1:38 to come down, but then I'm part mountain goat.