A photo story

Kings Peak, Utah

Laura and I at the Kings Peak summit sign in September 2024. It is the high point of Utah, and it was a multi-day trip: hike in, camp, summit, and hike out. It was a clear midday, around 52, with a light breeze.

Kings Peak sits in the Uinta Mountains, in Ashley National Forest, and it is a long walk from any trailhead. A fellow climber took one of our summit photos, and this is us at the sign.

This was the second attempt. The first time we got caught in a blizzard, Gunsight Pass was as far as we made it, and we had to come back later.

This time there was no snow, and the weather was beautiful. It was an amazing hike, and we completed it right on time without any issues.

This other photo is not from Kings Peak, and it is not from that trip. I took it in June 2016, on I-80 through Echo Canyon, just past the sign for the Echo exit. Green hills are on the left, a red rock bluff on the right, and the highway runs off through the canyon. It was evening, around 65, under a clear sky, with almost no wind. I shot it through the windshield.

June 2016 is when I first moved out to Utah, while I was working at Cerner, near the start of my traveling and mountaineering years. Utah is where this all started for me, years before we went up Kings Peak.