The weekend of 9 Jun 07, Tracy and I finally headed out for our first mountain trip of the year.

Even though it had actually snowed in the Wasatch a few days earlier, I was sick and tired of

winter, and I was bound and determined to get into the mountains.  Amethyst (Google Map)

was a last minute decision, because you have to pay $3 to park, and we all know how much I

hate paying to hike, but this was early in the season, and I figured this might be my only

chance to hike the trail without lots of other people.  We tried to buy one of the new America

the Beautiful passes, but the Forest Service still isn't selling them.  Although, they are, at least

honoring them.  But we got to the trailhead, and there were only two cars...ahh, how nice!  One

of the cars left before we started...ahh, how nice!  Those backpackers said they had gone up

to Amethyst, but it was still frozen over, and the trail faded out.  We also saw our first moose

before we started the trail...we would see EIGHT of them before the weekend was over.  We

passed the second group on their way out within the first mile, and now we had the trail to

ourselves...we didn't see another person for the rest of the weekend....ahhh, perfect!  The first

few miles follow the river, and are flat and beautifully green.  It reminded us of Colorado, and

we were happy.  After that, the trail turns to the left and climbs steeply up to the cirque.  We hit

snow around 10,000 feet, but it was only patchy.  At about 10,200, the snow was more

frequent, and the trail became pretty swampy.  We couldn't stay out of the water, but we didn't

really get very wet, either.  We made it to the beginning of the basin, and Tracy wasn't feeling

well so we stopped at a beautiful spot at the mouth of the basin and set up camp.  It really was

a beautiful view of the surrounding glacial cirque peaks.  I decided to continue hiking up to

Amethyst Lake, and Tracy stayed at camp.  The remaining mile up to the lake was pretty

tough.  At about 10,300, the snow got deeper and more frequent, and before I was done, I was

pretty much post-holing in 3 feet of snow.  It took me an hour to get the last mile to the top.  I

had told Tracy that I wouldn't be longer than 2 hours, so I only spent a couple of minutes at the

lake, and then hurried back down the mountain to be sure she didn't try to look for me.  The

odd thing was the guys we met at the trailhead said the trail faded out, the snow wasn't bad,

and the lake was frozen.  Well, I didn't have any problem finding the trail when the snow wasn't

covering it, the snow was definitely worth mentioning, and I didn't find any tracks at all

anywhere above 10,000 feet.  But the lake was frozen over.  I don't know if they hiked 2 miles

cross country up the basin, although that would have been tough, or if they never made it and

just guessed the lake was frozen, or they went to a different lake.  It would surprise me to learn

they actually made it to Amethyst, because I didn't see any other tracks anywhere in the snow

at the lake.  But Amethyst was pretty.  I did feel like our campsite at the mouth of the basin was

prettier, though, because it had a better overall view of the cirque.  I made it back to camp with

20 minutes to spare, and Tracy was sound asleep.  We hiked out the next day, saw all kinds of

moose, including four together, and we had the trail completely to ourselves.  It did get cold at

night, but we had expected that, and we were fine.  This was a great trail, and it's only a couple

of hours from the house.  We'll have to see how crowded it gets in the summer.  Because it

was fun seeing eight moose!