gem

Everything was so shiny and glittery in the florescent light, each display holding hundreds of varieties of gems and rocks, many of which I could not name. One table had rows and rows of tubs, each filled with water and thin slabs of stone. Later I learned that vendors did this to show the buyer what the rocks would look like once polished.Near the back of the room I was looking at a display of large gemstones when a little girl loudly exclaimed to her mother, “I want that one!” pointing at a three-foot amethyst. My date and I chuckled; the poor girl didn’t realize how costly that gem was. However, her enthusiasm matched my own; it was almost magical to be in a place with so many beautiful things.

The High Uinta Wilderness Area is an expansive piece of nature crisscrossed with adventurous hiking trails and filled with glittering lakes populated by beautiful trout. The most scenic part of it has to be the trail to Amethyst Lake. Given that the distance to the trailhead (at Christmas Meadows) is within two hours from Provo, Utah, you might expect to see more crowds. However, it’s likely that this short but steep hike keeps away many of the tenderfeet, saving this gem for the more intrepid hikers.