Impromptu Camping Trip to Sly Park

We had a rare Saturday without activities, so we decided to take a quick overnight  camping trip to Sly Park from Friday to Saturday.  Mom bought all of the groceries and packed up, so we could be ready to leave when Dad got home from work.

We had a beautiful campsite overlooking the lake.  We set up our tent and then had a nice campfire and ate hot dogs.  Afterwards, we roasted marshmallows and told stories around the fire.  Camping as a family is one of our favorite activities to do together.

 In the morning we went for a long hike along the lake.  We found some old ruins with only the smoke stacks standing and wondered what they were from.  Mom searched it up on her phone and we found out that there were settlements in the area of the lake where the Mormon Emigrants had settled for a time.  There was once a mill there and other cabins.  We think the smoke stacks were probably from the mill. The early saints who lived in our area were asked to come back to Salt Lake by Brigham Young after they had discovered gold at Sutters Mill.  They stayed in the Sly Park area for a time before making their trek back over the Sierras to Salt Lake.  (Fun Fact:  The gold they took back to Salt Lake City helped to establish the first currency in Deseret)   There is a road called the "Mormon Emigrant Trail" that goes up the canyon back towards Lake Tahoe.  That is the route that they followed.  Pretty neat.

We love that we live somewhere rich in Mormon history. 

 It is fun to learn about the early pioneers in our area.