Pictures of the general area here:
uinta mountains - Google Search
MsF, what is it about this area in particular that makes people go missing?
I don't know, because they are generally experienced outdoors people. It's vast, it's breathtakingly gorgeous, it's easy to get lost in for sure. I'm not surprised that people DO go missing, it's how
quickly it occurs that mystifies me.
I've been on a couple of searches up there with good outcomes. After Garrett Bardsley's disappearance, we searched with his Dad actually. So it does happen. Only reason I'm not up there now is because all the other adults are in the mountains or out of town, so I'm home with the kids.
There are so many trees that you can't always spot people from the air unless they come out into a clearing (that's how one little boy was seen.) Some of the terrain isn't conducive to searching with vehicles or on foot. Some won't work for horses.
It's just very challenging and diverse area to search. There is also not cell phone service in most of it either which complicates things.
However, there are also a lot of people up there hiking, camping and fishing this time of year. It's 10-15 degrees cooler than in the city, so we all flock up there. So the odds of running into someone if you are lost are probably better now.
Many of these lakes are up near family reunions, girls camps, boys camps and summer camps. You still have to be in the right area but the odds of accidentally finding a missing person are the highest right now (still, it's very vast.)
Of course, if people have been up there without cell service they don't know he's missing anyway unless authorities have been through notifying people.
There is abundant wildlife. Lots of deer, that's what you see most commonly. I have seen moose on a few occasions. I've seen a black bear once and that was enough for me.
I know there are elk, coyote, mountain goats, mountain lions and bighorn sheep and rattlesnakes but I haven't seen them up there personally.
It is really like looking for a needle in a giant haystack that also has hundreds of other needles in it, so you have to find the RIGHT needle. It's not an enviable task to search up there at all.