Red Pine Lakes

I hiked up to these lakes with my brother and dad on 7/25. We arrived at the TH (Trail Head) at 6 a.m. The views of the valley and mountains surrounding the area were awe inspiring.

We ate lunch after arriving at the lower Red Pine lake at about 8:00 a.m. (I deleted my trip computer on my gps so i can't give exact time) We saw some kind of strange mammal on the rocks near the lake about the size of a large cat. It was a pretty slow moving animal and I got some pics. Anyone know what it is?

The upper lake was about another 15 minutes up. I like the upper lake best with it's alpine feel. There are spectacular views of the Pfeifferhorn with it's accompanying granite ridge. My brother and I did some bouldering on afew of the granite house-sized boulders. We will get a geocache on top of the ridge between White Pine Lake and Upper Red Pine Lake in a few weeks on another trip we have planned.

We headed down from the upper lake at about 11 a.m. We were happy to have both lakes to ourselves at this early hour. The parking lot at the bottom was very crowded an hot as we arrived back at the car.

I will also included a topo pick with out track imposed on it (Courtesy or my Garmin 60CS) I can also post an satelite photo with tracks if anyone is interested.

SWEET!! Thanks for the photos. I was actually thinking about hiking that today. I was at White Pine, what a zoo. I had my two year old and we only had a few hours. I wasn't sure how he would do on the trail. How well marked is the trail anyway? I have heard conflicting stories. I will have to go hike it on a weeknight. White Pine is a -ZOO- on the weekends as you well know. Thanks for the report and again welcome to uutah.com.

Isn't that the animal from caddy shack? A beaver? An over fed squirrel? :lol8:

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Originally Posted by Bigben

We saw some kind of strange mammal on the rocks near the lake about the size of a large cat. It was a pretty slow moving animal and I got some pics. Anyone know what it is?

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Looks like a woodchuck. I did a Google image search for "woodchuck" and it looks a lot like the results.

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Originally Posted by Udink

Looks like a woodchuck.

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I believe it's actually a rockchuck (at least, that's what my dad used to call them)--or, more technically, a marmot.

Shane

Here's the Link

http://espn.go.com/winnercomm/outdoo...kchuck_PS1.jpg

Cool pictures. Thanks for the trip report.

I agree that it's probably a rockchuck. We would see them out by Willard Bay all of the time.

Yeah, I think that your creature is a marmot. I've seen them up Big Cottonwood before. Nice pics, by the way

yep, your mystery animal is a marmot! :-)

A yellow-bellied marmot to be exact.

commonly known as a pica, usually found above 8000 ft..
question:
is there water along the trail, or should someone have to carry a camelbak?

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commonly known as a pica, usually found above 8000 ft..

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Marmots and pikas are not the same animal.

Yes, you should take water.

FWIW, we filled our water bottles at a spring about 1/2 way up the trail. Made a little canal thingy that got water away from the hill and then trickled into water filter.

But you need to cary water and have a way to filter I would think as its a few hours of good hiking.

Yep, big ol' Marmot. Fairly common up high in the big talus piles. They can be friendly and curious. They can also wreak havoc on a tent.

Pika's are super shy by nature. Distinctive "peep" warning whistle and they're gone. Raptors find them tasty I'd imagine...

Nice TR!

When I was in Sequoia NP in June and the backpackers were wrapping their cars to keep the marmots from climbing in the engines and gnawing on the wires. It cost one person $900 to get towed out.

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