Mirror Lake Highway Car Camping

Thinking of heading up to the Mirror Lake Highway area in the Uintas to car camp and do short hikes next weekend. We are leaning towards dispersed camping, but aren't certain yet. Can anyone recommend a good dispersed camping area, not too far off the highway? We have a pseudo-SUV so we're looking to avoid too rough of a road. Being close to a lake or a stream would be a plus.

More questions:
-Do the developed campgrounds fill up on the weekends? We won't be able to get up until Friday early evening.
-How is the bug situation? We can adjust the elevation at which we camp depending on the bugs.
-Are fires permitted in dispersed sites?
-Are there any areas to avoid if we want to steer clear of ATV usage?

Thanks.

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Originally Posted by brettyb

More questions:
-Do the developed campgrounds fill up on the weekends?

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Definitley will fill up.

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-How is the bug situation?

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Bugs aren't bad, should be fine off MLH.

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-Are fires permitted in dispersed sites?

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Fires only in established campsites, nothing in the wilderness boundaries or away from maintained campsites, I believe.

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-Are there any areas to avoid if we want to steer clear of ATV usage?

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Shouldn't find much ATV usage up there.

I'd recommend camping near Crystal Lakes Trailhead. There are lots of campsites within an hour walking, if you want to hike a little bit. If not, there are plenty of sites on the highway in that area.

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Originally Posted by brettyb

Thinking of heading up to the Mirror Lake Highway area in the Uintas to car camp and do short hikes next weekend. We are leaning towards dispersed camping, but aren't certain yet. Can anyone recommend a good dispersed camping area, not too far off the highway? We have a pseudo-SUV so we're looking to avoid too rough of a road. Being close to a lake or a stream would be a plus.

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Does dispersed mean car camping? If so I think I know of a secret place, but I won

we just got back. We stayed in the Cobblestone campground. Friday afternoon everything was full. Saturday afternoon there were quite a few open sites. No bug problems at all. Got one bite while packing up on Sunday.

Thanks for the feedback. I do mean dispersed car camping. What exactly is the price to reveal your secret spot, Mr. Wads? I was contemplating heading down the Spring Canyon Rd, from the Trial Lake area heading south. Am I getting warmer?

One of my favorites car camping places is Moosehorn lake. Especially if you can get a spot down right next to the lake. That way your up high where it's nice and cool, and you're in the "middle" as far as access to other good spots: Mirror Lake, Crystal Lake, etc

We've had plenty of luck just showing up on Thursday afternoon and getting great spots. But by mid-day Friday, they're almost all gone.

Hope that helps.
Russ

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Originally Posted by brettyb

What exactly is the price to reveal your secret spot, Mr. Wads?

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My price is that you post lots of pics on uutah.com if you go. I was thinking of heading down in a couple weeks.

It

Thanks to all for the advice, especially to Wads for revealing his secret spot (though we didn't end up trying it). Getting up there at 5PM on a Friday didn't leave with us a lot of options, predictably. We were leaning towards a developed campground b/c we wanted to have a fire. We looked at Shady Dell first, there were a couple of marginal sites available. Then Cobblerest, it was full.

Assuming the higher cg's were already full, we backtracked to the signed dispersed area near Duchesne Tunnel, but it looked like huge RV/ATV land, so we went further back down. We ended up checking out the Lower Provo River campground. It was full, but there was an obvious semi-developed dispersed site just up the road from the devloped CG. It had a metal firering, so we could have a fire. It was very close to the road, but since the road dead ends at the CG, I didn't think there would be much traffic.

The site ended up being OK. The ground was a little lumpy and uneven for the tents, but the site was spacious. The biggest negative was a lot of ATV traffic. A steady stream of obnoxious machines from morning to night, including the same fat kid who drove by at least a dozen times over two days. A serious detriment to an otherwise great weekend. (Weather cooperated quite nicely and bugs were no problem at all.)

I am glad you had a good time bret (execpt the ATV's) post some pics if you got some.

After telling you about the East Portal it got me itching to go back. So today I took a day drive out there to check it out and get some pics with digital camera. We stopped at the West Portal just off the MLH, then made a quick stop at Provo Falls then on to the East Portal.

[quote=James_B_Wads2000]It

Oh my hell! My screen just melted from that last pic. :lol8:

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Originally Posted by accadacca

Oh my hell! My screen just melted from that last pic. :lol8:

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I guess your screen can't handle that much hot sexy man. :ne_nau:

Nice 4-Runner tho. I just bought an 80-Series Cruiser on ebay, its on the way. :cool2:

Post pics when it gets it.

Toyota Power!!! :2thumbs:

I turned into the Murdock Basin Road several weeks ago, but my map/guide (obtained at the permit kiosk) showed Murdock Basin as primarily ATV usage.

Hello everyone! I need car dispersed camping recommendations off of Mirror Lake Highway for this weekend, preferably by water. Willing to arrive Thursday to get a spot. Thank you!