Uintas - Clyde Lake Loop TR
My wife and I did a fun day hike on Friday July 3rd. 5.3 miles without a lot of elevation gain, some fun fishing, and not a lot of people - great day. I had done this hike previously in September of '07 with my dog, and enjoyed it so much that I wanted to come back with my wife. We had heard that the snow had receded enough so that we wouldn't have to endure a day of post-holing. I wanted this to be fun - especially for my wife.
We arrived at the Crystal Lake Trailhead at about 11:00AM and found the parking lot nearly filled. It took a couple of minutes to find a parking place. The clouds were looming, and the mosquitoes a bit annoying. We each finished off a sandwiches and headed northward on the Notch Mountain Trail.
Route Map
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...deLakeLoop.jpg
east Lily Lake looking toward Bald Mountain
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s.../7-3-09064.jpg
The trail has been rerouted from what is shown on the quad maps, but if you head towards "The Notch" you'll arrive at Wall Lake in about 30 minutes.
Wall Lake outlet
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s.../7-3-09066.jpg
Wall lake is a popular place and there were several large groups of people milling around there. So, we kept moving.
After rounding the east shore of Wall Lake we briefly traversed up a rocky shelf.
On top of bench looking back down at Wall Lake
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s.../7-3-09071.jpg
Once on top of the shelf we passed several attractive ponds and climbed again to the top of another shelf. At this point, watch for a cairn that will identify where you turn left off of the Notch Mountain Trail and follow a faint trail down towards Twin Lakes. Again, the trail location shown on the quad map in this area is outdated.
A few hundred yards after leaving the Notch Mountain Trail, we arrived at the south Twin Lake.
south Twin Lake looking west with Mt. Watson in background
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s.../7-3-09077.jpg
We fished for a while and caught some small but pretty Brook Trout and had something to eat. The clouds threatened rain, but it seemed to just skirt our location. After spending a relaxing hour there we continued hiking northward around the east shore of the Twin Lakes and found a more well defined trail. We followed this trail westward around the North shore of north Twin Lake and caught a few more colorful fish.
north Twin Lake Brooklet
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...p/IMG_0415.jpg
Soon after leaving Twin Lakes we arrived at the Clyde Lake.
Looking northeastward toward The Notch from Clyde Lake
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s.../7-3-09079.jpg
We fished our way around the west shore and caught several more small Brook Trout.
We climbed along the foot of Mount Watson leaving Clyde Lake behind us, and then began the more abrupt and rocky descent to Watson Lake. The second half of the loop past Clyde lake is not nearly as smooth and nice as the first half. The trail was quite faint in a couple of areas but as long as we followed the eastern shore of the Watson, Petit, and Cliff Lakes it was no problem. We saw a group of people camping and fishing along the north shore of Cliff Lake, and one other small camp at Petit Lake.
The decent ends at west Lily Lake. After following the trail around the west shore of the west Lily Lake, it merged into the heavily traveled Crystal Lake trail, which quickly brought us back to the trailhead. And as I said before, total mileage 5.3 miles.
In summary, this is a fun, easy and beautiful day hike. A great family hike for those not afraid to depart from the beaten path a little. The terrain is varied and interesting. Passing so many lakes is such a short distance also kept the scenery interesting. Bring some strong bug repellent. We used the 100% DEET and the biters were pretty much a non-issue.
My wife loved this hike which means I did too. Highly recommended!
