Uintas 2010

[asdf]

Anyone tried to head up towards Mirror Lake yet? I figure nothing in that area will be doable until the end of this month, I just got off the phone with the ranger station and they said the snow line is approximately here.

[ibenick]

Did they give any indication on when they would at least get the road open all the way through? I know usually that's early to mid June.

[asdf]

They said "they are currently plowing the road and prefer that no one drives up there while they are working"

[brookiekiller]

You can access a large chunk of the Uintas if you aren't stuck to the Mirror Lake Highway. I went up onto the North Slope this weekend and you can drive everywhere except Elizabeth Pass, and the pass from China Meadows to Gilbert Meadows. There are a ton of downed trees in the Smith Fork Drainage so all the campgrounds except State Line were closed. I went up to Hoop Lake - the lake was still a little frozen, but the campground was open and the forest service cleared out a ton of the rotten trees. Spirit Lake area is still closed as well, but Browne and Sheep Creek are accessible. Meeks Cabin was still frozen over. Black's Fork drainage had a lot of snow, but the road was clear all the way to the East Fork Trailhead (didn't bother going to the West Fork Trailhead or Lyman Lake area, but there would probably be a little snow in that area). The snow line was solid at the 9750 foot level. A tip about the Uintas is that normally the East side will dry out before the West side.

[Scott P]

There are some neat lakes and areas that can be accessed this time of year without that much snow travel. One that comes to mind is Abes Lake from the Holiday Park area. Have you been to that one? If not, it may be worth a try.

[asdf]

here?

[Scott P]

here?

Yes, there.

There is a good trail to the lake (the last mile is steep), but the junction is not marked. Take a map and you should be fine.

It's a really cool lake.

[ibenick]

Abe's is a pretty lake but it doesn't have a lot of possible camp sites. I believe the best/only ones are on the east side of the lake. I went there a couple years ago and smashed that last mile up to the lake and got wicked altitude sickness. Great fun, stumbling over boulders and trees in the dark, looking for a piece of dirt large enough for a tent while the wife is bent over puking from the sudden change in altitude... Not good. Otherwise it looked like an awesome lake though... probably good chance of solitude too. Here's a link to my very brief TR back in '07 if anyone is interested: http://backcountrypost.com/trips/2007/abes07.htm.

Abe's Lake:

[shaggy125]

According to udot, the road is supposed to open tomorrow!

http://commuterlink.utah.gov/PDFCont...adClosures.pdf

[ibenick]

According to udot, the road is supposed to open tomorrow!

http://commuterlink.utah.gov/PDFCont...adClosures.pdf

Excellent news! I've been doing a lot of research on places to backpack up there this season... bad case of Uinta-fever.

[Scott P]

Abe's is a pretty lake but it doesn't have a lot of possible camp sites.

There aren't that many, but there are still some nice small ones. I think we camped at the NW side of the lake? I'd have to check my book, but I'm out of town now. It was a pretty good camp that we had, but as you say, there aren't that many of them. On the other hand, not many people camp at Abes Lake, so the campsites there are are likely to be empty. Another alternative is to camp near the turn-off. I've done that as well and there is a nice meadow not far from the turnoff. It might not be a bad idea to camp there anyway as the campsites around Abes might be wet this time of year.

[jman]

I have to chime in here and say Red Castle is one of my favorite lakes in the Uintas. And the 3 times I have been there, no one else (that we could see or hear) was there in the 2 days.

Very picturesque lake. It's like a bit of southern Utah in the Uintas.

Anywho, Abes lake is very nice. Can't go wrong with it.

[Scott P]

I have to chime in here and say Red Castle is one of my favorite lakes in the Uintas

Same here, but's it's probably still frozen over this time of year. You would definately have to prepare for significant snow this time of year (though the mountains are beautiful early season).

[asdf]

I am a Uintas noob.... I have been up there a half dozen times or so with 4 of those trips last year around Trial Lake and Murdock basin. The areas I am really interested in hitting up are Cataract Gorge, Christmas Meadows, and hopefully a backpacking trip up to the Red Castle area. I have a car camping trip with the kids planned for the end of this month and hope to backpack somepalce up there the second weekend in July.

Let it be known that I hate mosquitoes almost as much as they love me.

[ibenick]

Let it be known that I hate mosquitoes almost as much as they love me.

July is awful up there for bugs, don't mess around with the small bottle of deet if you're backpacking, go with the aerosol stuff, it's worth the weight. August and later is normally not that bad though. I went up to Bald Lake in Smith's Fork one year with a little bottle of some non-deet repellent and ended up spending half the time hiding in my tent... so many mosquitoes and huge too.

In my opinion the best of the Uintas is the northwest section, the areas accessed from Christmas Meadows, East Fork Bear River and West Fork Black's Fork. The trails tend to be smoother and the mountains tend to be more dramatic alpine cirque-type mountains. Love it.

[brookiekiller]

The forest in the Red Castle trailhead area has been devastated by beetles and unless they can start cutting them down it is going to burn - the forest service and Bridger Valley residents have been in meetings and it is rumored they may just close the place down until they can get some control or the whole North Slope will burn. I lived up in that area (Bridger Valley) for 20 years and I have never seen it as bad as it is now. As of now all campgrounds in the Smiths Fork are closed so they can get the timber out. The trail will probably be very rough going when the snow does melt. This is very sad as the Uintas are going to be changed forever. http://fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsinternet/!ut/p/c4/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3gjAwhwtDDw9_AI8zPyhQ oY6BdkOyoCAGixyPg!/?ss=110419&navtype=BROWSEBYSUBJECT&cid=STELPRDB514 5143&navid=091000000000000&position=SubFeature*&tt ype=detail&pname=Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest- Home

[shaggy125]

Remember when covering yourself in Deet, it ruins waterproofing on your expensive lightweight breathable rei jacket and pants you bought for that backpacking trip so try to keep them away from each other. Ya and brookiekiller is right about the beetles.

[ibenick]

So did anyone happen to make their way up over the newly opened Mirror Lake Highway over the weekend?

[paul4886]

I was up there this weekend. Here are some pictures of the thawing conditions on and off the road. BTW from all appearences, I swear the bear I encountered yesterday( see the last three pictures) is a brown bear. Is that even possible in Utah after being declared an extirpated species in Utah?

[ibenick]

I was up there this weekend. Here are some pictures of the thawing conditions on and off the road. BTW from all appearences, I swear the bear I encountered yesterday( see the last three pictures) is a brown bear. Is that even possible in Utah after being declared an extirpated species in Utah?
http://picasaweb.google.com/PaulFrnS...eat=directlink

Awesome pics! I'd love to hear more about the bear encounter, where about was that? Were you on foot or in your vehicle? And do you know what elevation you were at? I ran into a ranger in the Yellowstone drainage SW of King's Peak last year who told me there was almost no chance of running into a bear above 9500' with the slight exception of the vicinity of roadside camp areas... I had never heard that before, still wondering how accurate it is.

This one is great: