How busy will it be at Wall Lake or Cliff lake on Sunday 8/28/11

[JONBOYLEMON]

Throwing together a little backpack trip with the family. I have never been to Cliff lake, have been to Wall alot, but was wondering where we could get the most peace and quite Sunday night? We would go up Sunday afternoon and stay over and play around a little on Monday.

Just wondering as I will have a 3yr old and dont want to have to keep pushing to hidden or 3 divide if the close places are packed!

Thanks.

[ibenick]

I'm betting WAY busy. Maybe go up to the Bald Mountain trailhead and hit Notch or even better, Bench Lake?

[uintahiker]

Anything out of the Crystal Lake TH is routinely a zoo.

You could consider Star Lake to the NE of Trial. It's off the path a little further, but is still way close.

[JONBOYLEMON]

Notch and Bench are great options. Are there fish in each? Seems like I heard Bench was too shallow and it winter killed.

Are there fish in Star?

Keep in mind I will have a 3 year old. Hes a tank, but I dont want to be too far away if we needed "something"



And yep, that chystal lake trailhead is always a zoo.

[Dr. Nebz]

I would bet any direction from the Crystal Lake trail head this weekend is gonna be busy.

[ibenick]

Notch and Bench are great options. Are there fish in each? Seems like I heard Bench was too shallow and it winter killed.

I stopped and talked to some people at Notch last month who said the fishing was awesome but they were quite small. I noticed a lot of dinks actually flying out of the water while we were there. Bench looked plenty deep to me to avoid winter killing but I don't specifically recall noticing any fish activity. I would imagine you'll have a little more solitude at Bench. When we passed through on a Saturday afternoon there were 2-3 groups at Notch and just a couple of day hikers at Bench.


Notch Lake by ibenick, on Flickr


Bench Lake by ibenick, on Flickr

[uintahiker]

Notch and Bench are great options. Are there fish in each? Seems like I heard Bench was too shallow and it winter killed.

Are there fish in Star?

Keep in mind I will have a 3 year old. Hes a tank, but I dont want to be too far away if we needed "something"



And yep, that chystal lake trailhead is always a zoo.

Notch has brookies if I recall correctly.
When I've been at Bench, I've had no fish and never seen any rise or other action. I have also heard it winterkills.
Star has cutts, brookies, & suckers. One of the few lakes in the Uintas with suckers in it. It'd be cool too catch one.

[JONBOYLEMON]

Star sounds ALOT better suddenly!

Cutts and brookies and a sucker to boot.

[JONBOYLEMON]

Last good question. Good camping @ Star?

[homerj]

Star sounds ALOT better suddenly!

Cutts and brookies and a sucker to boot.

I hiked over to Star Lake during the 24th of July weekend a few years ago. We only saw two small groups the few hours we were there. One was there when we got there and left after 15 or so minutes and the other showed up just as we were leaving. I thought it was a very nice lake although the fish weren't biting for us (mid day). With it being the 24th of July there were TONS OF PEOPLE from Mirror Lake to Kamas; I was surprised to only see two small groups that close to the highway and trial lake. We hiked from Star Lake down to Trial Lake fishing the small creek (fun fishing although quite small fish) the whole way and I don't remember seeing anyone until we got to Trial Lake.

Last good question. Good camping @ Star?

I remember there was some campsites on the south-west side of the lake, but I don't remember how good they were.

Star Lake - I believe that's Bald Mtn and Reids Peek in the background

[uintahiker]

Star sounds ALOT better suddenly!

Cutts and brookies and a sucker to boot.

That's the wierd thing. Star isn't necessarily on a trail, so the traffic is infinitely less than the other lakes in the area. Then I think the people that camp at Trial Lake mostly dink around the campground and 100 yards of lakeshore at Trial.

Try Star- you'll probably like it. If not, well you're only half a mile in. It's been a little while since I was there, but I think there's a few decent sites. I'd probably recommend checking out the far end of the lake before you set up camp though. I always enjoy it a little more when there aren't people walking through my camp.

[JONBOYLEMON]

How are the mosquitoes up high? Do we need to be prepared with a gallon of deet??

[bigred72]

Got back from the Clyde lake loop which we camped at Wall lake before heading out this morning. Hardly any Mosquitos at all. Just a few out at sunset. I didn't have to douse myself like I did over the past month.


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[JONBOYLEMON]

Star was a home run! Thanks guys!!!!

It was my wife, and 3 boys, 9, 6, and 3, and my friend and his 9 yr old.

We went up from Trial and almost got to Wall before my GPS woke up and told me we were @ 12,170' Time to turn right and go down hill. This was a bugger as there was just off trail path beating all the way to the lake. Once we got to Star we were pleased to find we had her all to ourselves.

We could find no fire pits or campsites 200' from the water so we just ended up in the very well established site on the North end 100' or so from the water. I was shocked that as the sun went down there were no fires around the lake, sure enough, here we were on the last hurrah of summer and we had this little slice of heaven to ourselves. The fishing was good enough that we all had plenty of fish for dinner. This morning we added to the haul and we are looking @ some fish tacos tonight.

As for the flavor of the day it was all Tigers and Cuts. No brookies even seen. My wife caught her first fish ever, and what a fish!!!!!

It got dag cold last night & all I had was a blanket. The cold, and something large enough in the area to keep me awake made for a terrible nights sleep. Everyone else slept ok, but I was a little spooked. It was probably a cow, at least thats what I am telling myself now. Last year @ Wall a cow was 10' from the tent when I woke up[ for some early morning relief.

Anyways, we took the stream down to trial on the way out, and that had to save 1.5 hours!!!! On the way we fished the little stream and Lake Marion and were able to talk a few rainbows into coming to see us.

The $11.00 Spongebob pole was the best investment ever. Our three yr old learned to cast and was getting 30' cast so I set him up with a spinner. No fish on Sponge Bob, but everyone got to reel in at least 1 fish.

Good times. We fished for an hour @ trial and all we had to show for that was a tiny little 12" rainbow.....

Saw a few skeeters, but I dont think any of us got bit.

Oh well, real fish have us kinda spoiled.

[uintahiker]

SWEET! Glad you enjoyed the trip! We went up there on Saturday- didn't see another soul once we were past the immediate shoreline of Trial.

[JONBOYLEMON]

One last question, I checked at the entrance booth to ask about backcountry camping regulations and all the gal in the booth said was 200' from water and use existing fire pits. I asked if there wasnt a site w/in 200' but it was a durable hard surface where it was obvious it was a camp site, and she said as long as its not causing erosion you are probably OK.

I found it hard to believe that one is ever probably OK. I have heard of ticket happy rangers handing out tickets to everyone for everything but have yet to see a ranger, let alone many people, when we go out.

I was just wondering what would have happened had a Ranger rolled into camp and we were camped where we were????