Uintas Trip, July 2013
These pics are from our week long trip to the beautiful Uinta range of Utah. We started at the Highline Trail trailhead in the Unintas, after spending the night at a campground at Trail Lake Campground. These places are about 30 miles east of the town of Kamas, Utah.
From the trailhead, we headed to Jordan Lake in Naturalist Basin for the first night on the trail, which required about 900 feet of elevation gain and maybe 5 miles of hiking. At Jordan lake we first observed what would be the theme of the trip, and that was mosquitoes and knife throwing. Jim brought a set of 6 throwing knives, and he and Tomio threw them about a bazillion times into a dead tree near camp. From then on we had to choose a campsite with a nearby dead tree
The Uintas are the only east west range in the Rockies, and they are high. We were at 10,000' elevation for the whole trip. Starting out that high just seemed to suck the energy out of my legs, and I was moving pretty slowly on the trail the whole trip.
We had a layover day at Jordan lake, and Tomio, Josh, Jim and I headed out to visit the upper lakes in Naturalist Basin. They were very nice, and the overcast sky made the hike cool. It spit rain a bit, but didn't rain. Meanwhile, Kevin was fishing, and we ran into him as he used his Tenkara fishing setup in the stream out of Jordan Lake.
The next day we left Jordan Lake, we headed cross country to Rocky Sea Pass. We went up a bench, and reconned a route up a higher bench. Not finding a good route through some rough looking talus, we skirted the bottom of the bench, till we found a gully that looked doable. Up the gully we went, slowly.
As I approached Rocky Sea Pass I thought I saw mountain goat near the pass, close to where the rest of our group was assembled. As I got closer I saw it was a goat, but one with a pack on. Just ahead of us descending the pass was a group of about 15 people with maybe 8 or 9 pack goats.
From Rocky Sea Pass we descended and camped near a lake close to the pass. We got the tents set up just before it started to rain. We huddled around a fire in light rain, and retreated to under a tree when it rained more heavily. Our tents would be tested on this trip, as it rained nearly every day. It was generally at a convenient time, and didn't last a long time, so it was fine.
From our camp at the foot of Rocky Sea Pass we headed to Rosalie Lake, in hopes of isolation and good fishing. Our campsite was on the West side of the lake, and off the main trail. We quickly got tents set up before it started to rain. The next day we dedicated to fishing and exploring the area, and fishing nearby Margie and Uinta Lakes. Both lakes had fish and are very isolated, and very spectacular also. We caught fish with Josh's spin casting setup, my fly fishing, and Kevin's Tenkara and fly fishing gear.
Kevin catching another one, above.
Above, Uinta Lake, very secluded, and lots of fish. A fish in Uinta lake is below.
Jim and Tomio cooked up fish for all, and they were delicious! We wore mosquito head nets a lot, and had small fires to keep mosquitoes at bay somewhat.
The next day we headed back over Rocky Sea Pass to Four Lakes Basin, and camped at the lake closest to the trail. It was not the greatest campsite, but it had a standing dead tree which the boys riddled with throwing knives. At almost every camp we had a small smokey fire, to keep some of the mosquitoes away. The next day we hiked out to the trailhead, and headed for much anticipated burgers in Kamas.
