High Uintazzzzzz

Two weekends ago, I decided it was time to get going on some of my overnight plans for the summer. The most logical choice for proximity was the High Uintas, a mountain range to the East of Salt Lake City.

It snowed in the mountains Wednesday and Thursday before my trip and the conditions were rather unknown. Regardless, I wanted to hit the mountains so I got my stuff ready Friday night for a Saturday/Sunday trip.

I took off Saturday morning and picked up a recreation pass. At the booth, I had a quality chat with the ranger lady:

Scott: "Do you know anything about snow up there... are snowshoes necessary?"
Wrinkly Lady: "I haven't been up there... wait... you're sleeping up there ... Oh god you're going to freeze."
Scott: "K, Thanks"

I headed up the Highline trail and worked my way to Rocky Sea Pass. The trail itself was a mix between pine forest and open alpine meadow... (click pictures for big versions)...

Six and a half miles in, I got to Carolyn Lake my planed camping
spot for the night. I wanted to press on to Rocky Sea Pass but
needed to refill water and check out the area.  I was shocked to
see fish visible in the lake!  Then I wandered over to a stream
with good water for pumping and discovered TONS of fish
fighting upstream.  I counted more than a dozen visible in any
given pool, catching these suckers would have been a joke (insert
net, retrieve fish).  All the long rock looking things are
actually fish....



I proceeded to Rocky Sea and eventually got out of the trees and
high into the pass.  The views from the top were pretty epic.



The windcurls and cliffs demonstrated why this area has very few
trails to mountain peaks.



After getting back to Carolyn Lake I was very pleased to see
that no one else had planned to camp nearby.  I had the entire
Lake to myself, noice!



I saw several shooting stars when gazing by the lake. The night
wasn't actually that cold. I think it froze outside (snow drifts
were icey in the morning), but I was cozy in my mummy bag.
Take that recreation pass lady.

The next morning, I got everything together to go back.
The hike back was fairly uneventful but pretty none the less.



It was definitely a good trip, I would certainly go back to the Uintas.
And am thinking about doing some day hikes in the area as it's
pretty close to SLC....