High Uintas Pack and Fish

[Houndoc]

We took our scouts (I am Venturing Advisor) on 6 days of Uinta Mountain backpacking the week of July 25th. We had 9 youth (ages 11-18) and 8 adults.

We started out at the China Meadows trail head and proceeded up Smiths Fork towards the Red Castle Peak area.


Monday, July 25, 2011:

4 am departure from Granstville put us on the trail by about 9 am.

Some of the scouts have very interesting ideas of style, and lunch.

We covered about 10 miles on Monday, with the last couple being up a wet, marshy meadow with fast running stream crossing (thanks to trekk pole I only ended up knee deep in the stream instead of face down.)

looking back down the above mentioned meadow.

camp one. Heavy rain from 10pm-4 am, was worst weather of the week.

View of Flat Top Mountain from camp one.

 

[Houndoc]

Tuesday, July 26.
Moved camp about 1 mile up the canyon, setting up camp two at about 11,100 feet. Camp was located near a small pond between East Red Castle and Smiths Fork Pass Lakes.

Rest of the day was spend fishing and recovering.

Camp Two

East Red Castle Lake produced some nice (2-3 pound) Lake Trout. Best fishing was along the snowfields that extended into the water. Gold or silver spinners where both effective.

Pass Lake produced Brook Trout instead. Small, but stunningly beautiful fish!

 

[Houndoc]

Wed. July 27.

5:30 am wake up shot got us off to an early start. Those who wanted to try to the summit of Kings Peak got on the trail (light packs only as we were returning to the same camp) by 6 am. About 1/3 the group stayed behind.

We headed up and over Smiths Fork Pass (hair under 11,800 feet) and dropped in the upper portions of the Yellowstone drainage.

Yellowstone Basin from just bellow Smiths Fork Pass.

We then cross-countried our way towards Anderson Pass and Kings Peak.

There was certainly no shortage of water sources to filter from!

Every troop needs a smiling, happy scoutmaster!

Kings Peak finally came into view (left of the two peaks), with its summit about 2,000 feet above the valley floor.

I wish I had better shots of Anderson Pass, to left of the peak. Pass is at about 12,800 feet and is the final assult spot for Kings.

Unfortunately dangerous snowfields stopped our progress at about 12,400 feet. Some hikers where able to reach Kings coming up the otherside from Henry's Fork.

Kings Peak, the closest we had to a summit photo!

Smiths Fork Pass and back to camp is behind the peak on the right.

View from Smiths Fork Pass back towards camp on our return. We hiked an estimated 13-14 miles round trip that day.

 

[Houndoc]

Thursday July 28.

Camp was moved roughly 5 miles, with a drop of about 400 feet in elevation, that unfortunately need to be reclaimed. We camped at an unnamed lake (as far as I know) north of Lower Red Castle. Camp was again at about 11,100 feet.

note the crack in the snowfield to right and behind lake. More on that later.

This little lake also produced good numbers of Brookies. I landed 18 in about two hours, mostly with a green and gold feathered spinner thingy.

Friday, July 29.

My son and hiked above camp in the morning, then the group started back towards the trail head in the early afternoon. We packed a bit over 7 miles that afternoon, leaving the last 3+ for early Saturday.

Crack in the snow field referred to above. Not bad snow depth for late July! Some of the snowfields and cornices looked 15-20 feet deep.

view of the lake from above. Camp was in the trees to the right of lake.

From area above camp, looking south towards Red Castle Peak.

 

[grinch]

Nice! Im taking my girlfriend who is from Iowa to that area this weekend. After 5 years of living in Utah she is still in awe of our mountains and well she hasn't even really "been" in the high Uintas. The pics are great motivation!

 

[sixstringsteve]

That's a great leader-to-kid ratio. Looks like a great time.

 

[Houndoc]

I was very glad we had the number of leaders we did- worked out very well.

Grinch- hope it all goes/went well. The elevation is the hard part! Makes you realize how much your body like oxygen.

 

[Grim]

very nice !!...a trip you all will never forget . thanks for the pis /post

 

[Clutch]

Wow, Great post, thanks for sharing. I was a varsity coach for a couple years and we spent some great time around lake Cepeta with the scouts. We even placed a Geo Cache at Walk Up lake full of Geodes from another outing. I need to get up there.

 

[Houndoc]

very nice !!...a trip you all will never forget . thanks for the pis /post

Very true! I especially with the fact my 13 year old was one of the scouts. Great way to spend a week together.

I love being a scout leader- where you "have" to do things like backpacking, waterskiing etc etc.

 

[WasatchXj]

Awesome trip!
I'm looking for some places like this i can take my XJ up with, and go and catch some fish.
Any ideas?

 

[Houndoc]

Coming from the Kamas side into the Uintas there are some roads off the highway, Murdock Basin and Spring Canyon Roads being the longest, but I don't know much detail about either one.

I am sure others on here can give some more info.