Uintas Three Nighter

Mike K

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Joined
Jul 6, 2012
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878
June 7 - June 10, 2018

Our annual June Uintas trip happened way early this year. So little snow! Sad. But, it was a excellent trip - the weather was perfect, scenery was great, we only saw a few mosquitoes (wow!), fishing was good, snow was mostly a non issue, and the company was great!

Here are some pics with inline comments...


A convenient two-log river crossing on the way in:

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Dave's is blurry in the pic, but we scored a nice big campsite for our first of three nights. You can see all three of our tents. We hiked in 4-5 miles before we figured we'd better set up camp before darkness set in:

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We saw so many trail runners on this trip. I think it's gaining in popularity. These guys were doing a big point-to-point. I recognized them right away and was excited to meet them and say hi. It was some of the Mediocre Amateur crew! I started following them on YouTube after finding out about their channel in this thread. They do fun stuff and make some great videos. Lane asked if we could get a picture with them. I think we made them feel like movie stars =) (I guess they kind of are since they even had a tv show).

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Some shots of our base camp for the next two nights:


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We made our way up to Rocky Sea Pass for a day hike with hopes of being able to get up and over into Rock Creek Basin without too much difficulty:

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Had a few snow crossings that weren't bad if you're comfortable traversing snow (it was just soft enough to afford good footing). Here's an a.m. shot:

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And a p.m. shot...shows the steepness of one of the snow traverses:

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A look into the basin from the pass:

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A look back at the Rocky Sea Pass from inside Rock Creek Basin. The trail was a soggy mess in a lot of areas. Frogs were croaking up storm. But when we walked close they put on their invisibility cloaks and disappeared. We could not find one for the life of us! =)

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Cool moose sighting:

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Long day, tired legs. Lane rests up for the hike back to base camp (at Black Lake):

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Attempt at being artistic:

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Plenty of snow drifts to navigate:

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Heading back to camp:

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The next day, Lane took off while Dave and I explored Four Lakes Basin. I had only been there once (in October...brr!)

Funny story in the basin...

At one point in the basin Dave walked over to me, "Man! That's like the 4th time in my life that's happened to me!" - "What happened?" - "I walked up on people having sex in the outdoors again!" (I was with him one of the times coming out of Paria Canyon when the same thing happened).

Haha. He said he pretended not to see, casted once into the lake, reeled in, and then walked the other direction. I guess they figured they had the lake to themselves.

We rocked-hopped around the northwest side of this lake. Ugh. My out-of-shape legs were already tired from the day before! Caught some dink cuts on the far side of the lake.

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A nice sized brookie out of another lake:

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Back near camp...some wildflowers:
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And a final sunset to cap it off:
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Such a great trip!! It's not often that all the stars align and all the elements of a backpacking trip are nearly perfect.


Then only downside...a blown baffle in my like-new Exped Winterlite pad. =(

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The End
 

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Looks like a cool trip. I'm a little surprised you saw so many people this early in the season. Were you meeting them in Rock Creek or were they mostly on the west side of Rocky Sea? I guess the word is out: Unitas are open!
 
Looks like a cool trip. I'm a little surprised you saw so many people this early in the season. Were you meeting them in Rock Creek or were they mostly on the west side of Rocky Sea? I guess the word is out: Unitas are open!


I was surprised to see so many people out as well. I was also surprised to see how little snow there was for this early in June. Most of the people we saw were on the Highline trail. We talked to one guy who said there were many people around Olga and Carolyn Lakes. And then we saw a handful of people in Four Lakes Basin. We didn't see a soul in Rock Creek Basin...I think we were the first to go in there via Rocky Sea Pass.
 
Nice! I'm planning a trip to Rock Creek Basin later in the summer and your TR is getting me excited!
 
Everywhere is getting more and more crowded. I have also noticed the population of trail runners has increased about 500% over the past 5 years.
 
Love your 'artistic attempt'. Glad it was such a great trip! Thanks for the share!
 
Very pretty. I love the look of the snow drifts look draped on the gray talus. Probably a b*tch to hike across though I'm guessing.
 
Crazy to think about there being many people around Carolyn and Olga lakes after having Olga all to ourselves when @Parma and I did most of the Highline and when considering that they are a bit off trail. I was in Grandaddy Basin this past weekend for a night, and man, whenever I stopped at the edge of a lake to take a photo, I was plastered with mosquitos instantly. Only by vigorously hiking and then setting up camp deeper in a more wooded area were they a non-issue. Nice TR!
 
@Vegan.Hiker - The snow crossings going over the pass weren't too bad actually. No crazy post holing, but soft enough to not need traction devices.

@WasatchWill - Yeah, I was surprised to hear about all the people at Carolyn and Olga. I didn't actually see them, just heard about them second hand. So the skeeters were out in force in Grandaddy Basin huh? I was pretty sure the mosquitoes were just about to hatch as our trip was ending. Starting seeing one or two our last night. I'm glad you were able to find an area to set up camp where they weren't an issue.
 
Thanks for the report and pictures. I've been to many places in the Uintas but have actuall never been over Rocky Sea Pass yet. I tend to stay away from the crowds and popular places and go places that others don't. But I'm planning on going this year and this post has me excited even though I won't be alone. Thanks again.
 
Thanks for the report and pictures. I've been to many places in the Uintas but have actuall never been over Rocky Sea Pass yet. I tend to stay away from the crowds and popular places and go places that others don't. But I'm planning on going this year and this post has me excited even though I won't be alone. Thanks again.

I'm with you, I like to have as much solitude as possible. I hope you have a good trip when you go. It's a big basin so I bet you'll be able to find some solitude somewhere off the beaten path.

There's so much to explore. I've only scratched the surface of that basin. I've been meaning to do a point to point and spend at least 2 nights in there sometime.
 
I'm with you, I like to have as much solitude as possible. I hope you have a good trip when you go. It's a big basin so I bet you'll be able to find some solitude somewhere off the beaten path.

There's so much to explore. I've only scratched the surface of that basin. I've been meaning to do a point to point and spend at least 2 nights in there sometime.
I'll get there and find some solitude for sure. A point to point with several days would be pretty awesome. Hope you get to do that soon.
 
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