need help in the Uintas!

[nate1031]

ORIGINAL POST: I'm new to this site so I apologize if this is in the wrong spot but here's the scoop...I'm a scout leader. I'm a young guy who loves the outdoors and loves flyfishing. That's why it's a shock to see these boys so lacadasical (sp?) about getting out and doing anything new and/or adventurous. It's so hard to get them to do anything. So anyway we've been planning to go backpacking in the Uintas for our week long summer camp and we've already gone on some "warm up" camping trips. So I just had a baby and haven't been around for the last few weeks so then when I got an update of where they were thinking of going to a few lakes around the mirror lake highway. SO disappointing. It's not just the boys that haven't been exposed to some good 'ol backpacking and actually getting out and away from people but also the other leaders.

I can't cut them short and let them go on a lame trip. I gotta get these little nintendo children out to see the beauty Utah has to offer. Here's the thing, I'm not that familiar with the Uintas. I've been looking through my topo map and a couple fat books that have that have some info about the area and I'm still trying to find the right drainage etc.

I'm looking for a place not too far of a hike (because we have people coming and going midweek etc. and i don't think the other leaders will go for it) but somewhere a little less traveled to give them a taste of what it's like away from car camping. Also some good fishing would be nice as well obviously.

Any feedback would seriously be greatly appreciated.

LATEST UPDATE
Ok so unfortunately it sounds like we are really going to have to find a place for basecamp that is car accessible and make only overnight or two nights at the most excursions away from basecamp. This really limits options. I'm looking to get away from people. I've narrowed it down to a few different places that seem to be the best for the limitations we have. I would GREATLY appreciate if anyone has been to these areas and can fill me in as far as A) the amount of people that we may expect B) the fishing quality C) scenery. The areas I have narrowed it down to (still open to suggestions) are:

1. The area of Little Elk, Big Elk, and Lower Shingle Creek Lakes (Provo Drainage)
2. " " Buckeye, Haystack, Blue, and Beth lakes (Provo Drainage)
3. Hoover, Marshall, Sheperd, Maba Lakes OR Echo, Gem, Blizzard, Joan, Pyramid Lakes (Duchesne Drainage)
4. Chepeta, Wigwam, Papoose, Mocassin, Elbow, Walk-up Lakes (Whiterocks Drainage)

If anyone has any helpful info on these areas feel free to post, email, call or whatever. I'd greatly appreciate it. I also appreciate all the feedback I got so far. Hope everyone is enjoying the fishing out there.
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[doggonefishin]

I am not familiar with all of you options, but I do know that the road to the lakes in #3 is a very rough one and a good 4X4 is needed. I believe the same still applies to your #2 as well. (Nevertheless, I love going to the Echo lake area, good fishing, great scenery)

You may also consider camping at either of the lakes around the Crystal lake trailhead. (Washington lake or Trial lake) You can get there on a PAVED road, national forest campgrounds for a base, and there are trails going off from the trailhead to a huge variety of lakes, including some with grayling in them. The hikes from this trailhead also are generally easy enough for even those couch potato scouts to handle. Trial and Washington lakes are heavily stocked so if your boys can't catch anything in the backcountry, they could ring up a few fish around base camp with minimal skills.

Also consider camping at Mirror lake and going on the Bonnie lake trail. Approx. 1 mile hike. Again, easy road access and campgrounds.
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[line_dangler]

[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]I am too to hear that you will not be able to teach and take the fellows on a longet wilderness trip. [frown] I guess their parents need a good talking to, I tell you what.

I tell you what though, it is not fair to say one area of the High Uintas is better than another. They are too dang unique and beuatiful each corner you head to. But considering your limitations and aspirations for as few people as possible I would rule out your options 1-3 right away. Especially 1. Too close to Hwy. 150 and too accessible on that side and trails.

I have only explored and fished 2-3 very little, and they are better in terms of less people than 1 but still, just for one or two day trips and roads nearby it is not the best in my opinion. Don't know when you are heading out but the lakes you mentioned there like Pyramid are great but for few people your option 4 is best.

My suggestionis like you have already picked out your option 4, the Whiterocks River Area. Chapeta lake is great, and there are a few other smaller lakes in the area very close, like Reader Lakes and Queant Lake. From the South Slope, like you are planning, a challenging hike for the group would be Tamarack Lake, but maybe you have a tough group [][laugh]. Dang beuatiful scenery on the way and there though. I tell you what, dang beautiful.
Great brook trout, cutrhroat trout and some of the smaller ones have grayling-I have only caught real small ones though in one of the unmaned ponds.

You ought to have no problem parking the vehicles on a side camping spot or just a little off the main dirt road there. Speaking of dirt roads, I would not take any 2WD Vans or cars there. Just would not advise it. The only van I would take there is one with 4WD and high clearence. The elevation a few miles out of the towns of Tridell and Whiterocks is mosty above 9000 feet. I would take the west road, out of Whiterocks and head as far as the road takes you or as far as your vehicles can go. That way it is closer to the lots of lakes and less peoplea and ATVs. That way you are closer to the High Uintas Wilderness Boundary so it will feel more wild. []

If you decide on this get some good maps and call up the ranger station for the area to see the info for all the trail conditions. I don't know for this year, the way to Tamarack Lake may be too and unsafe for your group if the snow fields are holding up. They will be able to tell you though.

Okay then, good luck on hiking and fishing. Hope you get them video game addicts hooked on the outdoors and fishing.[] Boy I can recall my first few scout trips and especially the one in camp Steinaker in the Uintas. Sure was a special time. That is real nice that you are gonna do this.
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[brookie]

The boys on here have given you some pretty good ideas. I took my nephew to Echo Lake last Saturday afternoon. We bounced in on a rough road. There were three camps that I could see on the lake - there are not a lot of campsites on the lake but mid-week you should be okay. We caught very small brook trout almost as fast as we could get the renegade behind a bubble in the water. In 2 hours my nephew released over 15 fish. Don't forget the repellent. There were swarms of mosquitoes. Here are a couple photos from Saturday on Echo Lake.
I do prefer taking scouts to lakes that you have to hike at least 5 miles in. That way you get a bit more solitude.
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[lunkerhunter2]

Take this for what it's worth.
Ruth Lake trail head is right below Butterfly lake on the Mirror Lake HWY. It is exactly 1 mile from the pavement and it will give them a taste of real wilderness camping. There is a wonderful lake there that is full of fish and it is a very easy hike for kids and out-of-shape adults. There is plenty of room on the west end of the lake for camping and still close enough to access the vehicles in case of a problem. If you want more info, shoot me a pm.[cool]
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[Igottabigone]

I second the advice to camp around Trial and Washington Lake. There are numerous lakes all within 5 miles of the area. Pass, Wall, Crystal are a few that I can think of off the top of my head that I have fished in that area. The others you mention have rough roads to get into them but they all have fish. I don't think you can go wrong with your suggestions. However, for a base camp area you can't beat the Trial lake area.

[RyanCreek]

Well I wish I knew how old these kids are. When I was in scouting we did many hikes in the uintas, but it wasn't until we were about 16 or so that we took the longer hikes.

Your best bet is to start at the trailhead at trial lake. Make the hike up past Wall Lake. You then pass alot of little ponds and such, and have a choice. You can go west, passing a couple lakes until you terminate at Hidden Lake, and usually there is alot of little brook trout to catch along the way.

However, I prefer staying right and going up over the pass and down to Lovenia Lake. Its only a few miles, but a good hike nonetheless. When I first did it, I was a little overweight nintendo kid, and it was just right. The coolest thing is that when you get on top of that pass you have a spectacular view. Down below to the north you see half a dozen lakes or more. To the south looking down, you see lovenia lake.

Once we kept going past lovenia to Ibantik, which in my opinion is the prettiest lake in the uintas that I've seen. Surrounded by big boulders, but that's about 8 miles if I remember correctly. Lots of kids complained.

If they were older you could kick their butt going over the boulder field to McPheters and Ryder lakes.

Seriously, think Trial Lake trailhead, past wall lake, and up over the pass to Lovenia lake. Its a great scouting hike. You could make it a day hike or camp in the big meadow there. Not too far and better scenery than most of the other hikes suggested.

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[Flyfish4thrills]

I fished the Chepeta lakes in 2006. The road is dirt for a long ways, but I remember it being pretty good the whole way. The road goes right next to Chepeta Lake. From there we hiked and fished the other lakes (except Walk-in lake). The weekend we fished, it was slower fishing. We caught something in every lake, but just a few. It was amazingly beautiful there, and quite cold. We saw 3 people at Chepeta, and then not another soul the rest of the trip. This was in August. I remember that the trails were not firmly established and I had to use my gps to get to some of the lakes.

I fished Washington, Shadow, Rock, Azure and Blue about 10 years ago. Access is excellent, as an oiled road goes all the way to Washington. Cars can drive on the short dirt road there for camping (also have paved spots, I think). It is very beautiful there as well. Fishing was better (but could be simply due to chance). We did well at most of the lakes, but especially well at Shadow and Washington (but that was 10 yrs ago). We only saw people at Washington and Shadow. We hiked to Haystack, Beth and Buckeye as well. Some of them were very low and nearly dry (not sure which ones of those 3). Access to them is more difficult (hiking or road for trucks only, I remember). Verify their "fishability" before going to them. We also tried to drive in to Big Elk and Little Elk lakes. If I remember correctly, it was extremely rocky and rough in our 4x4 truck. I believe we ended up turning around. I think it is more of an atv trail further up (but again, this is my memory from 10 yrs ago, so verify).

I don't know anything about the other lakes you mentioned.

Here are a few pics of each place. The first group are the Chepeta lakes (the panos are not mine...got them years ago and can't remember where). The second group are at Washington, etc.
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[toyguy]

Don't do Chepeta. It's almost a 5 hour drive from SLC to trailhead.

You'll never get'em to sit still that long.

Lotta, lotta good suggestions above 'bout Mirror Lake Hwy access.
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[toyguy]

2 1/2 to Roosevelt \ 1 hour up the road past Neola to the Forest Road (45 - 55 mph) \ 1 hour up the Forest Road (10 - 30 mph) \ pee breaks...

You're right at 5 hours. Max would be 45 minutes less (doubtful), but who's splittin hairs? And I've done this several times; it's always like 4:45.

Proceed on a journey like this with a gaggle of Boy Scounts in a confined area (vehicles) at the risk of your own sanity...[]
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[cbfish]

Nate,

I also am a scout leader and tried this very same thing three years ago. I agree with Lunkerhunter about the Ruth Lake trailhead. We had some kids who were not in shape and leaders as well to travel that trail. You park off the highway at the trailhead and hike in. We hiked into Rith and then went into Jewel lake for camp. About 1.5-1.75 miles off the road. Ruth lake is an easy hike. It allows access to many other lakes very close at hand for day or overnight hikes. Be cautious of bears. We had no trouble but they have had one siting down in Mill City creek by Whitney Res.

We hiked from Jewel to Whiskey Island lake and Teal lake in one day but there was a lot of grumbling. The scouts I have are also nintendo kids and I would have given anything to hike and camp in these mountains. I try to get there as often as I can but it is still not enough. Take the bug spray because the bugs are bad this year. It is very beautiful and we only saw a couple of groups the entire week there.

When are you planning on going?

Good luck and have a great time

cbfish
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[nate1031]

We're going up at the end of this month. Our boys are 12-16. I appreciate all the feedback. It really sounds that because we will have leaders coming in and out during the week (i'll be there the whole week), the other leaders want to be able to basically drive to the base camp. That's why I chose the ones I did. I'll be talking to them again this weekend. I'd almost rather not have the additional leader support come up during the week so that we don't have to worry so much about the distance and the accessibility. I'd really like to get out to Chepeta but that drive sounds too long for the leaders (as opposed to the boys).
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[Uintaman]

Just my suggestion, don't burn the youngins out or they will never want to go, keep it close and short. That being said, probably have to put up with a few people (genearllly nice people, if your group is not loud).

I would suggest, out of the Crystal Lake Trail head, Clyde Lake, almost guaranteed fish, possibly up over the Notch to Lovenia and Ibantic.

Tricky to find trail to Clyde, one small sign 100 feet west of Crystal Lake Trail head to Long and Duck, Cut north at the sign and just keep heading up, it is on the sholder of Mt Watson.

Also 2nd Suggestion, same trailhead, Marjorie, Wier and Pot. About 3 miles one way.
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[Majja]

My wife and I go up over notch when we can only get out for a quick overnighter. Don't know how the fishing is though. I 3rd the Ruth Lake. Let the other demonstrate their ability to follow directions.
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