The stretches between passing other hikers ranged between 10 hours to entire days. Our team has spent a significant amount of their lives in the High Uinta Wilderness of northeastern Utah. The Highline was a great ~80 mile hike that requires some logistical planning but is possible to do from the Salt Lake City area without a car. The Uinta Highline Trail is a great option for those who only have a week to do a big hike (let's call big: 50-100 mi). We did about 70 miles with the focus on hiking. In preparation, I brought along a pair of trekking pants for added protection, but preferred running shorts despite the vulnerability to the pests. My heart pounded as the unknown shape morphed into three female elk that bolted––one l… He arrived earlier than expected; I was just finishing lunch and nowhere near ready. Virtual Tour of Uinta Highline Trail. This may have merely been a product of the heavy snow Utah received this year and our choice to hike in late July, but the hike took us through many boggy areas of standing water and over hundreds of glacial streamlets that inevitably seeped into our trail-running shoes and socks. I’m planning on doing the Highline Trail this year, with my dad, but starting from the east end. Join them on a journey through this incredibly unique, spectacular, and wild mountain range. By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies.Learn More. Sofia Jeremias, Deseret News. PrologueI left Casper and covered 100 miles before camping for the night north of Rawlins, avoiding all the major thunderstorms that threatened the area. Route. Highline Trail is a hiking, trail running, walking adventure located in or near Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, UT. The Uinta Highline Trail runs the length of the high Uinta mountain range through the High Uintas Wilderness in northeastern Utah. From maps, to gear, to insider knowledge, we hope to share everything you will need to make your visit to the Highline Trail safe and enjoyable. 9 part youtube series by Redbeard about the trail. I covered the last 200 miles the following day and met up with Shan, my “shuttle” at the turn off for the Red Cloud Loop north of Vernal, UT. total) and cuts out the least exciting section of the hike. Jul 20, 2015 - Explore Sundev Lohr's board "Uinta Highline Trail" on Pinterest. Overall, the Uinta Highline Trail is a wonderful trail. After an inspiring all-women’s backpacking trip in Colorado last year, I was motivated to plan my first trip out here in Utah. The Uinta Highline Trail is one of the most stunning trails in all the world. Read about my complete Uinta Highline Trail experience, including prep, gear, logistics, and post-hike impressions. Contributors Einstein and Kodak combined their efforts as writer and photographer to put together this photo essay. For most of human history, we lived in wild places. 10 days. Uinta Highline Trail to Blue Lake and Shaler Lake is a 16.8 mile lightly trafficked out and back trail located near Kamas, Utah that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as moderate. Over time, we've gained knowledge about this area and we want to share it with anyone interested in hiking this trail so that they can have a safe and memorable trip. After researching many options we decided that Uinta Highline Trail would be a great option. If you're considering a week-long thru-hike in the American west, the Uinta Highline Trail deserves a look. The terrain, crossing long stretches of forest, treeless tundra, leads the trail through expansive alpine landscapes, separated by rocky passes carved by retreating glaciers. The trip logistics are manageable for out-of-towners and the daily mileage is reasonable for those looking to complete within a week. The Highline Trail in the Uinta Mountains is one of the best mountain trails in the state. Near Leidy Peak (12,028-feet), the boys consulted the map as I passed by and walked into a dense conifer forest. The area between Brook Lake and Fox Lake, and 2. the stream crossings along Lake Fork River west of Lambert Meadow. The Uinta Highline Trail extends 104 miles (167 km) along the east-west oriented crest of the Uinta Mountains. Our Mission. We have developed a love for this region that can't be described in words. The Uinta summers are known for their afternoon storms. This site is dedicated to helping travelers prepare for and execute a successful trip on the Highline Trail. With a travel window of a single week, my pals agreed on hiking east-to-west 78 of the trail's 104 miles, starting from Leidy Peak Trailhead north of Vernal, UT. Well-traveled 19th-century explorer Ferdinand Hayden called Utah's vast Uinta Mountains—with their gorgeous pine forests, high-alpine meadows, and graceful symmetry—his favorite range. Trail. That’s much slower than normal for me, but I’m hiking with a less seasoned backer and I want her to enjoy herself. I did it last year by myself. While the peaks are a bit less extreme looking than those in the Wind River Range to the north or San Juans to the south-east, there is great beauty to the Uintas' seemingly endless basins connected by many picturesque passes and peppered with countless lakes and snowmelt-nourished streams. The Uintas are gorgeous part of the country. SOLITUDE. For each of us, our first experience on the trail was unbelievable! I’m currently planning a trip this summer, but I am unsure how much time to plan. Of course, making sure you'll actually make the arranged pick-up time at the end-point is up to you and your hike itinerary planning. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash. 104 mi. So last winter I began to plan out a trip along the Highline trail covering more than the length of the High Uintas Wilderness area. As a side note, the trail is featured on USGS topo maps, which make navigation prep with both paper and GPS/electronic maps a bit easier. Enjoy & research Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, Utah with trail guides, topo maps, photos, reviews & GPS routes on Trails.com. Many past trip reports described some areas of the Highline trail as little used and easy to lose, so I was expecting to be relying heavily on my GPS and maps. Originally I was planning 7 days, which would be about 15 miles per day. Excellent and thorough guide book on the Uinta Mountains by author Cordell Andersen. The scenery was spectacular. The trail largely follows the ridgeline and offers great views of the valleys. The trail crosses multiple forest districts and is home to hundreds of different plant and animal species. A few friends and I recently finished a thru-hike of the Uinta Highline Trail in northern Utah's Uinta mountains, so I wanted to throw a quick trip-report up here to combat the dearth of detailed info about this hike or the region more generally.. A friend and I hiked a section of the Uinta Highline Trail on August 5-7, totaling 26 miles in about 48 hours. Additionally, the trip from Hayden Pass/Highline Trailhead back to Park City/SLC is much simpler/shorter than Vernal to SLC. I tried to find someone who was up to the challenge and could take a … Has anyone hiked the Uinta Highline Trail before. The trail offers a secondary achievement near the hike's mid point as it tops out on Anderson Pass, just a .7 mile rock scramble from the Utah State Highpoint (Kings Peak, 13,527'). Uinta Highline Trail (Vernal, UT) Trail Map Listings . Trail: Highline Trail, High Uintas, UT Distance: 31 miles Submission: Brent Umphlett Difficulty: moderate Duration: 5 days Rating: 4/5 stars On September 20, 2018, I started a backpacking trip into the High Uintas Wilderness Area from the Highline trailhead, my first attempt at a solo backpacking trip. Show 2 More Check-Ins Jan 22, 2017 Adam Parker. DISTANCE (round-trip) DIFFICULTY. Highline Trail 2012 July 31st - August 4th, 2012 the clan did a long walk across the Uinta Range. The Highline Trail in the Uinta Mountains of Utah, often called the Uinta Highline Trail (UHT), captured my imagination since someone, and I took a trip to the nearby Dinosaur National Monument this past Memorial Day Weekend. Outdoor Evolution recently took a team trip up to Utah to hike the Uinta Highline Trail. Thank you for the excellent photo/video documentation and the excellent write up. I personally found my (very) thin SmartWool running socks to be the preferred sock during the hike because they dried out far quicker than the relatively thicker hiking-specific variants I brought along. I think I passed you two on my last day, your first or second day, just West of Rock Sea Pass. This was my first backpacking trip, and I was nervous about covering so many miles. Sometimes I’d spot a tent far off on the horizon or down in a … After much debating on location, I settled on The Notch Trail, High Uintas because it was super scenic and pretty tame in terms of trail difficulty. Just prepare accordingly based on your comfort among the bugs. By Casey Fiedler . The Uinta Highline Trail is the definition of solitude. Highline Trail in the Uinta Mountains of Utah About the Uinta Highline Trail. Despite our hiking party being a chatty one likely to advertise our presence to any creature in our path, we came across several large herds of elk, 3 moose, over 100 mule deer, hundreds of domestic sheep, and other critters during the hike. A few friends and I recently finished a thru-hike of the Uinta Highline Trail in northern Utah's Uinta mountains, so I wanted to throw a quick trip-report up here to combat the dearth of detailed info about this hike or the region more generally. Our pack weights were between 28 and 14 pounds. Starting the hike from Chepeta Lake Trailhead would shorten the trek by 13 miles (to ~65 mi. 5 friends. Blog/trail guide by Paul Mags that we used to help plan the trip. My hike on the Uinta Highline Trail will cover 65 miles over 5½ days. I know it’s high elevation, so it is a hard to pump out 20+ mile days because of this. A beautiful and unique view can be found around each corner, and for us, that is something we want to share with you. Most of the people we did encounter were around King's Peak and near the many trailheads west of Rocky Sea Pass. Awesome trip report, Eric! Our feet were more often than not wet or damp and the skin problems associated with maceration became a worry. We have developed a love for this region that can't be described in words. It is a true wilderness trail, and does not intersect a road for at least 70 miles. The flight from SLC to Vernal was inexpensive and offered a cool view of the entire Uinta range as a teaser of the hike to come. The trail runs 104 miles east to west, which I’d love to crank out in 5–6 days (17–21 miles per day, which is what I averaged on the JMT). Hikers travel all or part of 60 miles through classic alpine and subalpine Utah. In places, the trail disappears under your feet and merely becomes a route occasionally marked with cairns and the infrequent sign or post. Because the western portion of the Highline trail is quite familiar to me, as I have done a lot of backpacking in the area, I decided to make my life easier and just do a loop using the Trip Report 8 Day Uinta Highline trail loop, August 2013 Focus on hiking means keeping the gear to a minimum and filling the days with a casual strolling pace. Uber: Park City, UT to Salt Lake City, UT (~35 min), Flight: Salt Lake City, UT to Vernal, UT (~45 min in 8 seater prop-plane [commercial flight]), Shuttle: Vernal, UT to Leidy Peak Trailhead in Ashley National Forest (~120 min), Hike: Leidy Peak to Highline Trailhead (Hayden Pass) ~80 miles over 5 days/5 nights, Shuttle: Highline Trailhead, Wasatch National Forest (~75 min) to Park City, UT. The GPS came in handy during both of these sections and we managed to return to the obvious trail within a few minutes. UintaHighlineTraill.com New website with all sorts of Uinta Highline Trail Info. After an enjoyable three-day trip to the Uintas last July, I was eager to return and the Highline Trail was the most obvious candidate for a week-long trip. In half the distance, it includes nearly as many passes as the John Muir Trail. As others had warned about the Uintas, the mosquitoes were abundant around the lakes and boggy areas. I blinked. The trail is around 100 miles long, but most backpacking trips are done over a 70 mile section between Chepeta Lake and Hayden Pass. There were two exceptions to this: 1. Just found this report. Our team has spent a significant amount of their lives in the High Uinta Wilderness of northeastern Utah. PMAgs – East to West – Uinta Highline Trail The eastern terminus is at McKee Draw along U.S. Route 191, between Flaming Gorge Reservoir and Vernal. They blinked. Here is a map with the gps track from our Inreach. Because each traveler has unique challenges and expectations, we have designed this page to be a comprehensive resource for everything associated with the Highline Trail. Summit Post – 9 Days on the Highline Trail. The Highline was a great ~80 mile hike that requires some logistical planning but is possible to do from the Salt Lake City area without a car. We had read that the Uinta Mountains include some of the most contiguous above treeline terrain in the lower 48. About the Forest – Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest Trip Reports Zpacks Trip Report – Uinta Highline ‘18 *This is where we acquired .gpx file to plan our hike and I found it had well-condensed information as well. Along those same lines, the trail can be quite intimidating, and at times can put travelers in unpredictable and deadly situations. The route is class II all the way to the summit, staying just on the E (left) side of the ridge. At the trailhead, I hoisted my 38-pound pack and proceeded up trail number 025. I applied bug-spray once and was glad to have my long-sleeve shirt, but never broke out my head-net or felt the need to don the trekking pants. Highline. Since the terrain starts with the relatively gentle mountains and open meadows of the High Bollies/Eastern Uintas and transitions to the more rugged peaks and massive basins of the High Uintas Wilderness, this trek brings the westward hiker nearer to more stimulating terrain with each mile. 1 trek across Utah's Uinta Highline Trail & a new exciting documentary sharing it all This site is dedicated to helping travelers prepare for and execute a successful trip on the Highline Trail. We set the itinerary to have us hiking Sunday late afternoon through Friday morning, enabling our hiking party to celebrate and indulge over a late breakfast in Park City. I strolled along until I came to a hulking brown form blocking the path, where I stared at three pairs of eyes twenty feet ahead. 3 talking about this. tl;dr: The Uinta Highline Trail was a lovely ~5 day/80 mile thru-hike...mostly on-trail with great views and plenty of wildlife. It was a blast! Cookies help us deliver our Services. We met in Duchesne at 8:00AM on Friday then set up a car shuttle. We were able to find a few trip reports, but the trail appeared to be lightly traveled. We dropped his car off at Chepeta Lake, then drove my truck around to the start of the hike. Uinta. Reading your story brings back all the memories from my own trip. The more I studied the High line trail on the map the more enticing this idea became. Not ultra-light, just enjoyable-light. That modified route (Chepeta Lake TH to Highline TH) stands as a worthy option for those with less time or simply wish to hike fewer miles per day. In fact, the trail is well-marked by cairns (some sections moreso than others) and the trail is, for the most part, obvious. The western terminus is at Hayden Pass near Mirror Lake on Utah Route 150;. The trail is primarily used for hiking, running, camping, horses, and backpacking and is best used from July until September. We were lucky to have decent or better weather-windows for each of the trail's 9 passes. Despite some complexity in transport logistics, drop off and pick up at the trailheads can be done without a car of your own. TIME. Here's a blog post from Andrew Skurka on the general wet-foot topic that the future Highline Trail hiker would be wise to review ahead of time. The regional flights between Vernal and SLC, and various shuttle services in both cities make this thru-hike one that visitors to Utah or those without a car can complete. On day 1, I set up camp at Wilder Lake, a small, quiet mountain lake only 4 miles … We didn't see another hiker for the first 40 miles of trail. Great backpacking trip with VentureOUT 16mi Jul 1, 2017 Jimmy Haugen. That luck cannot be relied on and could complicate pick-up logistics, so it is appropriate to add in buffer time to allow for weather related delays. The Uinta Highline Trail, in northeastern Utah, crosses over seven mountain passes. We saw very few people until getting within 10 miles the hike's end. ALTERNATIVE TO. It's so close to the Highline Trail itself - less than a mile - that to skip it would be a shame. Wasatch Front. 10+ days. Hiking the Quiet Corners of Utah. See more ideas about trail, fantasy football gifts, fantasy football funny. The trail spans over 100 miles and includes over 16,000 feet of elevation gain. To be lightly traveled that we used to help plan the trip enjoy & research National! 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The clan did a long walk across the Uinta Highline Trail '' on Pinterest and wild mountain.... You for the excellent photo/video documentation and the excellent write up hike Chepeta! Trail before additionally, the Uinta Highline Trail will cover 65 miles over 5½ days Paul Mags that we to! Used from July until September including prep, gear, logistics uinta highline trail trip report drop off and pick up at Trailhead... Rocky Sea Pass normal for me, but starting from the East..