A few days in Utah

Aspens starting to turn in the forest near Salt Lake City

Since our appointment to fix our refrigerator was a week away in Colorado Springs, we decided to stop for a few days near Salt Lake City to catch some aspen color and maybe hike in another wilderness.  The drive from Boise to Salt Lake City was a long, windy one with a thunderstorm and hard rain thrown in just for fun. To top it off, we arrived in time for rush hour traffic.  What a nerve-wracking day!   It was unbelievably busy in Salt Lake City for a Tuesday and we were very lucky to find the last spot in a commercial campground.  That was the good thing; the not so good thing was the campground was next to Interstate 15 and very noisy.

 

The Alpine Loop Road through American Fork Canyon

 

 

After a not very restful night listening to traffic, we were so ready to be away from civilization and back in the forest.  The little town of Heber City, about an hour east of Salt Lake and in the middle of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, seemed like it would fit our needs.  And as it turned out, it did.  We found a great campground on the edge of town with a hot tub that I came to appreciate over the next few days.

 

Aspens near Mt. Timpanogos in American Fork Canyon

 

Just down the road from Heber City was American Fork Canyon, a beautiful canyon where Sundance is located.  We visited Sundance and had a delicious lunch at the Foundry Grill.  (No Robert Redford or other movie star sightings however.)  After lunch we finished driving the road through the canyon, a.k.a. the Alpine Loop Drive.  The aspens were beginning to turn and the drive was so beautiful that we decided to come back the next day and hike some of the trails.

 

Fall leaves on the Box Elder Trail

 

Our morning hike the following day was the Box Elder Trail into the Lone Mountain Wilderness.  There had been rain (remember our drive 2 days ago) and recent snow so the trail was muddy and sloppy in places. It was also a steep trail and we did a bit of slipping and sliding.  After two miles into the wilderness we decided to turn back.  We were tired of the mud and there was a trail to Stewart Falls near Sundance that we wanted to work in that afternoon.

 

Picturesque Lake near the Mirror Lake Highway

 

The Stewart Falls Trail was much less muddy but it was also way more popular.  Where we only saw one person in the Lone Mountain Wilderness that morning, the afternoon was full of hikers to the falls.  The walk was pretty but the falls themselves were a bit of a disappointment – not much water.  Spring or early summer would be the better time to view a more spectacular falls.
 

In the snow above Lofty Lake, Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest

Lofty Lake

 

Our third day in the area we ventured a little north and east along Highway 150, the Mirror Lake Highway.  This scenic road cuts through a section of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest passing interesting geological formations and many beautiful alpine lakes.  We enjoyed the drive stopping several times along the way before we arrived at Pass Lake where our hike began.

 
 

Following a 5-mile loop trail, we climbed steadily passing Scout Lake, Picturesque Lake and several smaller unnamed lakes.  As we neared the pass and dropped down to Lofty Lake we got into about 8 to 18 inches of packed snow.  We had a nice lunch on the south facing, snow-free shore of Lofty Lake.  Sitting on the rocks and basking in the sun, we warmed up enough to climb out of the lake basin through more snow.  The snow stayed with us until we dropped down to Kamas Lake and from there the trail was clear all the way back to the trailhead.

 

Coming down from Lofty Lake

Kamas Lake

We had a nice drive back to Heber City stopping at Mirror Lake and Provo Falls on the way.  After an early dinner and then a long soak in the hot tub, we turned in early.  The next day was to be another long one.  We were going to drive all the way through southern Wyoming to Ft. Collins, Colorado, about 7 hours on the road.

 

David's Stats:
Days Hiked   2 
Total Miles Hiked   11.98  
Ave. Miles per Day      5.99
Total Elevation Gain     3,004
Ave. Elevation Gain per day   1,502