Brown Duck Basin

Aldaron

Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2012
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The first, and last, time I went to Brown Duck Basin was about seven years ago on a solo overnighter. Since I had lived in Utah less than a year at that time, and I've been to a LOT of places since then, I couldn't remember much about the hike. I vaguely recalled that it was kind of steep and kind of rocky, but that was about it. So this weekend, as I was trying to decide where to go for this unusually early summer, I decided to take my wife up to Brown Duck so she could see it.

Since the trailhead is at the end of a paved road at Moon Lake, north of Duchesne, we made the drive in my wife's sedan...it was nice to save money on gas. The campground at the end of the road was crowded, but there wasn't a single car parked at the trailhead when we arrived. Just a few yards from the parking lot, there is a trail intersection. A sign says that the trail straight ahead goes to Brown Duck, and the right-hand trail goes to Lake Fork. We took the right trail, though, which intersects with a branch of the Brown Duck trail about 3/4 of a mile down the trail. This route looked a little shorter on the map, so we gave it a shot. After walking behind the campground, we took a left onto the signed Brown Duck fork.

And thus began the ascent.

I can summarize the next six miles pretty easily: up, rocky, forested. About 5 of the next 6 miles gain almost continuous elevation. And about 3 miles of that are completely covered in basketball to softball sized rocks. And the trail is completely forested, so there are virtually no views.

Sound fun?

Really, it wasn't. The hike up was not very much fun. But it had a good side: we saw exactly the same number of deer tracks as we did other boot prints, and we saw absolutely no other people. Once we arrived at Brown Duck Lake, the wind was blowing pretty good off the mountains, but we found a decent site in the trees on the east side of the lake. After dinner, we took a short walk over to Island Lake, and then settled in for the night.

The next day, we had some great views of the calm lake, and watched lots and lots of trout surfacing on the lake, before heading back home.

DSC00873.jpg


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DSC00878.jpg


While the hike up to Brown Duck was unpleasant, the solitude was great, and the lakes were really pretty. The rocks along the trail were really confounding. For miles I kept wondering why they hadn't cleared the rocks when they built the trail, but I eventually decided that the rocks had probably just been exposed from erosion of the sand on the trail. I briefly considered organizing a trail crew on here to go up there and clear three miles of rocks off the trails, but I decided that was probably a pretty crazy idea! I probably won't go back here, just because the hike up was that unpleasant. But I do think the basin is worth doing at least once. It was a good hike to shake out the winter cobwebs and remind the body that summer is here and it's time to get back down to business.
 
Man... you make that sound so... terrible! Haha! That's kinda the vibe I've gotten from much of that area. Not bad but not great. Sounds like a nice weekend though and that first shot is particularly nice. Thanks for posting.

Oh btw, what's that about Golden's? That lake isn't really full of Golden Trout, right?
 
I don't know anything about fish...maybe it was a different kind of fish. I could see several of them...what should they have been?
 
Haha! Probably Brook Trout. Maybe some Cutthroats and Tigers. If that lake was actually full of Goldens, you would NOT have been alone. :) There's a few lakes in the range that have them, but for the most part Golden Trout are not found in the Uintas. The Winds on the other hand...
 
Trout surfacing everywhere on a calm
Windless surface. SouNds like a bit of a good dream to me..... I
Don't mind hiking in the shade if the timber. And solitude can't be beat especially considering that area is famous for heavy horse traffic
 
Yeah, it definitely had its good points...you just have to REALLY keep reminding yourself of those good points while you're hiking in!
 
@Aldaron have you been to Atwine Lake?
I'm curious about the trail that breaks off from the trail to Brown Duck Lake. I understand that there is a trail, but only on newer maps.
 
No, sorry, I didn't cut over that way. I remember looking at the map and thinking about going there, but we didn't do it. To be honest, I can't remember for sure whether or not I noticed the trail going that way, but I *feel* like I saw the trail.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.
 
I did a loop in the area on this weekend last year. Up to Brown Duck, over Tworoose Pass, over to Cleveland Pass, back south over East Basin Pass, back to Brown Duck Lake.

Yes, the trail between Moon Lake and Brown Duck Lake is fairly annoying. Tworoose Pass is pretty uninteresting. Kidney Lake is pretty cool. Cleveland Pass is an alright area, and Clements Lake was also pretty swell.

Yes it's a lot of below-treeline and some of the miles are just forest, but it's a nice early-season trip because it's southfacing and not too high up. Still plenty of water walking at this time of year though.
 
The first, and last, time I went to Brown Duck Basin was about seven years ago on a solo overnighter. Since I had lived in Utah less than a year at that time, and I've been to a LOT of places since then, I couldn't remember much about the hike. I vaguely recalled that it was kind of steep and kind of rocky, but that was about it. So this weekend, as I was trying to decide where to go for this unusually early summer, I decided to take my wife up to Brown Duck so she could see it.

Since the trailhead is at the end of a paved road at Moon Lake, north of Duchesne, we made the drive in my wife's sedan...it was nice to save money on gas. The campground at the end of the road was crowded, but there wasn't a single car parked at the trailhead when we arrived. Just a few yards from the parking lot, there is a trail intersection. A sign says that the trail straight ahead goes to Brown Duck, and the right-hand trail goes to Lake Fork. We took the right trail, though, which intersects with a branch of the Brown Duck trail about 3/4 of a mile down the trail. This route looked a little shorter on the map, so we gave it a shot. After walking behind the campground, we took a left onto the signed Brown Duck fork.

And thus began the ascent.

I can summarize the next six miles pretty easily: up, rocky, forested. About 5 of the next 6 miles gain almost continuous elevation. And about 3 miles of that are completely covered in basketball to softball sized rocks. And the trail is completely forested, so there are virtually no views.

Sound fun?

Really, it wasn't. The hike up was not very much fun. But it had a good side: we saw exactly the same number of deer tracks as we did other boot prints, and we saw absolutely no other people. Once we arrived at Brown Duck Lake, the wind was blowing pretty good off the mountains, but we found a decent site in the trees on the east side of the lake. After dinner, we took a short walk over to Island Lake, and then settled in for the night.

The next day, we had some great views of the calm lake, and watched lots and lots of trout surfacing on the lake, before heading back home.

View attachment 11327


View attachment 11328


View attachment 11329


While the hike up to Brown Duck was unpleasant, the solitude was great, and the lakes were really pretty. The rocks along the trail were really confounding. For miles I kept wondering why they hadn't cleared the rocks when they built the trail, but I eventually decided that the rocks had probably just been exposed from erosion of the sand on the trail. I briefly considered organizing a trail crew on here to go up there and clear three miles of rocks off the trails, but I decided that was probably a pretty crazy idea! I probably won't go back here, just because the hike up was that unpleasant. But I do think the basin is worth doing at least once. It was a good hike to shake out the winter cobwebs and remind the body that summer is here and it's time to get back down to business.
 
I have no idea why you or anyone else would spend so much time and effort to go to Brown Duck Lake or any other lake in the Uintas and not do any fishing. There are hundreds of lakes in the Uintas that you can have all to yourself with not much effort.
 
I have no idea why you or anyone else would spend so much time and effort to go to Brown Duck Lake or any other lake in the Uintas and not do any fishing. There are hundreds of lakes in the Uintas that you can have all to yourself with not much effort.
Because some people don't enjoy fishing?

Welcome to BCP by the way!
 
Note to self....

☑️take Brown Duck off of to-do list.

Thanks:)
 
I did a loop in the area on this weekend last year. Up to Brown Duck, over Tworoose Pass, over to Cleveland Pass, back south over East Basin Pass, back to Brown Duck Lake.

Yes, the trail between Moon Lake and Brown Duck Lake is fairly annoying. Tworoose Pass is pretty uninteresting. Kidney Lake is pretty cool. Cleveland Pass is an alright area, and Clements Lake was also pretty swell.

Yes it's a lot of below-treeline and some of the miles are just forest, but it's a nice early-season trip because it's southfacing and not too high up. Still plenty of water walking at this time of year though.


Awesome. Thats exactly what we are doing. We'll be spending some time at Squaw lake and Shamrock lake as well. Heading out in a couple weeks. Did you do any fishing on your hike?
 
Awesome. Thats exactly what we are doing. We'll be spending some time at Squaw lake and Shamrock lake as well. Heading out in a couple weeks. Did you do any fishing on your hike?
Yeah we were there real early in the season and they were huuuuungry. The lakes just SE of Cleveland Pass (forget their names) were particularly good.
 
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