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- Jul 8, 2015
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- 42
July 6-8th, 2016
This is a backpacking trip I've been wanting to take for a long time. My family has been camping at the Browne Lake campground in the northeastern Uintas every July for years. I had always seen the nearby trailheads in passing and took note that they were very lightly used. At most I've seen one car parked for a day or two, usually they are empty.
A few years back my wife and I got serious about exploring the trail system around Browne Lake. It started with short family day hikes. A trip to the Ute Mountain Fire lookout (recently re-opened and worth checking out). A stroll down the Carter Military trail where it parallels Carter Creek from the Browne Lake dam. That lead to longer full day hikes to Tepee Lakes and beyond.
It was exciting what we discovered on these now seemingly forgotten trails. After a day out we always wanted to see and experience more. We knew we needed to spend some nights in the backcountry of this region and we finally had our chance.
Browne Lake is located in the northeastern Uintas near the Flaming Gorge area. Accessed via the upper terminus of the Sheep creek loop where it connects to UT-44 then on to the Forest Service Uintas North Slope Road. There are several other road accessed lakes in the area as well as 4x4 and ATV trails. This makes a it a great location as a basecamp to access the many outdoor recreation opportunities in the area. The campground has no running water so be sure to bring your own supply.
Browne Lake from the Eastern shore. Leidy Peak, Mount Untermann and unnamed points 12,006 and 11,425 in the distance:
The eastern Uintas have a different character from the better known High Uintas near the Mirror Lake Highway. The peaks are in the 11-12,000 ft range and the approach to them is longer. Since much of the area is not wilderness most people are there to RV, ATV, fish and boat.
The sky seems bigger out here to me.
The night sky is dark, the milky way is bright and you don't have to wait long to see shooting stars across the skyline. After 3 nights of enjoying campground life with my parents, siblings and their families we had our chance to leave the kids behind with Grandma and Grandpa and set out for two nights on the trail.
The high country is calling.
July 6th, we set out in the afternoon from the Browne Lake -> Leidy Peak trailhead. Excitement was high we were looking forward to more exploration of this area over two nights.
The trail starts off climbing gradually through rolling hills of lodgepole pine. Lodgepoles tend to fall over in the wind, the pine bark beetle infestation also takes its toll so there are many downed trees. Off trail travel would be very slow going in this zone.
This first section of trail is relatively well marked and well trodden making for easy navigation.
About three miles in you come to a bridge crossing East Fork Carter Creek. In previous years it was washed out, but it looks like the forest service built a new one recently.
One of the most unusual Forest Service trail bridges I've seen.
It was just a pile of sticks and small trees on top of larger logs. Here's the remnants of the bridge it replaced.
Three years ago it was in much better shape, but still unusable:
From the bridge the trail makes a steep ascent along the East Fork Carter Creek for another 3/4 mile until it tops out at the Sheep Creek Canal. Large, old aspen trees make a brief appearance for this creekside section. I don't approve of carving your name in aspens, but the carvings that exist indicate the trail was more heavily used in the 1960's and 1970's.
When the trail reaches the canal you can shortcut along it to the southeast if Tepee lakes is your destination.
We stayed with the trail to the junction where the Red and Tepee lake trails split from the Leidy Peak trail. At this elevation you will start to notice that the Lodgepole Pine slowly gives way to Engelmann Spruce.
From here our destination was Red Lake. An additional 1.67 miles from the trail junction. The Red Lake trail travels south along the western shore of Tepee Lake #1 before winding through the Englemann Spruce forest to reach Red Lake. Since we had an afternoon start, daylight was waning and we stopped at a camp near a large bog 1/4 mile from Red Lake. The wide open clearing provided a nice view of Leidy Peak in the golden evening light.
I hiked to the western edge of the bog to filter water. This was my view in the fading evening light.
We retired to our camp for the evening and spent some time decompressing around the campfire before turning in to our tent.
Thursday 7/7, the plan was to hike to Leidy Peak. I woke early to get a quick look at Red Lake before we left the area. On my way I discovered another camp close to the lake. I think the bog-side camp in the spruce trees had more room.
Just over the hill from this camp the trail arrives at Red Lake. It was looking pretty good in the breeze-free morning.
Wildflowers were abundant due to the wet spring in the Uintas this year.
Colorado Columbine
Violets and Grouseberry blossoms
I was really excited to finally find a Fairyslipper orchid (Calypso bulbosa). This was my first time seeing the plant in the wild and we saw serveral.
Mosquito for scale!
Speaking of mosquitoes, they were out in force from 9000' and up. We were using liberal applications of DEET and even used our headnets for a few stretches.
We returned along the Red Lake trail to the Tepee Lakes junction. Our plan was to set up camp and stash our extra gear so we could travel light up to Leidy Peak.
Tepee Lake #1 western shore:
We discovered an overly constructed cowboy camp at the Red Lake trail junction the day before and decided to set our camp there.
We ate lunch, lightened our packs and set off down the lightly traveled Leidy Peak trail.
The trail starts out in a tangle of fallen lodgepole, but soon the forest opens up to gladed Engelmann spruce.
This trail seems to be maintained only once yearly, so fallen trees across the trail and route finding are frequently a problem. Above is an example of a nice section of trail with deadfall cut and the trail wore in.
We stopped at an inlet to East Fork Carter Creek to filter water and spotted this little slime mold and white violet.
The Leidy Peak trail in this section parallels East Fork Carter Creek for two miles before it starts its ascent.
Notice the creek is still flowing high and silty. Spring runoff was still tapering which is later than I've seen in recent years.
We discovered another nice camp on East Fork Carter Creek just before the trail breaks away to gain the ridge to Leidy. We'll be using this site when we come back to the area next year.
The trail then veers east toward the ridge that will be traversed to gain Leidy Peak.
You can see this talus slope looming over the final bog that must be crossed.
I love the view of this valley leading to Mount Untermann.
The climb in this section gets real, and the trail gets hard to follow. Keep your eye out for the occasional cairn as it wends its way up the northern edge of the rock field.
Eventually Red Lake pops out as you gain the ridgeline. You can see Browne and Sheep Creek Lakes in the distance.
Its well worth venturing to the eastern edge of the ridge to look over Red Lake.
Looking south to the headwall of the Red Lake valley and Leidy Peak. You could hear water rushing below the rocks, but no stream was visible.
As you climb the spruce get shorter and more sparse and the alpine tundra begins to open up.
Distance is deceiving above treeline, it took us longer than expected to reach the bare talus of Leidy Peak.
Wildflowers were hard to miss.
Sadly, we ran out of time this day to round the northwest face of Leidy and ascend the ridgeline to the peak. We're determined to make the summit from the northern approach in the future.
We lingered on the tundra turf for a few minutes before returning the way we came. Arriving at the cowboy camp by the light of our headlamps for dinner and much deserved rest.
Friday morning we returned to the Browne Lake -> Leidy Peak trailhead to reunite with our kids and clean off two days worth of trail life. We camped in the area one more night before returning to Salt Lake.
Thanks for reading about our adventure in the under utilized Northeast Uintas. Maybe this trip report will sway a few of you to check it out. Its ok if you don't, because we sure enjoyed being the only two people out here for three days
This is a backpacking trip I've been wanting to take for a long time. My family has been camping at the Browne Lake campground in the northeastern Uintas every July for years. I had always seen the nearby trailheads in passing and took note that they were very lightly used. At most I've seen one car parked for a day or two, usually they are empty.
A few years back my wife and I got serious about exploring the trail system around Browne Lake. It started with short family day hikes. A trip to the Ute Mountain Fire lookout (recently re-opened and worth checking out). A stroll down the Carter Military trail where it parallels Carter Creek from the Browne Lake dam. That lead to longer full day hikes to Tepee Lakes and beyond.
It was exciting what we discovered on these now seemingly forgotten trails. After a day out we always wanted to see and experience more. We knew we needed to spend some nights in the backcountry of this region and we finally had our chance.
Browne Lake is located in the northeastern Uintas near the Flaming Gorge area. Accessed via the upper terminus of the Sheep creek loop where it connects to UT-44 then on to the Forest Service Uintas North Slope Road. There are several other road accessed lakes in the area as well as 4x4 and ATV trails. This makes a it a great location as a basecamp to access the many outdoor recreation opportunities in the area. The campground has no running water so be sure to bring your own supply.
Browne Lake from the Eastern shore. Leidy Peak, Mount Untermann and unnamed points 12,006 and 11,425 in the distance:
The eastern Uintas have a different character from the better known High Uintas near the Mirror Lake Highway. The peaks are in the 11-12,000 ft range and the approach to them is longer. Since much of the area is not wilderness most people are there to RV, ATV, fish and boat.
The sky seems bigger out here to me.
The night sky is dark, the milky way is bright and you don't have to wait long to see shooting stars across the skyline. After 3 nights of enjoying campground life with my parents, siblings and their families we had our chance to leave the kids behind with Grandma and Grandpa and set out for two nights on the trail.
The high country is calling.
July 6th, we set out in the afternoon from the Browne Lake -> Leidy Peak trailhead. Excitement was high we were looking forward to more exploration of this area over two nights.
The trail starts off climbing gradually through rolling hills of lodgepole pine. Lodgepoles tend to fall over in the wind, the pine bark beetle infestation also takes its toll so there are many downed trees. Off trail travel would be very slow going in this zone.
This first section of trail is relatively well marked and well trodden making for easy navigation.
About three miles in you come to a bridge crossing East Fork Carter Creek. In previous years it was washed out, but it looks like the forest service built a new one recently.
One of the most unusual Forest Service trail bridges I've seen.
It was just a pile of sticks and small trees on top of larger logs. Here's the remnants of the bridge it replaced.
Three years ago it was in much better shape, but still unusable:
From the bridge the trail makes a steep ascent along the East Fork Carter Creek for another 3/4 mile until it tops out at the Sheep Creek Canal. Large, old aspen trees make a brief appearance for this creekside section. I don't approve of carving your name in aspens, but the carvings that exist indicate the trail was more heavily used in the 1960's and 1970's.
When the trail reaches the canal you can shortcut along it to the southeast if Tepee lakes is your destination.
We stayed with the trail to the junction where the Red and Tepee lake trails split from the Leidy Peak trail. At this elevation you will start to notice that the Lodgepole Pine slowly gives way to Engelmann Spruce.
From here our destination was Red Lake. An additional 1.67 miles from the trail junction. The Red Lake trail travels south along the western shore of Tepee Lake #1 before winding through the Englemann Spruce forest to reach Red Lake. Since we had an afternoon start, daylight was waning and we stopped at a camp near a large bog 1/4 mile from Red Lake. The wide open clearing provided a nice view of Leidy Peak in the golden evening light.
I hiked to the western edge of the bog to filter water. This was my view in the fading evening light.
We retired to our camp for the evening and spent some time decompressing around the campfire before turning in to our tent.
Thursday 7/7, the plan was to hike to Leidy Peak. I woke early to get a quick look at Red Lake before we left the area. On my way I discovered another camp close to the lake. I think the bog-side camp in the spruce trees had more room.
Just over the hill from this camp the trail arrives at Red Lake. It was looking pretty good in the breeze-free morning.
Wildflowers were abundant due to the wet spring in the Uintas this year.
Colorado Columbine
Violets and Grouseberry blossoms
I was really excited to finally find a Fairyslipper orchid (Calypso bulbosa). This was my first time seeing the plant in the wild and we saw serveral.
Mosquito for scale!
Speaking of mosquitoes, they were out in force from 9000' and up. We were using liberal applications of DEET and even used our headnets for a few stretches.
We returned along the Red Lake trail to the Tepee Lakes junction. Our plan was to set up camp and stash our extra gear so we could travel light up to Leidy Peak.
Tepee Lake #1 western shore:
We discovered an overly constructed cowboy camp at the Red Lake trail junction the day before and decided to set our camp there.
We ate lunch, lightened our packs and set off down the lightly traveled Leidy Peak trail.
The trail starts out in a tangle of fallen lodgepole, but soon the forest opens up to gladed Engelmann spruce.
This trail seems to be maintained only once yearly, so fallen trees across the trail and route finding are frequently a problem. Above is an example of a nice section of trail with deadfall cut and the trail wore in.
We stopped at an inlet to East Fork Carter Creek to filter water and spotted this little slime mold and white violet.
The Leidy Peak trail in this section parallels East Fork Carter Creek for two miles before it starts its ascent.
Notice the creek is still flowing high and silty. Spring runoff was still tapering which is later than I've seen in recent years.
We discovered another nice camp on East Fork Carter Creek just before the trail breaks away to gain the ridge to Leidy. We'll be using this site when we come back to the area next year.
The trail then veers east toward the ridge that will be traversed to gain Leidy Peak.
You can see this talus slope looming over the final bog that must be crossed.
I love the view of this valley leading to Mount Untermann.
The climb in this section gets real, and the trail gets hard to follow. Keep your eye out for the occasional cairn as it wends its way up the northern edge of the rock field.
Eventually Red Lake pops out as you gain the ridgeline. You can see Browne and Sheep Creek Lakes in the distance.
Its well worth venturing to the eastern edge of the ridge to look over Red Lake.
Looking south to the headwall of the Red Lake valley and Leidy Peak. You could hear water rushing below the rocks, but no stream was visible.
As you climb the spruce get shorter and more sparse and the alpine tundra begins to open up.
Distance is deceiving above treeline, it took us longer than expected to reach the bare talus of Leidy Peak.
Wildflowers were hard to miss.
Sadly, we ran out of time this day to round the northwest face of Leidy and ascend the ridgeline to the peak. We're determined to make the summit from the northern approach in the future.
We lingered on the tundra turf for a few minutes before returning the way we came. Arriving at the cowboy camp by the light of our headlamps for dinner and much deserved rest.
Friday morning we returned to the Browne Lake -> Leidy Peak trailhead to reunite with our kids and clean off two days worth of trail life. We camped in the area one more night before returning to Salt Lake.
Thanks for reading about our adventure in the under utilized Northeast Uintas. Maybe this trip report will sway a few of you to check it out. Its ok if you don't, because we sure enjoyed being the only two people out here for three days
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