August Uintas - Recommendations

[cslebn]

Hi, newb here. Looking for recommendations for where to go car camping in the Uintas in August. Thinking of heading more east to try and get away from people. We'd be bringing dogs, so water is good and less other people is better.

 

[Nick]

What kind of vehicle will you be in? A lot more options with vehicle with 4WD or HC.

 

[cslebn]

Forester.

 

[Nanda]

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but didn't want to create a new one for similar requirement. I really want do do backpacking but my friend is apprehensive and just wants to do car camping. I am trying to avoid crowded spots like trial/washington/mirror lake spots. I want to bring my dog in and get some hiking around so she all nice and tired at night. I also recently bought a tenkara rod, so any place with streams would be nice to try it out. I've a CRV but prefer not to venture into highly rocky/offroads, at least not for long distances. My friend is apprehensive of bears and such. Is there any backpacking spots that has let's say 0% chance of bear encounter, probably sth in upper elevations?
Thanks

 

[Nick]

Car camping -

East is good and mostly car-friendly. WAY less people than the Mirror Lake Highway area. Obviously the lakes with roads right up to them might be a bit busier but there are lots of areas with great solitude and scenery with water nearby. The Spirit/Hoope Lake area is good and you could tie that in with Flaming Gorge. The Blacks Fork area on the north slope is pretty nice too. Hard to pin point a spot because there really are so many options out there. Most of my car camping in the area has just been en route to backpacking so I wasn't really focusing on how nice it would be to just spend a weekend.


Backpacking -

There are bears in the Uintas but at high elevation in the backcountry, you aren't likely to have any issues. Still take precautions of course, but for most of the good backpacking in the 10k+ range, you don't really need to worry. I ran into a forest ranger once up there who told me specifically that the bears almost never make it above 9500' because of the availability of their usual food sources. I've seen bear scat and signs but only in the lower elevations, below 9k. There is never a 0% chance of bears, but if you camp up high and you don't sprinkle tuna juice and koolaid all over your tent, the chance is so incredibly small that I really wouldn't worry.

With that said, almost all of the good backpacking is going to put you up around 10-11,000 feet. There's good fishing about anywhere you would want to go so you can pretty much just pick something that looks nice and you'll be set. If you haven't done much up there, the Christmas Meadows Trailhead leads to some fine terrain although it is a bit busier than some other areas. Great meadow stream fishing and camping up in Amethyst Basin. Tenkara heaven...

 

[Nanda]

Thanks Nick, incredibly helpful. Unfortunately I couldn't convince my friend, so this weekend is going to be car camping somewhere. After getting this out of my and breaking my new tent, stove and all that crap, I will probably head out solo backpacking with dogs.

 

[Nanda]

Just got back from an overnighter(instead of 2 nighter as planned) but bailed out due to shitty weather in Uintas. All in a all it was a pretty demotivating trip for me, my dog hope got off her leash somehow and was running around in bushes and finally on mirror lake highway while cars had to stop and swerve around her. Somehow she survived the ordeal but still not tired and I vowed never to take her camping again, not safe for her and not fun for us. Even after already being hit by car once about a year ago, she just has no notion/awareness of danger and all. Also while searching for in pass lake area, I saw what appeared to be bear tracks, which further made my anxious, until I found her finally on the road. Fishing wasn't that great either and the rainy weather was just terrible, cold, something were totally unprepared for. Hopefully next trip will fare better.

 

[cslebn]

Back from our trip is well.

Thanks much Nick for the recommendations on the Spirit/Hoop Lake areas. We hit the same crappy weather as Nanda (on and off thunderstorms) but the scenery was absolutely beautiful up there and with only 20 people total int he campground it was definitely worth it. We ended up bailing a bit early but that was more because the wife is almost 8 months pregnant

We'll be going back up there for camping and backpacking. Saw Moose, Deer, Marmot, Woodpecker, etc while up there. We had our dogs on long lines but that really wouldn't have mattered as there was no one up there (few other campers did have dogs off leash).

 

[Nanda]

Glad u had much better of a time. To top it off for me, I forgot my daypack(with fishing supplies, stove and bunch of other stuff) somewhere in one of the lakes. I realized it too late after coming to go back and look for it(I had a inkling where I left it)