Best free car camping in/near the western Uintas?

[lostlandscapes]

Planning on heading up to the Uintas Friday night for a weekend in either Granddaddy or Naturalist Basin. Won't get to the TH in time to hike in Friday night so we plan on car camping it. With that said, I'm not even totally sure which TH we're gonna use yet (Grandview, most likely). Which begs the question: can anyone recommend any free primo BLM/National Forest sites in the vicinity of Mirror Lake Highway or other Western Uinta trailheads? Thanks in advance.

 

[Nick]

I've never been up to Grandview but it's at the end of a lot of dirt road so I imagine you wouldn't have any problem finding plenty of primitive spots out there.

My .02, Grandaddy is boring and buried in trees. Naturalist, while not allowing fires, is probably a lot more bang for buck. Or push it another couple miles and give Four Lakes Basin a shot. Here's a link to my Four Lakes trip last year: http://backcountrypost.com/forum/index.php?threads/four-lakes-basin-uintas.333/

 

[lostlandscapes]

Nice. My only hesitation on Four Lakes was the chance of snow, with it being a little bit higher than Grandaddy. But evidently someone made it up to Jordan Lake in Naturalist Basin last weekend and only hit two patches of snow on the entire route. So it should be alright since they're at approximately the same elevation and have the same southern exposure, one would think. That's probably where we'll end up :twothumbs:

 

[Nick]

Yeah, you'll be just fine on snow. Mike K (wish he would sign up for bcp) went up to Amethyst Basin last weekend and even bagged Ostler Peak in the process. Check out his set of photos on Flickr.

Let me know if you need to know of any primitive spots en route to the Highline Trailhead.

 

[lostlandscapes]

Let me know if you need to know of any primitive spots en route to the Highline Trailhead.

That'd be great!

 

[Nick]

That'd be great!

What will you be driving? HC 4WD or 2WD?

 

[lostlandscapes]

Ranger Danger (read: 2WD High Clearance)