TheDunedain
Not all those who wander are lost
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2012
- Messages
- 37
So, with the summer heat in full swing in the desert and myself no longer living around the Monticello area and back up in Salt Lake, it was time to get back up to the mountains for some backpacking. My usual backpacking buddy Jared and I had planned a trip up the West Fork of the Blacks Fork to check out Dead Horse and Ejod Lakes and then to pack over to the Rock Creek Drainage to camp and check out a few more lakes. We left salt lake around 1PM on a Thursday and arrived around 4PM at the trailhead for West Fork-Blacks Fork. For the rest of the day we hiked at a leisurely pace a few miles in and then set up camp near the river had dinner and went to bed.
The next day we hiked the remaining 6-7 miles or so up to Dead Horse Lake to find it empty which was a bit surprising considering how popular the lake is supposed to be. We set up camp and did a bit of fishing and then headed up the short distance to Ejod lake which was where Jared had told me his father had caught the biggest fish he had ever caught in the High Uintas, so we were excited to see if the rumors were true.
Ejod seemed to have a large breeding population of some pretty large fish which Jared caught a few of but that's not all it has to offer. Ejod sits a few hundred feet above Dead Horse and is out of the treeline so it offers great views of Dead Horse Peak and the long length of West Fork-Blacks fork. In the field around the lake the wildflowers were going crazy which made for a very picturesque afternoon.
After sunset at Ejod we headed back down to Dead Horse only to find a group of 20 or more loud boy scouts and their Dads who had just arrived at the lake. They camped a ways away from us which was nice but its always a bit unfortunate to have you're solitude and silence taken by loud little boys, but what can you do, they have the right to experience it just as much as we did. With the sun down the fish in Dead Horse started jumping like there was no tomorrow. Literally every 20 feet or so on the surface of the lake there was a fish but with the fire ban still in place we decided it wasn't worth it to try to get some extra dinner. As a nice closer to the night Jared remarked how he had just realized that the red quartzite that rose in high rectangular cliffs above Dead Horse look a lot like bacon. Unfortunately we had no bacon so I afterwards I wish that he had never said anything.
The next morning we woke up slow and had a leisurely breakfast as the boy scouts headed up Dead Horse Pass which was where we were headed as well. We had decided the night prior that it would be much easier to day hike into Rock Creek in stead of camping there that night so we would only have to hike the 10 miles out from Dead Horse the next day in stead of the 12-14 miles from Rock Creek depending on where we camped. So after breakfast we headed up the steep Dead Horse Pass where we had quite the annoying experience getting up it.
What made our ascent of the pass so annoying was the boy scouts ahead made our hike a bit dangerous for all the rocks they were kicking down and to make it more annoying every time one kicked down a rock one would yell "ROCK!" and then 7 or 8 more would all echo " rock, rock! Rock! ROCK! ROOOOOOOOCCCCCCCCKKK!!". This happened pretty much every few minutes so we had a lot of stops and starts to make sure that we wouldn't be bombared by rocks kicked by careless boy scouts. I mean really, is it that hard to hike without kicking rocks down every 30 seconds? We inevitably waited for them to get to the top for safety sake and then headed up to the pass where they were all having lunch. We made sure to pass them pretty fast as to avoid any more rock mishaps. On the way up to the pass we found a horse scull which may be where Dead Horse gets its name, who knows? Anyway the view from Dead Horse Pass is great and you can see a long way into both West Fork-Blacks Fork and the Rock Creek Drainage.
The first lake we checked out was Continent Lake which sits high upon a bench about a mile and a half southwest of the pass. We had intended to do some fishing but the weather had other plans for pretty much the very instant we arrived at Continent the winds picked up and rain started falling so opted to get off the bench and down into treeline by Ledge Lake where we would hopefully find some shelter. Unfortunately the storm hit us hard far before we got to Ledge Lake and we were caught in the storm getting drenched while we put on our rain gear. After our soaking of course the rain calmed down a bit as it always does in the Uintas (I swear whenever I am up there storms always start and stop and the most inopportune times) and we headed down the mile to Ledge Lake where another wave of rain pummeled us and we took lunch under a rock in a scree field.
With our plans of fishing pretty much dead now we decided we had time to check out one more lake before heading back over the pass so we headed down to Phinney Lake which turned out to be not very exciting. So with our mission to explore Rock Creek a bit accomplished we headed back over the pass and arrived back at camp just before dark. The next day we hiked the ten miles out back to the trailhead making the round trip about 27 miles with our side hike into Rock Creek from what I can see from Google Earth. Gotta love the Uintas.
Here's the pics
Featured image for home page:
The next day we hiked the remaining 6-7 miles or so up to Dead Horse Lake to find it empty which was a bit surprising considering how popular the lake is supposed to be. We set up camp and did a bit of fishing and then headed up the short distance to Ejod lake which was where Jared had told me his father had caught the biggest fish he had ever caught in the High Uintas, so we were excited to see if the rumors were true.
Ejod seemed to have a large breeding population of some pretty large fish which Jared caught a few of but that's not all it has to offer. Ejod sits a few hundred feet above Dead Horse and is out of the treeline so it offers great views of Dead Horse Peak and the long length of West Fork-Blacks fork. In the field around the lake the wildflowers were going crazy which made for a very picturesque afternoon.
After sunset at Ejod we headed back down to Dead Horse only to find a group of 20 or more loud boy scouts and their Dads who had just arrived at the lake. They camped a ways away from us which was nice but its always a bit unfortunate to have you're solitude and silence taken by loud little boys, but what can you do, they have the right to experience it just as much as we did. With the sun down the fish in Dead Horse started jumping like there was no tomorrow. Literally every 20 feet or so on the surface of the lake there was a fish but with the fire ban still in place we decided it wasn't worth it to try to get some extra dinner. As a nice closer to the night Jared remarked how he had just realized that the red quartzite that rose in high rectangular cliffs above Dead Horse look a lot like bacon. Unfortunately we had no bacon so I afterwards I wish that he had never said anything.
The next morning we woke up slow and had a leisurely breakfast as the boy scouts headed up Dead Horse Pass which was where we were headed as well. We had decided the night prior that it would be much easier to day hike into Rock Creek in stead of camping there that night so we would only have to hike the 10 miles out from Dead Horse the next day in stead of the 12-14 miles from Rock Creek depending on where we camped. So after breakfast we headed up the steep Dead Horse Pass where we had quite the annoying experience getting up it.
What made our ascent of the pass so annoying was the boy scouts ahead made our hike a bit dangerous for all the rocks they were kicking down and to make it more annoying every time one kicked down a rock one would yell "ROCK!" and then 7 or 8 more would all echo " rock, rock! Rock! ROCK! ROOOOOOOOCCCCCCCCKKK!!". This happened pretty much every few minutes so we had a lot of stops and starts to make sure that we wouldn't be bombared by rocks kicked by careless boy scouts. I mean really, is it that hard to hike without kicking rocks down every 30 seconds? We inevitably waited for them to get to the top for safety sake and then headed up to the pass where they were all having lunch. We made sure to pass them pretty fast as to avoid any more rock mishaps. On the way up to the pass we found a horse scull which may be where Dead Horse gets its name, who knows? Anyway the view from Dead Horse Pass is great and you can see a long way into both West Fork-Blacks Fork and the Rock Creek Drainage.
The first lake we checked out was Continent Lake which sits high upon a bench about a mile and a half southwest of the pass. We had intended to do some fishing but the weather had other plans for pretty much the very instant we arrived at Continent the winds picked up and rain started falling so opted to get off the bench and down into treeline by Ledge Lake where we would hopefully find some shelter. Unfortunately the storm hit us hard far before we got to Ledge Lake and we were caught in the storm getting drenched while we put on our rain gear. After our soaking of course the rain calmed down a bit as it always does in the Uintas (I swear whenever I am up there storms always start and stop and the most inopportune times) and we headed down the mile to Ledge Lake where another wave of rain pummeled us and we took lunch under a rock in a scree field.
With our plans of fishing pretty much dead now we decided we had time to check out one more lake before heading back over the pass so we headed down to Phinney Lake which turned out to be not very exciting. So with our mission to explore Rock Creek a bit accomplished we headed back over the pass and arrived back at camp just before dark. The next day we hiked the ten miles out back to the trailhead making the round trip about 27 miles with our side hike into Rock Creek from what I can see from Google Earth. Gotta love the Uintas.
Here's the pics
Featured image for home page:
Also, the group size limit is 14 in the Uintas so if they really had 20...