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- May 31, 2015
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I'll try to refrain from being too verbose since there are probably already 10 other Amethyst/Ostler Lake trip reports on here.
My wife and I were looking for a good, shorter trip to do over the weekend. Our anniversary was Saturday, but we had Friday off for Pioneer Day, so we decided we could swing a quick overnighter and still have time to go out for dinner the day we got back. Having never been to the Uintas, we decided to go see Amethyst Basin as our introduction to the range. We were not disappointed!
We started off, loving the flatness of the trail up through Christmas Meadows. We had to dodge a fair amount of horse crap on the trail the entire way up to Amethyst, unfortunately. At least the horse packers we met were all very friendly.
Then we huffed and puffed as we made the climb next to the cascades of the Ostler Fork. The cascades were beautiful, however.
We made it up through the steep stretch, but it definitely helped us realize how out of shape we are. Coming back into the flatter terrain above was a nice relief.
We made it to the basin and were very impressed by the large, marshy meadows, the streams, and the peaks.
We found a good spot to set up camp just below the small, I presume unnamed lake between Ostler Lake and Amethyst Lake. Anyone familiar with the place got a name for that one? There were maybe 6-8 other groups up there with us. I'd imagine that's not bad for a 3 day weekend.
The small lake.
We got our camp all set up and headed up to see Amethyst Lake. It was really windy up there, but the lake and the marshes were still quite a sight. I was happy to see wildflowers in bloom all over. You can't really see them here, sadly.
We headed back down after an hour or so and made dinner and relaxed, taking in the beauty of the place.
We got up the next morning and headed out around 7 a.m. We hustled and made it down in a little over 2 hours. We had a reservation at the Roof in SLC that we had to get back for (For anyone who hasn't been, the food isn't worth the price they charge).
So overall, the trip was great. Nice and quick. We're looking forward to more trips out to the Uintas.
Featured image for home page:
My wife and I were looking for a good, shorter trip to do over the weekend. Our anniversary was Saturday, but we had Friday off for Pioneer Day, so we decided we could swing a quick overnighter and still have time to go out for dinner the day we got back. Having never been to the Uintas, we decided to go see Amethyst Basin as our introduction to the range. We were not disappointed!
We started off, loving the flatness of the trail up through Christmas Meadows. We had to dodge a fair amount of horse crap on the trail the entire way up to Amethyst, unfortunately. At least the horse packers we met were all very friendly.
Then we huffed and puffed as we made the climb next to the cascades of the Ostler Fork. The cascades were beautiful, however.
We made it up through the steep stretch, but it definitely helped us realize how out of shape we are. Coming back into the flatter terrain above was a nice relief.
We made it to the basin and were very impressed by the large, marshy meadows, the streams, and the peaks.
We found a good spot to set up camp just below the small, I presume unnamed lake between Ostler Lake and Amethyst Lake. Anyone familiar with the place got a name for that one? There were maybe 6-8 other groups up there with us. I'd imagine that's not bad for a 3 day weekend.
The small lake.
We got our camp all set up and headed up to see Amethyst Lake. It was really windy up there, but the lake and the marshes were still quite a sight. I was happy to see wildflowers in bloom all over. You can't really see them here, sadly.
We headed back down after an hour or so and made dinner and relaxed, taking in the beauty of the place.
We got up the next morning and headed out around 7 a.m. We hustled and made it down in a little over 2 hours. We had a reservation at the Roof in SLC that we had to get back for (For anyone who hasn't been, the food isn't worth the price they charge).
So overall, the trip was great. Nice and quick. We're looking forward to more trips out to the Uintas.
Featured image for home page:
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