Elusive77
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2012
- Messages
- 3
For the last couple of years I've tried to plan a backpacking trip with my family. The first year we made a short trip into the Grandaddy basin. We liked it so much that we wanted to plan a little longer trip and explore more of the area. We had planned to do that last year, but the weather didn't cooperate and we had to instead plan an impromptu trip to the Boulder Mountains. This year we were determined to get back into the Grandaddy basin.
We made it to the Grandview Trailhead around 3pm and started the hike in. None of us are in very good shape, so it took us a little while to hike in. I tried to take a few pictures on the trail, but didn't get too many. Here are a few.
We were hoping to hike all the way in to Lost Lake and make that our base camp. We started running out of daylight though, so we decided to stop and make camp at Shadow lake just off the trail. Here's the view from the lookout point just above Shadow lake.
The next day we got up and hiked to Lost Lake and setup a more permanent camp there. This lake is great for fishing. It wasn't as good as the last time I was there, but it still got hot for a couple of hours in the morning. During that time we were catching some nice 12" to 15" brookies on nearly every cast, using just about any type of Lure. They are beautifully colored fish too. I only got a couple pictures of the fish and none of them really do the fish justice. Here's my Dad's friend with one.
A little later we had some other family members show up. They are the type that love to hike and fish but don't really like camping so much, so they just hiked in for the day. Lucky for them they are in excellent shape, so hiking 20 miles in a day is no big deal. Especially since they really wanted to hike farther out to Allen lake to try and catch some Greyling. So I hiked the extra 4 miles out and 4 miles back to Allen with them. By the time we got there the clouds were rolling in and the wind really picked up. We weren't going to let that stop us though, so we got out our fishing poles and cast out hoping to catch something quickly. Luckily each of us caught at least one within the first 15 minutes we were there. Here's me with my first Greyling.
Allen is a very pretty lake with all of the meadows around it. Unfortunately the weather continued to worsen, so we didn't get to enjoy it for very long. We packed everything up and hiked back to Lost lake. Here's a nice panorama of Allen lake.
When we finally made it back, the storms seemed to dissipate a little and the sun came out a bit. I took this panorama of Lost lake while there was still a break in the clouds.
The hike out to Allen had really worn us out, so the rest of the evening was spent relaxing and conversing. This was not as enjoyable as usual without being able to have a campfire, so we all retired to our tents early.
The next day we got up and decided to try our luck on Powell lake. This lake has some pretty big fish in it if you can catch them. A couple of our group had skipped out on the Allen lake hike the day before and had fished here. They spent several hours fishing and only caught 2 fish. But they were both 18" or more. Unfortunately we had even worse luck than they had. We fished for a couple of hours but only got one bite. Luckily the lake was very calm with nice reflections, and the slow fishing gave me some time to take some pictures. Here's a few of them.
We soon decided we weren't going to catch anything, so we headed back over to Lost in time to catch the tail end of the hot fishing there. On the way back around the lake, I almost stepped on this little bird's nest. Luckily the mother flying off warned me of it's presence.
Since we were all pretty worn out and didn't want to hike the full distance back out in one day, we decided to pack up and hike back to Grandaddy so we would have a shorter hike the next day.
The fishing there was a little slow, but we did catch a couple of smaller cutthroat's. There is a lot of traffic in this area, so the lake gets a lot of pressure. You also have to deal with a lot of loud and noisy campers. The tradeoff for a short hike out was worth it though..... especially when it started to rain. It started raining at about 9pm and rained all through the night. It was still raining in the morning. We were hoping if we gave it a little time it might clear up so we didn't have to pack up everything wet. So we went back down to the lake for some more fishing. It was even slower fishing though, and it was wet and cold, despite the rain gear. We finally decided we just wanted to get out of there. So we went back to camp, packed everything up, and hiked out. It rained the whole hike out too. Lukily the hike out is always much easier and faster than the way in. Dreaming of hot food in large quantities always helps you hike a little faster too. We made it back down to the trailhead in less than half the time it took us to hike in. Here's a few shots from the hike out.
Unfortunately our hot food had to wait a while. One of our vehicles had some problems and we ended up waiting for over 3 hours for a tow truck. Luckily it was the vehicle we had parked at the bottom of the hill and not up at the trailhead. Riding in a tow truck down that road would not have been fun, if even possible.
All in all it was a good trip with a lot of good scenery and some good fishing, despite a lot of rain. Overall I think I hiked around 26 miles, which is a pretty good distance for me. Next year we'll have to try one of the many other less-traveled areas in the Uintahs. Any suggestions?
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We made it to the Grandview Trailhead around 3pm and started the hike in. None of us are in very good shape, so it took us a little while to hike in. I tried to take a few pictures on the trail, but didn't get too many. Here are a few.
We were hoping to hike all the way in to Lost Lake and make that our base camp. We started running out of daylight though, so we decided to stop and make camp at Shadow lake just off the trail. Here's the view from the lookout point just above Shadow lake.
The next day we got up and hiked to Lost Lake and setup a more permanent camp there. This lake is great for fishing. It wasn't as good as the last time I was there, but it still got hot for a couple of hours in the morning. During that time we were catching some nice 12" to 15" brookies on nearly every cast, using just about any type of Lure. They are beautifully colored fish too. I only got a couple pictures of the fish and none of them really do the fish justice. Here's my Dad's friend with one.
A little later we had some other family members show up. They are the type that love to hike and fish but don't really like camping so much, so they just hiked in for the day. Lucky for them they are in excellent shape, so hiking 20 miles in a day is no big deal. Especially since they really wanted to hike farther out to Allen lake to try and catch some Greyling. So I hiked the extra 4 miles out and 4 miles back to Allen with them. By the time we got there the clouds were rolling in and the wind really picked up. We weren't going to let that stop us though, so we got out our fishing poles and cast out hoping to catch something quickly. Luckily each of us caught at least one within the first 15 minutes we were there. Here's me with my first Greyling.
Allen is a very pretty lake with all of the meadows around it. Unfortunately the weather continued to worsen, so we didn't get to enjoy it for very long. We packed everything up and hiked back to Lost lake. Here's a nice panorama of Allen lake.
When we finally made it back, the storms seemed to dissipate a little and the sun came out a bit. I took this panorama of Lost lake while there was still a break in the clouds.
The hike out to Allen had really worn us out, so the rest of the evening was spent relaxing and conversing. This was not as enjoyable as usual without being able to have a campfire, so we all retired to our tents early.
The next day we got up and decided to try our luck on Powell lake. This lake has some pretty big fish in it if you can catch them. A couple of our group had skipped out on the Allen lake hike the day before and had fished here. They spent several hours fishing and only caught 2 fish. But they were both 18" or more. Unfortunately we had even worse luck than they had. We fished for a couple of hours but only got one bite. Luckily the lake was very calm with nice reflections, and the slow fishing gave me some time to take some pictures. Here's a few of them.
We soon decided we weren't going to catch anything, so we headed back over to Lost in time to catch the tail end of the hot fishing there. On the way back around the lake, I almost stepped on this little bird's nest. Luckily the mother flying off warned me of it's presence.
Since we were all pretty worn out and didn't want to hike the full distance back out in one day, we decided to pack up and hike back to Grandaddy so we would have a shorter hike the next day.
The fishing there was a little slow, but we did catch a couple of smaller cutthroat's. There is a lot of traffic in this area, so the lake gets a lot of pressure. You also have to deal with a lot of loud and noisy campers. The tradeoff for a short hike out was worth it though..... especially when it started to rain. It started raining at about 9pm and rained all through the night. It was still raining in the morning. We were hoping if we gave it a little time it might clear up so we didn't have to pack up everything wet. So we went back down to the lake for some more fishing. It was even slower fishing though, and it was wet and cold, despite the rain gear. We finally decided we just wanted to get out of there. So we went back to camp, packed everything up, and hiked out. It rained the whole hike out too. Lukily the hike out is always much easier and faster than the way in. Dreaming of hot food in large quantities always helps you hike a little faster too. We made it back down to the trailhead in less than half the time it took us to hike in. Here's a few shots from the hike out.
Unfortunately our hot food had to wait a while. One of our vehicles had some problems and we ended up waiting for over 3 hours for a tow truck. Luckily it was the vehicle we had parked at the bottom of the hill and not up at the trailhead. Riding in a tow truck down that road would not have been fun, if even possible.
All in all it was a good trip with a lot of good scenery and some good fishing, despite a lot of rain. Overall I think I hiked around 26 miles, which is a pretty good distance for me. Next year we'll have to try one of the many other less-traveled areas in the Uintahs. Any suggestions?
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