Naturalist Basin to Rock Creek

[Nick]

I've been thinking about this trip for a long time but I think I'm actually going to do it here in a few weeks. It's all pretty straight forward, start from the Highline Trailhead on Hwy 150, cross some passes and end at the East Fork Bear River trailhead on the north slope. The question I'm face with is how to short cut from Naturalist Basin into West Rock Creek. It looks like I have a few options from scoping out maps and sat images.

Option 1 is the red line, go straight up over the ridge between Shaler and Margie Lake. It looks like lots of scree but not really any cliff bands. 1000 feet up and 1000 feet down over loose(?) talus.

Option 2 is the purple line, it looks a little more tame but could have more cliff obstacles on the downhill side of things.

Option 3 is the safest bet but much longer. Cut south out of Naturalist and meet back up with the trail at Rocky Sea Pass then just follow it in. I'd much rather not do that option.

Anyone have any thoughts on any of those? Or maybe pictures of the slope behind Uintah or Margie Lake? What about the pass between Helen and Priord? I know it used to be a sheep trail and that there are still remnants of it on the north side of the pass. I'm not too worried about that section but would be cool to hear anything about it if anyone knows.

Here's the map:
[parsehtml]
<iframe width="850" height="740" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?q=mymap,214533597045798101523.0004c24e1a03fc896ae5d&z=12&t=t4"></iframe><br /><small>View <a href="http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?q=mymap,214533597045798101523.0004c24e1a03fc896ae5d&z=14&t=t4" target="_blank">Highline to East Fork Bear River</a> full sized in a new window.</small></br></br>
[/parsehtml]Side note - thinking about doing this around July 6-8 if anyone is interested in joining me.

 

[Dan]

i've looked at that shortcut into west rock creek before. let's just say it's never left me feeling inspired to try it... i seem to recall that there are a lot of cliff bands in it, and it didn't look like much fun.

priord pass is pretty steep, finding remnants of the old trail is unlikely. i haven't crossed it, but i scouted it thoroughly last summer from priord, and it will be a typical off trail talus scree skiing adventure, is my guess.

 

[MtnMatt]

So did you ever do any of those routes? On a side note, what about going over the ridge from either Blue or more likely LeConte into Middle Basin? I have looked it over from Ryder Lake and I know it is doable from that side but have not been to naturalist Basin so I don't know what it looks like from that side. Any thoughts?

 

[Nick]

I never did. I did do Priord Lake via the standard route since this, but that's all. Still planning for the Priord Pass route someday (maybe this year), but haven't looked into the other routes much.