The Notch - August 18, 2018

scatman

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Every year, I grab a campsite in the Uintas for a weekend and on that Saturday I plan a day hike, hopefully one I haven't tried before. So this year I decided to hike up to the Notch. As we were leaving our campground to drive to the trailhead, we saw five moose - one bull, three females and one calf. The females ended up running the bull off.

Our route started at the Bald Mountain Trailhead and headed to Notch Lake. After arriving at the lake, we headed cross country to Hope Lake where we then picked up the trail to the Notch. On our off-trail route we ran into a rock field where we encountered seven Pikas. I had never seen more than one or two at a time before so I was a bit surprised. We encountered many people along the trails and lakes, but we saw no one on our off-trail portion. The views form the Notch were pretty terrific in all directions. Here are some shots of our hike.

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Bull Moose

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Bull with one of the females

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Bald Mountain

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Trail junction sign

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You can make out the Notch through the trees

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Reids Peak

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Meadow shot with the southern end of Haystack Mountain visible in the distance

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Rocky terrain along the trail

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Clegg Lake

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Notch Lake

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Heading off-trail

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View from our cross country route

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Rock field that was full of Pikas, with Mount Watson in the distance

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A Pika with his head turned from the camera

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A small meadow between the lakes

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Another view of Haystack Mountain

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Coming down to Hope Lake

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Hope Lake and Mount Watson

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Getting closer to the Notch

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Trail junction sign

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Almost up to the Notch. The western ridge of Notch Mountain looms above

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View from the Notch

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View into the Weber Drainage form the Notch

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Eastern ridge of Notch Mountain

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On the Notch

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A friendly chipmunk on the Notch

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View from the Notch of Mount Watson

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Bushwhacking on our way back to Notch Lake

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Cross country travel

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View of Reids Peak from Clegg Lake on our way back

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One more shot of Bald Mountain from the trail
 

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A classic. Cool that you saw all those moose. Scary to see it so dry up there in August.
 
A classic. Cool that you saw all those moose. Scary to see it so dry up there in August.

Yes, definitely very dry, though on the Hayden Fork side of the pass it rained fairly hard for just over three hours Friday night into Saturday morning. I'm sure it will take a lot more than that though.
 
YAY! Moose!!!
Thanks for sharing. I like that metal 'Notch -->' sign. I have only seen wood ones so far.
 
Looks like a quiet and serene place to spend a Saturday indeed. Thanks scatman.

Not very quiet, there were a ton of people along the trails and lots of tents around Notch Lake, but the off-trail hiking was very peaceful.
 
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