Uintas Conditions 2014

I went on a trip to the Eastern side on the North Slope over the weekend. I hike into the same place every Memorial Day weekend - some times there is a ton of snow, then there is this year - very, very dry. The Sheep Creek Canal is taking all the water so all the major creeks that have a head gate to the canal are bone dry. I was up to the 9500 foot level and there was just some scattered snow here and there. The road to Spirit Lake was still closed, but the rest of the North Slope road in the Ashley is good to go. I went hiking in the Bear River State Park here in Evanston this evening and the river was raging - flooded a couple of trails out. Good to see the snow coming down.
 
It sounds like I should be able to take the family tent camping at the Lilly/teapot campground just above trial lake in mid June? No hiking, just car camping. Overnight temps. In the 40's to 50's? Can't be too cold or the wife will bail on me. ;)
 
I am looking to do an overnighter(or couple nighters) this weekend, if nothing else I will just camp out at lower elev lakes in southern slopes.
 
The last time I was in the Uintas was middle of June two years ago and the bugs were crazy. About what time of year do they start to calm down? I know September is a safe bet but by then things are usually pretty dried out.
 
Eric O said:
The last time I was in the Uintas was middle of June two years ago and the bugs were crazy. About what time of year do they start to calm down? I know September is a safe bet but by then things are usually pretty dried out.
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It can be pretty random depending on the year, there are exceptions but in my experience most years once into August the bugs are around but not crazy. Last year I went to Allsop lake around August 3rd and there were a few but not bad ( I think I put some deet on in the morning and never needed to re-apply). Mid August and on I usually don't even need deet.
 
Yeah, it does totally depend on the year. Typically they aren't bad until the bulk of the melt has occured so mid-June is usually safe. early-mid July I would say is typically peak with August being good again. But back in 2011 when things were frozen until mid-July was a different beast. I couldn't see through the mosquitoes in mid-August.
 
Nick said:
Yeah, it does totally depend on the year. Typically they aren't bad until the bulk of the melt has occured so mid-June is usually safe. early-mid July I would say is typically peak with August being good again. But back in 2011 when things were frozen until mid-July was a different beast. I couldn't see through the mosquitoes in mid-August.
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I went into West Basin around mid August in 2011, some of us didn't bring deet..... so bad.... :frantic: I am getting itchy just thinking about it.
 
when does Christmas Meadows usually melt out? I was thinking of running up there soon and hiking up the trail for a while and maybe doing some fishing for a day.
 
Nick said:
I'd bet Christmas Meadows is good to hike right now.
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I was up at Uintalands (near East Fork TH) on Monday and it was nice and dry. Still plenty of snow at high elevation on the north slope but meadows in the 9k foot range should be excellent right now.
 
The road to the Crystal Lake trailhead is clear. I went up there yesterday evening and they had cleared it to within 1/3-mile of the trailhead and a front-loader was still working on it. I came back this afternoon and there were barricades in the road at Trial Lake saying that the road was closed. :confused:

There's still too much snow (for me, anyway) around Crystal Lake, so I camped at Bourbon Lake last night, 9,800' elevation, and it was perfect. Still some snow but it's not really much trouble.

Bourbon Lake
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Road to Crystal Lake TH on Friday 5/30
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Road to Crystal Lake TH on Saturday
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Highline TH
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Compare above to Art's photo from six days earlier
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It's melting FAST! :dance:
 
Nick said:
Nice! I knew it sounded familiar but couldn't place it. I've been to Whiskey Island. Did you hike up from the highway then? And did you actually have dirt to camp on or was it all snow covered still?
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Yep, we just saw the trailhead at the highway and decided that's where we'd shoot for. It was almost 7PM when we started hiking up the trail, so it was that or nothing. We camped on dry ground, but there was enough snow around that the few dry spots weren't ideal.
 
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