Uintas Highline Trail Solo Thru Hike - Getting to/from trailheads logistics

Straying off topic slightly from my own thread, but I've read elsewhere that the middle of August is "monsoon season" for this area. Obviously there are going to be the typical afternoon thunderstorms, but since I've never been to this area before, I want to make sure I'm not going at the worst possible time for rain, if there is such a thing.

Although I'm ultimately flexible as to when I go, that was the exact time I wanted to hike if I had the choice, mostly because it was going to be a new moon and the stars will be their brightest. My hikes always end up being during a full moon or it will rain during the time it's a new moon and I don't get to see the stars much anyway. Even with all the remote places I've hiked, including the Winds and deserts in the southwest, I've never seen the Milky Way. Ever. Way too much light pollution where I live so the only chance I get is when I go on hikes like this. Plus, the Perseids meteor shower are at their peak I think around Aug 20th. So, should I wait til end of August to start, or plan on hiking before Aug 10th or so? Your thoughts?
 
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You will see the milky way in the Uintas. You may even be able to see it with a full moon, but I'm not sure.
 
andyjaggy said:
You will see the milky way in the Uintas. You may even be able to see it with a full moon, but I'm not sure.
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That's what I thought about the Winds, and Big Bend National Park, and other places. But still never seen it. I always see those awesome photos of the night sky with a zillion stars and the milky way glowing bright as hell, but I've NEVER seen that, at least not like in the pictures I've seen. Maybe this will be the trip that changes that.
 
You will see it better in a long exposure through a picture then naked eye, but should see it in the Uintas. Your Winds reference has me curious though, the winds probably have less light pollution then the Uintas, or did you just have overcast when there? You can definitely still see the faint glow of SLC in the western horizon in the Uintas though especially the western half.

Best view of the sky I have had is Great Basin National park. Worth a trip for many reasons but that might be number one.
 
metalbackpacker said:
Plus, the Perseids meteor shower are at their peak I think around Aug 20th. So, should I wait til end of August to start, or plan on hiking before Aug 10th or so? Your thoughts?
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Because of the new moon the Perseids are supposed to have one of their best viewing years. As far as star viewing goes starting the 10th would be pretty epic. I was up in the Uintas last year during them, and my wife and I were seeing shooting starts at least once every minute.

As far as monsoons I wouldn't say mid August isn't the "middle" by any means. I think they are trailing off by then but are still there. July seems to be more heavy for them. I may have just been fortunate in my August trips though. Someone may correct me on that? If I could do it I would leave mid August and hit the Perseids as well. Very cool!
 
It will never looks as bright to the naked eye as in photos. The photos are typically 20-30 second long exposures, which collect much more light than you see with the naked eye. To me it almost looks like clouds in the sky, and then you do a double take and realize it's just an insane amount of stars all grouped together.

It's also possible that you just missed when it actually came up. It's not always visible in the same spot at the same time, it moves around just like any other astro object. Sometimes it is close to the horizon, sometimes right above you, and sometimes it doesn't actually show up until 4:00 in the morning.

There are apps that let you know the time and position of it, I haven't used them myself though.
 
metalbackpacker said:
Straying off topic slightly from my own thread, but I've read elsewhere that the middle of August is "monsoon season" for this area. Obviously there are going to be the typical afternoon thunderstorms, but since I've never been to this area before, I want to make sure I'm not going at the worst possible time for rain, if there is such a thing.
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Monsoon season typically runs from late June/early July to late August/early September. Chances are if you've hiked the Winds, you've hiked them in monsoon season too. They get it much like the Uintas do. The nice thing is, the monsoons usually just provide big t-storms in the afternoons. Get your passes done early and plan to be below tree line, or at least off passes and peaks in the afternoon. By the evening the sun is usually out and the day is beautiful again. Obviously larger storms can occur, but that's more the typical monsoon pattern.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Monsoon

I'd do it over Perseids as well.
 
Thanks for the input guys. I'm going to forget about what I read about "monsoon season" and just proceed like any other Rocky Mountain summer hike... expect rain, hope for good weather.

I've been working on a route that I can hike myself without any support. It's hard to make a loop that stays high and doesn't repeat the same trails, since many of the north-south ridgelines coming off the main spine are so steep. The best I could come up with is this:

http://caltopo.com/m/654A

Definitely would be hiking a lot of the same areas twice though, but at this point I'd rather just have this as my plan A and if something comes along where I actually have a reliable and affordable ride to both trailheads then I can consider hiking the Highline Trail as intended as my plan B.

This route comes in at 103+ miles, but of course these are only estimates based on the lines I drew on the map. In reality I'm sure it's several miles more than that.
 
Honestly, hitching would probably be pretty straightforward if you could get yourself to the outskirts of Park City. One hitch to Duschense, another to Vernal, a third to the Route 191 trailhead. On the way back, it's one hitch from the Highline/Mirror Lake trailheads to Kamas, and more likely you could get a ride all the way to Salt Lake/Park City, as about 90% of drivers will be headed there.
 
LarryBoy said:
Honestly, hitching would probably be pretty straightforward if you could get yourself to the outskirts of Park City. One hitch to Duschense, another to Vernal, a third to the Route 191 trailhead. On the way back, it's one hitch from the Highline/Mirror Lake trailheads to Kamas, and more likely you could get a ride all the way to Salt Lake/Park City, as about 90% of drivers will be headed there.
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I'm sure I could hitch, but I ended up just renting a car. Maybe I'll get to Hayden TH and there will be someone shuttling a car over to Leidy or HWY 191. If that's the case I could hitch with them providing they have room/don't mind me riding along. Otherwise, I'm not going to want to sit around all day trying to get a ride(s), because that would eat into my hiking time... so I'll just start hiking the route I had planned.

Just bought my plane tickets last night. I'm flying in on Aug 12th to SLC and then driving out to the Hayden Pass TH on Aug 13th. So, if anyone needs a ride from SLC to Hayden or any of the other trailheads along HWY 150, let me know. Also, I will be available to give a ride back to SLC from HWY 150 on Aug 21st when I finish my hike. This would be mid-late afternoon on Aug 21st.
 
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If you're going to do an out and back, I'd consider other options. Instead of starting at the Highline TH, start at one of the north or south slope trailheads and make a sort of loop out of it. You can still get to most of what you're planning, but spend less time covering the same ground twice.
 
Nick said:
If you're going to do an out and back, I'd consider other options. Instead of starting at the Highline TH, start at one of the north or south slope trailheads and make a sort of loop out of it. You can still get to most of what you're planning, but spend less time covering the same ground twice.
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I suppose you're right. At first glance I didn't see many east/west options other than the HIghline Trail. I had another look at the map and found a few east/west trails on the north slopes that should suffice for a loop, starting at east forks TH. This new route is 115 miles:

http://caltopo.com/m/654A

Day one is only 7 miles/1000ft elevation gain because I will be arriving in SLC the night prior, coming from an elevation of 350ft. So I won't have much time to acclimate. I'm going to see if I can get a hotel somewhere in between SLC and the trailhead that is as high as possible to help with acclimation as much as possible. I have never had a problem with altitude sickness in the past but have always tried to acclimate a little more than this. Any suggestions for a city that's higher than SLC and on the way to east forks TH for a hotel? A lot of the towns on the way look like resort towns or something, all the hotels were on the expensive side. Looking for something on the cheap.

Also, how easy/difficult will it be to get to east forks trailhead on the North Slope Rd (forest road 058?), in a small car? I think my rental car is going to be a Chevy Spark or something similar.
 
I would do it in the opposite direction. The way you have it now, the most amazing stuff is stacked in at the beginning which could make the end seem kinda dull. But I guess if you end up cutting something off, it would be best to cut off that last chunk and just drop down Smith Fork or Henry Fork to loop back around.

I would consider making the West Fork Black's Fork Trailhead the start. It's good that you're going up to Dead Horse and all that, but Buck Pasture and the walk up it is incredible.

You probably won't be able to camp at Crater Lake, but should be fine just down the hill from it.

That route is mui macho but also very cool. You've got your work cut out for you.

metalbackpacker said:
Also, how easy/difficult will it be to get to east forks trailhead on the North Slope Rd (forest road 058?), in a small car? I think my rental car is going to be a Chevy Spark or something similar.
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Easy.

Re: acclimatizing, I think you need to be above 8000 feet or so for it to do any good.
 
metalbackpacker said:
I suppose you're right. At first glance I didn't see many east/west options other than the HIghline Trail. I had another look at the map and found a few east/west trails on the north slopes that should suffice for a loop, starting at east forks TH. This new route is 115 miles:

http://caltopo.com/m/654A
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Woah! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! someone mesesed up my map! hours or work gone... hmmm.... guess i should not have made it so public.... :(
 
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I realized that it would have been better to go the other way but was taking my first day into consideration, trying not to over do it. It's hard to plan such a big hike to a place I've never gone, and maximize the amount of awesome stuff to see along the way without being familiar with the area. I'll have a look at Buck Pasture and going the west forks route instead. I appreciate you suggestions.

I wasn't sure about camping by Crater Lake, I'm glad you mentioned that. Thanks for the info about the road on the North Slope. Is the trailhead for west fork called Little Lyman Lake? Looks like a LONG hike down a 4x4 road to the actual trail starting just north of Buck Pasture coming from Little Lyman Lake CG. I know my rental car won't make that.

As far as acclimation goes, I just figured that sleeping at 6k-7k if possible would be better than 4k in SLC. But yeah, I'm not going to have a chance to sleep at 8k or above before the hike. That's why I tried to give myself an easy first day.

Blake... sorry about that! I've never used caltopo before when I saw your map. I didn't know it would change what you made. I believe I made some backup copies before I modified it, so when I get home I'll send you what I have. Sorry again about that.
 
Blake Merrell said:
Woah! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! someone mesesed up my map! hours or work gone... hmmm.... guess i should not have made it so public.... :(
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Oh ouch! I thought that was his own map!


metalbackpacker said:
Is the trailhead for west fork called Little Lyman Lake?
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No, it's called West Fork Black's Fork. You'd have to park your rental where the road crosses the river. The actual trailhead is a mile or so beyond that where the road is closed to everyone but the ranchers. There is some road walking but since no one really drives on it, it's just like a wide trail.
 
its my own fault. i should have made a backup copy myself and shared another as a public one.... bummer. oh well... live and learn
 
Nick said:
No, it's called West Fork Black's Fork. You'd have to park your rental where the road crosses the river. The actual trailhead is a mile or so beyond that where the road is closed to everyone but the ranchers. There is some road walking but since no one really drives on it, it's just like a wide trail.
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Ah I see it now. I was looking for a marked trailhead on the map andI didn't see it. I saw your post here:

http://backcountrypost.com/threads/uintas-highline-th-to-west-fork-blacks-fork.50/

This showed me where you were talking about. Just to confirm, a small car should have no problem making it to the point where the road crosses the river and there's parking available there? And I assume there's no footbridge here, just ford the river right out of the trailhead, huh?
 
metalbackpacker said:
This showed me where you were talking about. Just to confirm, a small car should have no problem making it to the point where the road crosses the river and there's parking available there? And I assume there's no footbridge here, just ford the river right out of the trailhead, huh?
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There isn't an official parking area, but there's plenty of space to park and it's totally cool to leave your car there. You can walk across the river there, or just start heading upstream and you'll probably be able to find a log or something further up to keep your feet dry.
 
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