The byway Kamas
Fifty four miles of SR-150, measured from the middle of Kamas
The Mirror Lake Highway, from the Kamas end
State Route 150 begins at a traffic light on Main Street and climbs four thousand feet in under thirty miles to the highest paved road in Utah. Here is what it costs to stop on it, what sits at every milepost, where the campgrounds are, and the point fifteen miles east of town where it stops being a road for four months of the year.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
The Mirror Lake Highway is State Route 150, the paved scenic byway that leaves Kamas at a Main Street traffic light and climbs east into the western Uinta Mountains, cresting at Bald Mountain Pass, the highest paved road in Utah. Driving it costs nothing. A recreation pass is required only when you park at a developed Forest Service site along the way, so a scenic drive with a stop at a plain shoulder is free while a stop at a signed trailhead or campground is not. Each winter the road closes to through traffic past the Soapstone gate, about fifteen miles up, and reopens in late spring once the snow clears. Buy any pass you need and fill the tank in Kamas, because there is no fuel, no shop and no reliable cell signal once you are past Samak.
The byway starts in the middle of town, a block from the ranger office. Directions to the byway start
The byway by the numbers
54.7 mi
Kamas to the Wyoming line
10,715 ft
Bald Mountain Pass, highest paved road in Utah
14.6
the milepost where the winter gate goes on
4,000 ft
climbed between town and the pass
Where it starts
The road begins at a traffic light on Main Street
State Route 150 does not start at a forest boundary or a canyon mouth. It starts at the intersection of Main Street and Center Street in the middle of Kamas, between a drugstore and a fuel station, and runs 54.7 miles east and north to the Wyoming state line south of Evanston. Along the way it crosses Bald Mountain Pass at 10,715 feet, which is the highest paved road in Utah.
The Forest Service calls the corridor the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway. Locals call it the Mirror Lake Highway, or just the highway, and in Kamas the phrase up the canyon means this road and nothing else. From the town at about 6,500 feet to the pass at 10,715 is about 29 miles, a gain of four thousand feet in under half an hour of driving.
What sits on it is the western half of the Uinta Mountains: campgrounds, picnic areas, trailheads and something over a hundred lakes within reach of the pavement, all inside the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. It is the reason a town of about 2,100 people has a ranger district office on Center Street and a smokehouse selling maps two and a half miles out.
What it costs
The drive is free. Stopping is the part you pay for
This is the most misunderstood thing about the Mirror Lake Highway, and getting it wrong means either an unnecessary purchase or a notice on your windshield.
A recreation pass is required for every vehicle parked at a developed Forest Service site along the corridor: trailheads, picnic areas and campgrounds. It is not a toll, and it is not required to drive through. If you never leave the pavement you never need one, which is why a scenic drive with a stop at an unimproved pullout costs nothing.
The Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest sells the Mirror Lake pass in short term and annual tiers, and one forest-wide Uinta-Wasatch-Cache pass covers the developed sites on this road. Fees change over time, so check the current price at the ranger district counter rather than trusting an old figure online. If you already carry an America the Beautiful federal pass, whether annual, senior, access, military or volunteer, it is honored here in place of buying the local pass. Campground fees are charged separately.
Buy it in Kamas. The Heber-Kamas Ranger District office at 50 East Center Street sells passes over the counter on weekdays and can be reached on 435-783-4338, and it sits about a block from where the road begins. Self service fee tubes stand along the corridor for anyone arriving outside office hours, but the counter is the place to ask what is actually open that week and what is under fire restriction.
The pass is not a toll on the road. It is a parking and use fee for developed sites, so the only way to owe nothing is to stay in the vehicle or stop at a plain shoulder. Older pages around the web still quote a lower fee schedule than the one in force, which is the main reason to confirm the number in Kamas before you rely on it.
The road itself
Mile by mile, from the traffic light to the pass
Everything below is measured east from Main and Center in Kamas. Figures are rounded to the nearest tenth where a signed milepost exists and to the nearest mile where it does not.
| Mile | What is there | Worth stopping |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Main Street and Center Street, Kamas. Fuel, food, the ranger office a block away | Buy the pass and fill the tank |
| 2.5 | Samak, and the Samak Smoke House and Country Store | Last shop before the forest |
| 3 to 6 | The state fish hatchery, about mile 3, and the lower Beaver Creek picnic ground | A short leg stretch |
| 14.6 | The Soapstone gate, and the Soapstone campground just beyond it | The point the road shuts in winter |
| 23.9 | Upper Provo River Falls, a signed lot with a pit toilet | Yes, half a mile of cascades |
| 26 | Trial Lake and the Crystal Lake trailhead spur | Yes, the lake country begins |
| 29 | Bald Mountain Pass, 10,715 feet, and the summit trailhead | Yes, the top of the road |
| 31.5 | Mirror Lake, at about 10,400 feet, with a 77-site campground with a horse loop | Yes, the lake the road is named for |
| 34.5 | Hayden Pass and the Highline trailhead | The way into the High Uintas Wilderness |
| 48.6 and beyond | The far end of the winter closure, then Wyoming | A long, empty and beautiful descent |
Mileposts on SR-150 are counted from the Kamas end, which is one of the small mercies of this road: the number on the sign is how far you are from town.
If you only stop four times
Four pullouts that justify the drive on their own
Mile 23.9
Upper Provo River Falls
A large signed lot with a pit toilet and half a mile of path along a run of cascades. The best value stop on the road and the easiest short walk.
The water pageMile 26
Trial Lake and Crystal Lake
A half mile spur off the highway to a trailhead with a pit toilet and a big parking lot, and the starting point for Wall Lake, Twin Lakes and the Notch.
The lakes pageMile 29
Bald Mountain Pass
The highest paved road in Utah at 10,715 feet, with a picnic site and a two mile trail up to an 11,943 foot summit.
The lakes pageMile 31.5
Mirror Lake
A lake at about 10,400 feet with a 77-site campground with a horse loop and a trail that joins the Highline. In February this is a snowmobile ride.
The winter pageSleeping on the road
Campgrounds strung along fifty miles of pavement
The corridor carries a long run of Forest Service campgrounds, from Soapstone at about mile 15 up through the lake country to Mirror Lake at 31.5 and beyond toward the Wyoming end. Mirror Lake is the big one, with about 77 sites, including a horse loop, at roughly 10,400 feet, picnic tables, tent pads and fire rings with grills. Most of the others are smaller and quieter and several take reservations through the federal booking system.
Two things surprise first timers. The first is the elevation: a July night at 10,400 feet is genuinely cold, and people arrive with summer valley bedding and regret it. The second is the season, which is short. The lower campgrounds open in mid-May and the high lake campgrounds in the second half of June, and they shut when the snow returns, well before the gate goes on for the winter.
Dispersed camping exists off the corridor on forest ground, subject to whatever the district's current rules and fire restrictions are, and those change year to year. Ask at the counter on Center Street rather than at a website, because a ranger district in a drought year is the only source worth trusting on where a fire is legal.
There is no fuel, no shop and no signal above Samak. The last provisioning on this road is two and a half miles out of Kamas, and the next is at the far end near Evanston. Mobile coverage disappears within a few miles of town and does not return, so a breakdown at mile 30 is a walking or flagging problem rather than a phone call. Fill the tank in Kamas, carry water and warm layers even on a hot day, and tell somebody your plan before you go up.
Both ends of it
Kamas is the front door. Evanston is the back one
Most of the traffic on this road comes up from the Wasatch Front through Kamas, which is why the ranger office, the fee tubes and the last shop are all at this end. From Salt Lake City the drive to the Kamas junction is about 42 miles, and the byway proper starts there. That makes Kamas the practical base for the whole western Uintas, and it is the single strongest argument for the address that has nothing to do with Park City.
The far end comes out south of Evanston in Wyoming, and the descent on that side is longer, emptier and less visited. Driving the whole thing Kamas to Evanston and back through I-80 makes a loop of most of a day. It is a genuinely good drive and almost nobody in Utah does it.
Between about mile 14.6 and mile 48.6 the road ceases to exist for cars from roughly December to late spring, which is a third of the calendar and most of the mileage. The winter page is where that half of the year lives.
From the traffic light in town to the highest pavement in the state is twenty nine miles.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Keep reading
More of Kamas on The Local
Things to do
The top 7, ranked
A rodeo week running since 1938, a drugstore soda fountain, a smokehouse up the byway.
Read the guideThe high country
The Uinta lakes
Ruth, Lofty, Wall and the Bald Mountain summit, all day walks from the valley.
Read the guideWinter
The winter gate
What the map looks like once the plows stop fifteen miles east of Main Street.
Read the guideThe water
The Weber and the Provo
Two rivers, five creeks and a canal built to move one into the other.
Read the guideMoving here
The 84036 question
Five resort developments carry a Kamas address and sit in another county.
Read the guideThe companion
Kamas, the whole picture
The byway, the lakes, the winter gate, the rivers and the ZIP code, in one place.
Read the pageQuick answers
The byway, answered
Nothing to drive. A recreation pass is required only for vehicles parked at developed Forest Service sites along the corridor, meaning trailheads, picnic areas and campgrounds. The Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest sells the pass in short term and annual tiers, and America the Beautiful federal passes are honored in place of it. Fees change over time, so check the current price at the ranger district counter, and note that campground fees are charged separately.
It begins at the intersection of Main Street and Center Street in Kamas and runs 54.7 miles east and north to the Wyoming state line south of Evanston. Mileposts are counted from the Kamas end, which means the number on the sign is roughly how far you are from town. The Forest Service designates the corridor as the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway.
It sits at 10,715 feet, which makes it the highest paved road in Utah. The pass is about 29 miles east of Kamas on SR-150, and it carries a picnic site and the trailhead for the two mile walk to the 11,943 foot summit of Bald Mountain. Between the town at about 6,500 feet and the pass, the road gains roughly four thousand feet.
UDOT closes the road each winter from mile 14.6 to mile 48.6, locking the gates at Soapstone about fifteen miles east of Kamas. The closure typically begins in December, and the reopening rides on the snowpack rather than a fixed date, most often falling in the second half of May ahead of Memorial Day weekend. The lower fifteen miles to Soapstone stay open and plowed all year.
The Heber-Kamas Ranger District office at 50 East Center Street in Kamas is the nearest counter, reachable on 435-783-4338 and open on weekdays, about a block from where the highway leaves Main Street. Self service fee tubes are placed along the corridor for anyone arriving outside office hours. The counter is also the best place to ask what is open and what is under fire restriction that week.
No. The last provisioning is the Samak Smoke House and Country Store two and a half miles east of Kamas, and after that there is nothing until the far end of the road near Evanston. Mobile coverage disappears within a few miles of town and does not come back. Fill the tank in Kamas, buy water before you go up, and carry warm layers even on a hot valley day.
Upper Provo River Falls at about milepost 23.9, if you only make one. It is a large signed lot on the west side of the road with a pit toilet, and a half mile out and back path runs along a series of cascades in a pine and aspen canyon. It takes about half an hour, it works for most abilities, and it is the stop that turns a scenic drive into a day out.
Yes. Forest Service campgrounds run from Soapstone at about mile 15 up through the lake country to Mirror Lake at mile 31.5, which has about 77 sites, including a horse loop, at roughly 10,400 feet with tables, tent pads and fire rings. Several take reservations through the federal booking system. The season is short, with the lower campgrounds opening in mid-May, the high lake campgrounds in the second half of June, and everything closing about September 20 or when the snow returns, and nights at that elevation are cold even in July.
About 40 to 45 minutes from Kamas to Bald Mountain Pass without stopping, and roughly an hour and a half to drive the full 54.7 miles to the Wyoming line. Nobody sensible does it without stopping. Allow half a day for the drive to the pass and back with a walk at the falls, and a full day if you are going through to Evanston and returning by way of I-80.
The road is the reason people find this town at all
It is also the reason the calendar matters here more than in most places. If you are weighing a Kamas address, the questions worth asking are which side of the county line a parcel sits on, how it is reached in February, and what the water and sewer arrangement actually is. Tell me what you are looking at and I will get a Summit County partner agent on it.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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