By Scott Buehler, Moving UtahRuth Lake
About mile 35 2.2 miles round trip Easy Directions
If you have one short walk in you, this is the one. Ruth Lake is a little over two miles round trip for about 250 feet of climb, which at this elevation means a genuinely gentle grade rather than a token one. The trailhead sits at roughly mile 35 on SR-150, past Hayden Pass, so it is about an hour from Kamas before you take a step.
What you get for the effort is a proper alpine lake in a rock basin under Hayden Peak, with fishing, meadow and a scatter of smaller ponds around it if you keep exploring. It is the most walked short trail in the western Uintas and on an August Saturday you will not have it to yourself.
Why it suits people who are not hikers
Two hundred and fifty feet of gain over a mile is close to flat by mountain standards, and the surface is good. That combination makes Ruth Lake the trail to take somebody who is not sure about hiking, or anyone still adjusting to a valley floor that is already at about 6,500 feet. It is also short enough to fit in around an afternoon storm rather than gambling against one.
Go early, and go on a weekday if you can
The parking lot is small relative to the trail's popularity, and by mid morning on a summer weekend it overflows onto the highway shoulder, which is a poor place to leave a vehicle on a road carrying trailers. Arriving before nine solves the problem completely. A recreation pass is required to park here, as at every developed trailhead on the corridor.
The details
Getting there
East out of Kamas on SR-150 past Bald Mountain Pass, Mirror Lake and Hayden Pass. The trailhead is signed on the north side of the highway with a small parking lot.
Before you go
- Buy the recreation pass in Kamas before you drive up, at 50 East Center Street.
- The parking lot is small. Before nine on a summer weekend, or pick a weekday.
- Mosquitoes are serious here from snowmelt into midsummer. Take repellent.
- There is no water on the trail and nothing to buy within thirty miles.
- Afternoon thunderstorms build over this range through July and August. Start early.
The Lofty Lake loop
Pass Lake trailhead, mile 32.1 3.8 miles Moderate Directions
The Lofty Lake loop is the best half day walk on this road. It runs about 3.8 miles from the Pass Lake trailhead at milepost 32.1, ranges between roughly 9,780 and 10,840 feet, and takes in Kamas Lake, Lofty Lake and Scout Lake in a circuit rather than an out and back, which is a rare thing to find at this altitude.
It is properly moderate. There is a real climb in it, about 800 feet, and the high point of the loop is above 10,800 feet, so anybody arriving from sea level should treat it with respect. In exchange you get a view from the saddle across the lake basin toward Reids Peak and Bald Mountain that is the single best thing on the western side of the range.
Which direction to walk it
Either way works and most people go clockwise, taking the climb early and the long descent past Scout Lake at the end. The counter argument is that the counterclockwise version puts the steepest section on the way down, which is harder on knees than on lungs. Look at the board at the trailhead before you commit, because a loop signed one way is easier to follow than a loop you are reversing.
You can link it to Ruth Lake
The trail system connects, and a longer day taking in Ruth Lake as well as the loop runs to roughly five miles with about 1,150 feet of climb. That is the best full day on the corridor for anyone who wants more than a stroll and less than a wilderness trip. Both trailheads need the recreation pass, and both parking lots fill.
The details
Getting there
East from Kamas on SR-150 past Bald Mountain Pass and Mirror Lake. The Pass Lake trailhead is signed at milepost 32.1 with a parking lot off the highway.
Before you go
- The high point is above 10,800 feet. Give yourself a day at altitude first if you have flown in.
- Snow can sit on the saddle into early summer. Ask at the ranger office about conditions.
- It is a loop, so read the signage and pick a direction before you start.
- Weather changes fast at this height. Carry a shell even on a clear morning.
- There is no water, no toilet on the loop and no signal anywhere up here.
Wall Lake, Twin Lakes and the Notch from Crystal Lake
Crystal Lake trailhead, about mile 26 2 to 6 miles Easy to moderate Directions
The Crystal Lake trailhead is the busiest single access point in the western Uintas, and with good reason: it is one parking lot with four or five walks leaving it. Turn off SR-150 near Trial Lake at about mile 26, follow the spur half a mile to its end, and you arrive at a large parking lot with a pit toilet and a trail board.
From there Wall Lake is about a mile, which makes it one of the easiest big alpine lakes in Utah to reach. Twin Lakes is roughly another 0.6 miles on. The Notch, the obvious gap in the ridge above, is about 2.5 miles one way, and the west summit above it makes a six mile round trip. Every one of those is a day walk from a Kamas breakfast.
One parking lot, four different days
This is the trailhead to choose when the group does not agree. A short party can walk to Wall Lake and sit by the water. A middling one can carry on to Twin Lakes. A fit pair can climb to the Notch and go on over the ridge. Everybody comes back to the same car, which is a logistical luxury you rarely get in a mountain range.
The lakes here are stocked from a hatchery in Kamas
The trout in a good many of these waters were raised at the state fish hatchery on the Mirror Lake Highway just out of Kamas, which supplies the Uinta lakes along with reservoirs elsewhere in the state. It is a genuinely nice piece of local circularity: the town at the bottom of the road grows the fish that fill the lakes at the top of it. The hatchery itself is a working facility rather than a visitor attraction, so treat a look as something to arrange rather than turn up for.
The details
Getting there
East on SR-150 to about mile 26, then the signed spur road that runs half a mile to the trailhead. The parking lot is large and has a pit toilet.
Before you go
- This parking lot still fills on summer weekends. It is the busiest on the road.
- Mosquitoes through midsummer are the reason people leave early rather than the walking.
- The Notch is a real climb at over 10,000 feet, not a stroll to a viewpoint.
- Several trails leave the same board. Photograph the map before you set off.
- Fishing here needs a current Utah license. Check the rules for the specific water.
Bald Mountain, from the some of the highest pavement in Utah
Bald Mountain Pass, about mile 29 4 miles round trip Strenuous but short Directions
This is the one that gets people their first Utah eleven thousand foot summit. The trail leaves Bald Mountain Pass at 10,715 feet and climbs about two miles to the 11,943 foot summit, which is a gain of a little over twelve hundred feet. Because the road has already done four thousand feet of the work, it is one of the easiest high summits in the state to reach on foot.
Easy is relative. The whole walk is above 10,700 feet, the last section is exposed, and the summit ridge is no place to be when a storm arrives. The view from the top runs east to Hayden and Agassiz peaks over the High Uintas and west across the lake basin you drove through to get here.
Altitude is the whole difficulty
Two miles and twelve hundred feet is an ordinary afternoon at sea level. At 11,000 feet it is not, and visitors underestimate it more consistently than any other trail on this road. If you have come from a low elevation, sleep a night in the valley first, drink far more than feels necessary, and turn round without embarrassment if the headache starts.
The turnaround time is the rule that matters
Through July and August, convection builds over the Uintas most afternoons, and a summit ridge above the tree line is the worst place in the range to be caught. Set a turnaround time before you leave the parking lot and keep it. Locals start these walks early for exactly this reason, and the good weather here is a morning phenomenon rather than an all day one.
The details
Getting there
East on SR-150 over the lake basin. The pass is the high point of the road and the trailhead and picnic site are signed on the north side.
Before you go
- The entire walk sits above 10,700 feet. Acclimatize first if you have flown in.
- Start early and set a turnaround time. Afternoon storms are the real hazard here.
- There is no shade and no water above the parking lot.
- Snow can hold on the upper trail well into July.
- The pass is the one of the highest paved roads in Utah, so the weather at the parking lot is not valley weather.
Choosing
Four walks, and how to pick between them
All four leave the same highway and all four are day walks from Kamas. What separates them is effort and exposure rather than distance, because the altitude does most of the work.
| Walk | Distance | High point | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruth Lake | 2.2 miles round trip, about 250 feet | Around 10,000 feet | A first walk, mixed abilities, a short window |
| Wall Lake from Crystal Lake | About 2 miles round trip | Around 10,200 feet | A big lake for very little effort |
| Lofty Lake loop | 3.8 miles, about 800 feet | About 10,840 feet | A half day and the best view on the corridor |
| Bald Mountain summit | 4 miles round trip, about 1,230 feet | 11,943 feet | A first high summit, with the weather watched |
Distances and gains are the commonly published figures, rounded. The variable that actually decides how a walk feels here is not the mileage, it is that every one of these starts higher than most Utah summits finish.
The honest warnings
This is high country with a short season and fast weather
The season is roughly late June to early October for the higher trails, and late May or June for the lowest of them, and it is set by the snowpack rather than the calendar. Snow holds on the Lofty Lake saddle and the Bald Mountain ridge weeks after the road opens. The ranger district office on Center Street in Kamas is the place to ask what has actually melted out.
Weather is the other half of it. These ranges build afternoon convection through midsummer, which is why local practice is to start at dawn and be off the exposed ground by early afternoon. A summit ridge at nearly twelve thousand feet is the worst place in the Uintas to be caught by a storm, and the drive back to town is fifty minutes even once you are down.
None of that makes the range difficult. It makes it a morning range, with a short season and a hard turnaround discipline, which is a set of habits rather than a set of skills. Get those right and the walking here is as good as anywhere in the state.
Do not plan a Uinta lake walk on a summer afternoon. Every trailhead on this road sits between 9,700 and 10,700 feet, and through July and August thunderstorms build over the range with very little warning. The exposed sections on the Lofty Lake saddle and the Bald Mountain ridge have nowhere to shelter. Start at first light, set a turnaround time before you leave the parking lot, and treat a building sky as the end of the day rather than a reason to hurry.