Category Archives: Backpacking

Island Lake Loop

In the middle of last week I got a text from Chris wanting to head into the Uintas for a short-ish trip. We made a rough plan to meet at the Crystal Lake trailhead on Friday evening and hike somewhere to the west. I got off work an hour early so I could make the three-hour drive and I made it to the trailhead a little early. There wasn’t a single available parking spot, so I waited for Chris to arrive and then we drove to the overflow parking about 3/4-mile away. Ugh. After the fun road-walk, we hit the trail and surprisingly didn’t see the throngs of people we were expecting. We took the turn toward Weir Lake and found a geocache there, then pushed on to Duck Lake.

Crystal Lake TH overflow parking
Crystal Lake TH overflow parking


Crystal Lake trailhead
Crystal Lake trailhead


Ponds west of Crystal Lake
Ponds west of Crystal Lake


Notch Mountain
Notch Mountain


Pond above Lillian Lake
Pond above Lillian Lake


Trail to Weir Lake
Trail to Weir Lake


Elephant heads
Elephant heads


Weir Lake
Weir Lake


Chris on the Weir Lake dam
Chris on the Weir Lake dam


Pot Lake
Pot Lake


Trail to Duck Lake
Trail to Duck Lake


We found Duck Lake to be deserted. There was a nice campsite in the trees near the dam where we dropped our packs and hiked around the lake to find a geocache. We returned to the campsite and set up tents, fixed dinner, and drank some PBR tallboys that Chris had packed in.

Chair rock at Duck Lake
Chair rock at Duck Lake


Duck Lake
Duck Lake


Chris packed in a couple of PBR tallboys
Chris packed in a couple of PBR tallboys


Illuminated tents
Illuminated tents


Duck Lake was beautifully glassy in the early morning. I rose before Chris and walked around enjoying the sunrise for a bit. We ate breakfast and I filtered some water before heading out toward Island Lake. Just after the junction of the Island Lake trail we encountered the hordes of people that we’d been expecting the previous evening–most of them heading back toward the trailhead after having camped at Island Lake. The lake and surrounding area were beautiful. I can see why so many people camped there, but the large crowds would be enough to keep me from ever spending the night.

Duck Lake
Duck Lake


Breakfast
Breakfast


Filtering water
Filtering water


On the trail to Island Lake
On the trail to Island Lake


Wildflowers along the trail
Wildflowers along the trail


Switchback on the trail
Switchback on the trail


Island Lake
Island Lake


Chris and I walked around the lake and found a couple of geocaches. We headed back down the trail and took the fork to Long Lake, and along the way passed quite a few more people heading up toward Island, mostly day-hikers. At the saddle just north of Haystack Mountain we stopped for lunch and debated whether to drop our packs and summit Haystack. After consulting the time and my sore leg muscles, I decided it’d be best to just call it a trip. Back at our vehicles my GPS read about 13.3 miles of hiking, three of which were along the road due to the crowded TH parking lot.

Island Lake
Island Lake


Island Lake
Island Lake


Paintbrush at Island Lake
Paintbrush at Island Lake


Inverted pond reflection
Inverted pond reflection


Unnamed peak above Island Lake
Unnamed peak above Island Lake


Trail to Long Lake
Trail to Long Lake


Long Lake
Long Lake


Wildflowers at Long Lake
Wildflowers at Long Lake


GPS stats after the hike
GPS stats after the hike


It was still early enough that we had time for some short stops during the drive out. We drove to Shoestring Lake and found a geocache there, then headed down the Mirror Lake Highway and stopped for a walk through the Fairy Forest. There, people have painted rocks and left all sorts of other whimsical stuff. It covers a pretty large area and would make for a lot of work if the Forest Service ever decided to put a stop to it. There were a few clever or interesting things there, but overall it’s mostly just a bunch of colorful rocks.

Shoestring Lake
Shoestring Lake


Fairy Forest
Fairy Forest


Fairy Forest
Fairy Forest


Fairy Forest
Fairy Forest


Fairy Forest–my favorite display there
Fairy Forest--my favorite display there


Fairy Forest
Fairy Forest


Photo Gallery: Island Lake Loop
GPS Track and Photo Waypoints:
[Google Earth KMZ] [Gmap4 Satellite] [Gmap4 Topo]