naturalist basin

We were looking for a twelve mile hike for Sunday, but one that perhaps didn't have too much elevation change so that we could do the distance without suffering too badly.  I went back to one of the first hiking books we bought when we moved to Utah - 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Salt Lake City - and not only found such a hike, but found one that we hadn't done before.  (There's not many we haven't done in that book at this point.)

A less-rocky portion of the trail

The Naturalist Basin hike is off the scenic Mirror Lake Highway in the Uintas (Highline trailhead just past mile marker 34).  Since it was out so far - we had to drive past Park City, through Kamas and 34 miles out the Mirror Lake Highway - we got up at 4:30 a.m. for a 5 a.m. departure.  Having laid all our clothes and gear out the night before, we managed to be on the road on time, PB&J roll-ups in hand for breakfast-while-driving.

Low cloud ceiling when you're above 10,000 ft.

The early departure meant that it was prime deer time: we saw many, many deer along the roadsides.  Luckily, none decided to cross in front of us and there wasn't that much traffic that early.  We got to the trailhead without mishap and were hiking right at 7 a.m. (and 46 F).  Although the parking lot was pretty full, there weren't any other day hikers heading out when we were; we would end up seeing fewer than 20 hikers all day, 14 of whom were backpackers who were heading back to their vehicles after camping out overnight.  We did see a good amount of wildlife: squirrels, marmots, birds, deer, a porcupine treed by a hiker's dog (and, separately, a dog with a couple of porcupine quills in its nose) and a coyote.

The creek coming out of Naturalist Basin

If the trail had been smooth, it would have been an incredible cruiser.  Nothing was steep and most of it was shaded, passing by small lakes.  But the footing was difficult: very rocky, so much so that we went most of the way staring at the ground beneath our feet to keep from stepping wrong.  We could never get our strides into rhythm and often were walking like we were drunk, staggering and slipping.  Still, we made better time than we thought we were, which must be due to the gentle slope.

H on the trail

We followed the Highline Trail for 5+ miles before veering left (north) into Naturalist Basin, a gorgeous meadow with a stream and a waterfall coursing over the surrounding cliffs underneath Mt. Agassiz.  The whole day was cloudy and cool, with occasional rain sprinkles, and I imagine that this basin must be breathtaking under clear, sunny skies.  It was awfully pretty even overcast.

Trying not to fall in

We picked our way across the stream and continued counter-clockwise around the loop that encircles the basin.  At mile 6, however, we stopped, had a snack and turned back.  It probably wouldn't have taken long to complete the loop but we knew we still had six miles to get back to the car and we didn't want to get caught out if the weather turned (as was forecast).

Deer: "Who's that there, now?"

So we retraced our steps, swatting the few (and slow) mosquitoes that buzzed us.  The Uintas are the only place in Utah that we've really seen mosquitoes.  Native Utahns think they're terrible out there but they're not, especially to someone who grew up with Maine mosquitoes.

Art shot: me on a foot bridge

When we finished the hike, our feet and legs were a bit sore from the rock footing but our legs weren't that fatigued, despite the distance and the altitude (trailhead elevation: 10,376 feet; we topped out just under 11,000 ft.).  This was encouraging to us, although we did admit that we still need to be better about eating on the trail, especially if we keep doing longer hikes.  Still searching for the perfect trail food, I guess: sour gummy bears will only take you so far.

Hike stats:  12.01 miles; 4 hrs. 46 min. hiking time at 2.5 m.p.h moving avg. speed; 5 hrs. 17 min. trip time (2.2 avg. speed); 1,600 feet elevation change.