island lake, reversed

As we were trying to decide on a hike for Sunday, H remembered the Island Lake one that we did back in 2015.  It seemed to tick off all the boxes: decent length, low traffic and not too steep.  Our knees could use a break after Lake Blanche and Honeycomb Canyon/Silver Fork.

Creek in a meadow, sometime before Duck Lake

We got out of the house around 7:30 and drove through Park City and Kamas to the Mirror Lake Highway.  Traffic was pretty light although we did have to stop several times because of cows in the road.  When the roadside signs say OPEN RANGE, they mean it.

This guy was chowing down on that pinecone

The last time we did this hike, the Crystal Lake trailhead parking lot was full and we ended up parking half a mile away at the overflow/horse trailer lot.  This time there were plenty of spaces and we were on the trail a little after 9 a.m.  There was another hiking group of four young women and three dogs - including a funny hound who kept baying, thus ensuring that none of us would run into any deer or elk.  Other than that, we had the trail to ourselves for most of the day.

Autumn colors, glassy pond

We had partial cloud cover for most of the day, as well as a light breeze, making the temperatures very pleasant for hiking.  I didn't even sweat through my hat!  The trail we did was about two-thirds rocky underfoot and one-third nice dirt/sand; and although there are a lot of small gains and losses, there are no long slogs up- or downhill.

Duck Lake

We ended up doing the route in reverse from what we had done in 2015: when we got to the Middle Fork/Long Lake intersection, we went left instead of right, which meant that we went past Weir Lake and Duck Lake first.  To mix things up, we followed a faint trail all the way around Duck Lake, scaring up a big osprey who seemed annoyed that we would invade his territory.

Duck Lake stump art

After circling Duck Lake, we did the short out-and-back to check out Island Lake.  Here we met three groups of backpackers, heading back to their cars after a weekend in the Uintas.  We ended up catching two of those groups on the hike out.

H at Long Lake

We retraced our steps on the Island Lake spur, then finished the loop by passing by Long Lake.  As we headed back to the trailhead, more people started coming in: a group of tourists, struggling with the elevation, asking "Where is the lake?" (to which we replied, "Which one?"); baby-toting hipsters looking for a picnic spot (to which we replied, "Um, anywhere?"); backpackers heading out for overnights; people taking their dogs out on the dog-friendly trails.  Despite all this, it still didn't seem crowded.  It just seemed like a nice day for a hike.

Hike stats:  9.50 miles; 3:39 moving/2.7 m.p.h.; 4:05 overall/2.3 m.p.h.; 1,400' climbing