Hayden: Pinto Lake and Duchesne River

Ashley National Forest

Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest


(pink line, map link)

DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3

I woke up to another frosty morning, at least outside the area of the trees. I tried to follow trail out from the established camping area north of Pine Island Lake, but it hits a downed tree and runs out. There's no hint at the trail that people walk that way.

083: lake from frosty meadow
Still frosty in the shade on the way out from Pine Island Lake.

084: smoothed rocks
The trail crosses another bit of rock smoothed by glacier.

Along with the trail signs at the north end of the Palisade Trail, I found a notice about "boreal toads", which it says have been vanishing. I think it looks like a western toad except that surely those aren't endangered. Well, it is the subspecies found in Utah and Colorado and they are endangered. (All of my observations of them have been in California and presumably the subspecies referred to as California toad. They're not endangered. Yet.) I wondered why the notice was on just this one post before going off to find some more lakes and no toads.

087: yellowing gooseberry leaves
Gooseberry leaves turning yellow and fringed in red.

089: a little water through the trees
Back to Rainbow Lake

090: lake and big peak
Approaching Governor Dern Lake

092: reflections of peak
Spread Eagle Peak reflecting in Governor Dean Lake

095: scalloped lake edge
Pinto Lake

096: wide lake and wide peak
Pinto Lake

099: birds leave
Frightened off the mallards on Pinto Lake.

I bumped into some equestrians around Pinto Lake. They came down from the Uinta Highline Trail. It's a bit less full of downed trees than the other option, as it turns out. I headed down the cutoff which I was already suspicious would be given even less attention because, well, it's a shortcut. There were 10 down on the mile to the river, but they didn't get less frequent on East Fork Duchesne River Trail.

101: shortcut trail drops
Dropping down to East Fork Duchesne River on the cutoff, which runs next to a small creek.

Once walking the side of the river, I was low enough to get into aspens changing color. I was also running a little into the footprint of the 2018 Murdock Fire once more.

103: yellow spots on a hill of evergreens
Found a spot where I can see from the East Fork Duchesne River to the top of the ridge with aspens and pines between.

104: burned hillside
The edge of the fire: the last trees before a burned hillside.

The canyon gets deeper and I was wondering about the crossing. With so much burn, maybe there's no bridge? Maybe I only see one set of prints because it's hard to get through? Then I started to see some recent trail work. They hadn't finished, but they'd got a bit over a mile cleared.

107: layered rocks cut by water
Gorge of the East Fork. It could be hard to cross if the trail suffered badly.

110: two water cuts coming together
Almost to the joining of the forks.

111: pink rocks at the bottom
Looking up the North Fork Duchesne River

112: water joining
North Fork and East Fork into Duchesne River.

The bridge looked good and a bit fresh. So I crossed and left the wilderness.

114: flow from the confluence
Watching the Duchesne River flow from below the bridge.

115: water in red rocks
Looking back to East Fork and North Fork

116: freshly planked bridge
Fresh planks on the bridge across the river, which is the wilderness boundary.

117: red flowers
Scarlet gilia because there are flowers still down low.

Once across the bridge, I had the chance of running into bicycles. Apparently it's a popular downhill run on the Duchesne River Trail and it was clear enough for them. I didn't meet any, just a couple hunters toward the end. I was also much more determinedly in the fire footprint. There was badly burned, completely annihilated, and just a bit singed on the edges spots on the way climbing to Mirror Lake.

119: aspen turning yellow
Autumn colors on this and the other side of the canyon.

122: unburned trees
A bit of unburned forest over the North Fork Duchesne River

123: dark wings with blue spots near the white edge
mourning cloak butterfly

124: black tree remains
A very burned forest over the North Fork, even the boardwalk on the ground was blackened between the boards.

I passed little pieces of history. An insulator suggested there was once a telephone line run along the canyon. A historic sign mentioned that one "William Ashley, a very early fur trader, came up" the river to the Bear River somewhere around here. The route really isn't certain. I suppose that's who the forest I started the day in is named for. You can get some good stuff named for you for being a white person blundering about the west in the right time. (The forest history talks about him as General W. H. Ashley, who organized a fur company. Bridger National Forest is named for the same trapper and trader as Bridger Peak.)

127: white ridge of rock over the trees
Approaching the peaks near Hayden Pass

129: sign with destinations
Top of Duchesne River Trail, marked as North Fork Trail here

There's a little trail parking at Mirror Lake. You can continue on trail back to Hayden Pass, but I wanted to see the lake. I walked up the paved road to find it, then out onto the shore trail that is part of the picnic area. The lake was already well in shadow, but there were a few dozen people bundled up and enjoying every curve of the darkened lake. I even passed a birthday party.

130: rocks above water
Bald Mountain over Mirror Lake

131: sunlit uplands
But there are sunlit uplands from Mirror Lake!

Then I climbed up a use trail between two sites to round the circle to another trailhead. The camp is closed for the season, so the area was much less crowded. It's just a couple miles more of climbing to get to the top.

133: the true Highline
There seems to be a difference of opinion as to where the Highline Trail starts. Hayden Pass seems to think it's there.

134: lake under sunlit mountains
Bonnie Lake below Hayden Peak

135: flowing water in the shadow
The water flow from Bonnie Lake to a lower lake, probably also Bonnie

It was getting a touch dark as I finished and I still had to go find a place to sleep. There's no camping within a quarter mile of the trailhead at Hayden Pass. It was a long day, but I think my lake tour worked out pretty well.

137: reddened rocks
Alpine glow on the high peaks of the High Uintas

*Wasatch 2022 photo album*




©2022 Valerie Norton
Written 30 Nov 2022


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