Kings: Henrys Basin and Big Meadows

Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest


(brown line, map link)

DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4

It was a windy morning and I didn't much like my kitchen spot's wind blocking, so I packed up and left before eating.

121: light across the red rocks
Morning shadows stretch a long way across Henry's Basin.

122: widening cascade
Waterfall in the sunlight.

I bumped into eight people scattered over three groups making their way to the peak in the short distance to the junction of Henry's Fork Trail with Henry's Basin Trail. This day wouldn't have any cloud troubles no matter how early they got up. Or late, for that matter.

Shortcuts and multitudes of trails at the junction.

At the sign for Henry's Basin, I turned and left the crowd behind. There is a rock ledge halfway to Henrys Fork Lake that made a pretty reasonable windbreak for cooking breakfast. The area was another established camp site beside a marsh area on the map that looked rather lake-like to me.

126: lake with extra shore showing
Peeking at Kings Peak, or really the bump north of it, through the break above the swamp that looks more like a lake, and a low one at that.

127: black and white bird
The osprey is out hunting.

Fueled up for the next few hours, I continued along the trail seeing absolutely no one. It had a few trees down, but clearly gets a lot of use by people and horses.

129: couple peaks and a sun
Looking back to the sun, Gilbert Peak, and the crowds heading for Gunsight Pass on the right.

130: small cabin beside fallen barn
Henry's place? A second structure has fallen and both had the same small footprint.

133: big water
Henrys Fork Lake

134: water in the grass
Grass Lake

137: ponded creek
The upper regions of Henry's Basin.

140: anotehr lake
Bear Lake

The signed junction was time to leave Henry's Fork and Basin. It looks like many people take this little loop for a little extra to see. Many go my way, too. It's the Highline! "A" (North Slope) that is.

144: wide basin with little peaks
Henry's Basin with Gilbert Peak toward the left and Kings Peak center.

146: treed valley and grey flats
Overlooking the valley of Henry's Fork and some grey, flat distance starting to show.

Trail gets rather faint when it hits the high meadow, but there's huge cairns to follow instead. Some complete this loop by keeping to Highline and retracing the few miles back on East Fork Smith Fork. There's two other options that lead to a slightly bigger loop, and they're signed to make finding them easy. I'd somehow got stuck in the thought rut that Dahlgreen Ridge would be part of looping back to Henry's Fork, except it doesn't quite have a connection available, so got discarded. Instead, I went down the hill on Big Meadows even thought I suspected views would be better from Dahlgreen Ridge. Maybe I'd have got to see Alligator Lake were it not for the thought rut.

147: big flat grassy big
High up and looking at distant flats.

149: far bump
A little of the view from the ridge, which is somewhat blocked off at the junction for Dahlgreen.

150: into trees
Big Meadows heads off into the trees instead.

151: meadows among trees
Some big meadows along Big Meadows Trail.

The trail is a challenge to follow. At first it's just finding it. Generally it just requires getting around the next tree to see it again, so it's just a little guesswork. This is the only area I saw blazes. Once in trees, there was some ease because there were places with significant work, all very aged. Then it was hard because the stacks of trees were so extensive that finding a way around was difficult. But there were the blazes to help in finding it. Some of the blazes looked more recent than the cuts on the cleared trees. A few were traditional two cut blazes, but there were a lot of single and triple cuts too.

153: trees across the trail
Lots of old cuts to show the trail and many trees to hide it.

And with all these clues, I still lost the trail. Add to that two lines on the maps (Forest Service and OpenStreetMap) that both showed signs of being approximate and didn't agree so it wasn't always clear where I should be looking for trail when I did lose it. I kept it up because as hard as it was to walk the trail, it was even harder to go my own way. The forest is, as I said, full of fallen trees. The meadows are tempting, but tend to be bogs no mater how browned they are looking. They don't offer an easier walk.

155: cuts and blaze
Old cuts and a rather fresh looking blaze, which is the way of things on this trail.

156: water in a meadow
A meadow not completely hiding that it is soggy.

157: lots of grass
The meadow Big Meadows is named for.

158: more grasses
More of Big Meadows.

I found trail again shortly after leaving the wilderness and backtracked to find an actual wilderness sign. Trail was pretty easy to follow and walk once out of the wilderness, at least as far as Sargent Lake Trail.

159: sign attached to a dead tree
Leaving High Uintas Wilderness.

160: meadow behind dead trees
China Meadows in the distance.

I met a hunter coming up the trail. He said that Dahlgreen is fine while it is along the ridge, but the other half of it is even harder than Big Meadows to find and travel. I didn't have much left to hike and plenty of time to hike it, so went looking for a benchmark before trying to follow Sargent Lake Trail back.

163: 10202
Maybe the benchmark I was looking for. It was closer to the trail and marked 3 feet lower than expected.

I got on an old road while trying to follow trail back from the benchmark to the junction, so had to find myself again. It's all quite ridiculous. Then down to Sargent Lake. It was easy until I hit the meadow and the cows and there was no clue where the trail should be. I wanted to visit the lake, so just wandered my own way. I hit forest and downed trees on the way but I managed to get there.

164: lake in the forest
Sargent Lake

I found the trail out from the lake and managed to find where it got back into the forest. It tried to push me off toward the China Meadows Trailhead and I had to backtrack to get on the trail back to my parking. It was all clearly well used, but apparently takes more to keep a trail obvious across certain meadows. It was nice to already know some of the trail at the end. Those last 5 miles were hard.

165: winding creek
East Fork Smiths Fork winding through China Meadows.

I got back to my car and then back to my trailer. (In another state! It feels weird to have been parked in two states.) Everything in order. I guess that last bit of trail means everything was in my sort of order for the trip, too. Always got to find the unmaintained bit. They should do a better job maintaining the trails I want to hike. Still a great trip.


*Wasatch 2022 photo album*




©2022 Valerie Norton
Written 26 Nov 2022


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Comments

Anonymous said…
Golly, some amazing scenery and yet more amazing photography and commentary! Just love this blog. Thank you.

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