Yellow Pine Trail

Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest

(map link)

I wanted one more leaf peeping stop, so pulled into the Yellow Pine Trailhead. I must admit, the canyon had looked a bit grander where the trails tend to be built for ATVs, just a little before getting here. This is another trailhead that requires a Mirror Lake Recreation Area permit to park. There were quite a few vehicles parked there already, but many of them were actually there for a recently completed Slate Creek Trail, a one way loop trail for bicycles. I pondered it and discarded it. (Hikers are allowed, and even may go the wrong way.) With expectations of plenty of rain in the afternoon, my plan was simply to go until the rain started, then turn back. It would be really cool to get to either Yellow Pine Lake or Castle Lake, but it's not quite so nice when the views are grey with rain.

A good place to start

I decided to set both the GPS and the phone (using the Peakbagger app) to track the hike so I could compare and contrast. The GPS is purpose built, but the phone is 6-8 years younger and knows about entire systems of satellites that were decrypted since the last firmware update on the GPS. (Result: they both seem to produce about the same quality tracks.)

Willows and cottonwoods turning to yellow along the trail

Patches of reds and stretches of yellow across UT-150

Then I forgot about the electronics to take in the colors and the "yellow pines", which mostly weren't much so far. Yellow pine is a common name for ponderosa pines from when the gentle Jeffery was classified as a subspecies of the prickly ponderosa. These are ponderosa, not Jeffery, and a most amazing fragrance was emitting from the bark of a few of them as I passed. I breathed it in and decided that ponderosa is the best pine. Not just the scents, there's also the puzzle piece bark! Nice, long needles in not too bulky bunches. Tends against bifurcating into silly shapes. Yep, best pine.

Ponderosa pines, which keep their leaves green for 4-6 years so aren't participating in the turning of the seasons

The gambel oaks are participating with a hearty red

I passed a couple trail workers putting in some water bars on the way to the creek. Trail sort of follows old road up along Yellow Pine Creek. The road bed is obvious at first, but higher up I spotted some old fords that were long abandoned and the road to them vanished in vegetation. The trail crossings get bridges now.

Arriving at Yellow Pine Creek by Yellow Pine Trail

Maple brings a slightly gentler red to the mix

A rainbow of turning leaves

Mountain ash offers up some red berries

The ponderosa pines were quickly replaced by other evergreens as I climbed. Surely there should be more if the trail and creek and lakes above are all named for the tree? Maybe there's more patches up high.

Creeping mahonia makes a very low red with a few blue "Oregon grapes"

Spruce and aspen along the trail, looking back

Another mountain ash is turning to everything from yellow to burgundy

It began to rain, but it was light and I didn't bother to turn around. Not yet.

Some mountains to see among the yellowing leaves

Does no one eat the rose hips? They're edible, but Wikipedia claims it's best to avoid the "hairs" on the inside that are used as itching powder.

Bright colors on the way to a rocky hillside

Lovely cleared logs

The rain got harder and I heard chainsaws at work not far above me. There is a space marked as unvegetated on the Forest Service topo that I was vaguely aiming at for the view that wasn't much further. I decided since I'd gotten hints at the view I would have and it wasn't shaping into a thing of flowing color, I may as well turn around before disturbing the trail workers.

Flowing with a lot of green and rock, but there are colors

Not much view from down in the canyon, to be honest

Actually, the greens are quite varied too once the other colors start coming in

A little bit of view across the canyon from down low

A scattering of the fallen

The rain let off once I'd turned around and things even seemed to be clearing up by the time I made it to the bottom.

Returning across the sages

The other trail and the upper reaches of Slate Creek

So there was plenty more I could have done without dealing with too much rain. It did get pretty torrential in the late evening as I headed west.

*Wasatch 2022 photo album*




©2022 Valerie Norton
Written 5 Dec 2022