Clyde Lake Loop, Uinta Mountains- July 2019

The Uintas are open for business! I finally made it up to the high terrain in the Uinta Mountains over the weekend. Me and my friend Jared decided to do the Clyde Lake Loop with a overnight stop at John Lake. We made the drive into Hwy 150. Not much traffic on a holiday weekend. We were dreading the parking situation at the Crystal Lake trailhead, but there was a spot right as we pulled up. We decided to do the hike in via Cliff Lake and Clyde Lake, stay at John Lake, and then finish the loop out via Twin, Hope, and Wall Lakes. The trail in was a mix of dry ground and muddy sections on the trail. This was pretty much how it was until we made the descent into Clyde Lake. The whole hillside that the trail is on was either snow covered, or a running torrent of water. Many areas of the trail at Clyde Lake were under water. The snow is mostly melted out and the area is ready for summer.

Once we reached the north end of Clyde Lake, we made an off trail exit and hiked our way up to John Lake. The view once I got lake side was amazing! Very scenic lake that I had not previously been to. We made our way around the lake and found a spot tucked away from the lake and got shop set up. We very soon realized that we had this whole lake to ourselves! Unbelievable for a holiday weekend off this particular trailhead. We settled into our area and made our way up onto the rock fins above camp. The overlook was amazing! Nice to have a back porch with such a view. We tended to camp and our firewood supply, then we put it together and decided to go fishing. It took a minute, but they started slamming my fly, and I landed some small but fast action brookies. I shot a very nice time lapse of the cotton ball clouds floating over the lake. Just amazing to have such a beautiful place like this so close to home!

Evening settled in and the frogs turned up the volume. We had a really nice sunset lakeside with the title pic of this post as the view we got to enjoy. Darkness fell and we made dinner. Then I put my camera out for a star trail at the lake. We enjoyed a very nice fire as the stars were shinning bright. about 11 PM the clouds started rolling by ending my star trail shot. We stayed up because we could see the Milky Way, but the clouds were obscuring its view. Just after the witching hour the clouds started to break and I was able to get a vey nice shot of the Milky Way with Mt Watson and John Lake in the shot. It was a long night, but that is what you have to do to get the shot. After the fun with the Milky Way we turned in.

Morning came and we got up and enjoyed some coffee on this rock ledge just above camp. Weather was just perfect and the temps were mild. After coffee and some breakfast we took some time to pack it up and complete the loop. Once we hit the trail we headed down to Twin Lakes. Beautiful area where I ended my season last year. We then continued on up to the Notch Junction and started our way towards Hope and Wall Lakes. The trail was mostly snow free to Hope Lake. After descending the switchbacks down towards Wall Lake we ran into some big piles in the trees on trail. Nothing you could not manage but they slowed the pace considerably. Eventually we got to Wall Lake and made the final stretch to Jared's car. A great weekend with good company in the high terrain in the Uintas. It's nice that the range has now opened up after such a long stretch of being buried by snow. It will be a couple of weeks till I am back out there, things should primed out there by then. Enjoy the pics and time lapse! More adventures to come!