Red Castle

September 2003 Loop Hike Starting at East Fork Blacks Fork Trailhead - Highlights

	Utah's Uintas hiking and mountain vistas at their finest
	Four days and three nights with over 5,000 feet of cumulative elevation gain
	38-mile loop hike, one of only a handful of practical loop hikes in the Uintas
	Absolutely drop-dead gorgeous high alpine scenery
	*Perfect autumn weather (maybe a little too* cold...)**
	*Experience in solitude* - this normally busy area yielded two other people in four days**
	Literally could not have done it without my Tim, who knows how to backpack better then I
	Below are the itinerary and trip photos.

Tim, trudging up Smiths Fork Pass above East Red Castle Lake and Smiths Fork Lake

Look to the upper right for a Topo Map of the trip.

	Black line was the actual path taken.
	Black dotted line is the trail we shortcut
	Blue Circles are actual campsites

-----> Itinerary / Plan <-----

	Click here for an elevation graph and summary table for selected landmarks.
	To the left is a map of the exact course we took.
	Click here for an aerial photo of the greater Red Castle area.

Route Map with Hyper-linked Photos

All Topographic maps on this page are:

Getting to the Trailhead

The trip began by meeting my old friend Tim at the Minneapolis airport. He was flying in from Detroit. We flew to SLC and got to my parent's house in Park City by noon on Sep10.

We left at about 7am the next morning and drove the 20 minutes to Kamas, the "Gateway to the Uintas". This town, nestled below some larger hills at the extreme western end of the Uinta range, has just found the need for its first stoplight. I never thought I'd see the day come. In ten years there'll be two Starbucks and a Pizza Hut I bet.

Note - Wed Sep 10 saw Utah get hit with a sizable snow event which dropped up to a foot in the 9,000 foot elevation range in the Wasatch. Tim and drove up to Alta in the late afternoon - it got me itchin' to go skiing. The Western Uintas got maybe 5-6 inches of snow. I was a little concerned because that is close to where we were planning to hike. Luckily, the snow never truly made the leap east of Hayden Fork. See the below pics of what we encountered as viewed from Bald Mountain Pass.

All Pictures taken from the Hayden Peak Overlook.

Highway 150 begins at Kamas and winds its way through through Utah and terminates in Evanston, WY. The road ranges in elevation from about 6,200 feet in Kamas to 10,700 feet at Bald Mountain Pass. Be careful of free range livestock, particularly at the lower elevations, as they will hang out in the road for no apparent good reason and are expensive if you hit and kill one (for your car, medical bills, and the cow, for which you will need to pay).

After cresting and descending Bald Mountain Pass, the road levels out for about three miles until the long descent headed toward the North Slope. The views are dramatic; the Hayden Peak Overlook just east of the pass is striking.

A few miles past the Bear River Ranger Station if the North Slope Road (NSR). It is the only east-west road on the north slope of the Uintas. The road was in very good condition although I think it had deteriorated somewhat over the summer season. We drove approximately 22 miles on the NSR before our turn-off at the East Fork Blacks Fork Road. About four miles prior to this road is the West Fork Blacks Fork Road that leads to the trail to Deadhorse Lake. After the turn onto the East Fork Blacks Fork Road, it was an easy and flat five mile drive to the main trailhead. It was about a three-hour trip from Park City. The picture below is of the north slope of Tokewanna Peak.

About 1/2 mile before the trailhead is the Cache Trailhead. We could have parked here but for two reasons we did not - 1) there is no bridge crossing the river at this trailhead and 2) there is no decrease in hiking mileage (the 1/2 mile you save on day one must be walked on day four).

The main trailhead has several picnic tables and bathrooms. The car-park can probably fit 25+ cars.