After camping at Deadhorse Lake on night #1, I began the hike to the top of 11,500 foot Deadhorse Pass.  This pass has been known to be impassable through July but given the low snow year and warm temps it looked okay from my vantage point across the lake.  Simply put, I was wrong.  What transpired next was something I care to never have to go through again.  The fact that I created the possibility for death is something I'll never forget.

Click here to read a short story of the mistake which literally almost cost me my life.

From the top of Deadhorse Pass, the view is beyond words.  To say it is stunning, gorgeous, beautiful, or amazing will not do it justice.  Neither will my photos.  But, at least they can give an indication of it beauty.  The pass itself is not more than 10-15 feet wide and totally open.  It is a little precarious but not too bad.  I saw dog foot prints which may have come from a person/group which came through a few days before.

Looking north, one can see from west to east, the cliffs surrounding Deadhorse Lake, Allsop Pass, Mt Beulah, Deadhorse and Ejod Lakes, the entire West Fork Blacks Fork Drainage, Tokewanna Peak, 13,156 foot Wasatch Peak, and Red Knob Peak and Pass.

Looking south, one can see what seems like the entire Rock Creek Drainage.  This drainage is huge compared to WFBF.  It is about six miles wide at its widest at the head and spans something like 15-17 miles to the Stillwater Reservoir and trailhead.  From east to west you can see Explorer Peak, Squaw Peak, the 6+ mile ridge which marks the eastern boundary, several small lakes high in the basin, the canyon which hold the Fall Creek branch, 11,333 foot Lion Peak on the west side of the drainage, Cyclone Pass, and 11,300 foot Rocky Sea Pass which straddles Rock Creek and (near) Naturalist Basin.

I hike down the south side of the pass.  This was not as steep but still demanded my full attention.  Once off the pass, the trail followed rock cairns due to the rocky nature of this area.  At this point, the trail is on a large shelf which is ringed by 100+ cliffs downward on side and mountains on the other.  I lost the trail here.  I looked on the map, took a bearing, but still could not find the trail.  I picked my down through the cliffs somewhat near a fast flowing stream.  Once down in the basin, I still could not find the trail.  One of the problems here is the tundra-like terrain - it does not yield itself very well for trail making.  I took another bearing and decided to head west, figuring I'd bump into Cliff Lake at some point.  Well, I was right.  Once there, I found the trail and continued heading west.

I had planned to take the most circuitous route around the upper drainage but due to fatigue and the nagging feeling that "perhaps it was not a good idea", I decided to find the Jack and Jill Lake trail and cut off four miles of the hike.  Here is where the maps I had brought and the actual trails differed greatly.  All my maps showed the Highline Trail emerging from Rock Creek to join up with the upper portion of the Highline trail about a mile and a half west of Cliff Lake.  At about this point I saw a sign that read "Top of Rock Creek Drainage" or something like that.  No trail.  Bewildered, I took a bearing and it indicated I was at the right spot.  But again, no trail heading southwest towards Rocky Sea.  I kept on walking and after about a 1/2 mile there was another dilapidated sign which looked like someone had used a knife to carve the words.  This one indicated Jack and Jill Lake one way and Lightening Lake the other.  I headed toward J&J, figuring I could skirt them, cross near Ouray Lake, and connect with a trail near Black Lake that would take me to Rocky Sea Pass.

At this point, I came across the first people of the trip - two guys on horseback and two dogs.  They had been in RCD for a week camping out near the old guard station.  They actually had two horses a piece, a electric fence to hobble them, and undoubtedly a Fleetwood cruiser for a camp site!  I took their photo and continued on.

The trail signs in this drainage are terrible.  They sort of make up for it by having constructed 5-7 bridges along this trail.  It is very tricky to find your way past Ouray Lake to finally emerge at the Blacks Lake Trail.  There are two "jogs" in the trail, some rock cairns that are hard to see, and generally confusing signage.  One interesting note is after one wrong turn I ended up after two minutes at the now closed guard station. There are several wood structures with debris and garbage pretty much everywhere.  It is sad.  Old propane tanks, blankets, soda and beer cans, broken wood, etc.  So much for pack it in, pack it out.  I hope there is a special place in hell for people like this.

Once back on the trail, I found it humorous that the sign for the short Black Lake trail was pristine, easy to read, and informative.  Clearly, priorities for signage are somewhat backwards here.

Remember the fourth bullet back when I mentioned that "ghost trail"?  Well, right on cue, when I walked past the point on the map which indicated I'd see the other end of this trail, it was not there.  What was there was a sign that read "Highline Trail -- Rocky Sea Pass --->" or something like that.  No trail.  Weird.

From here, I walked another couple of miles and camped out just below Rocky Sea Pass, getting there about 3:30pm after having hiked almost non-stop for eight hours and 11 miles.  Beat up, I set up camp and crashed/wallowed in pain for three hours.  During that time I heard some people but did not emerge to say hi.

Day three began with an uneventful hike up Rocky Sea Pass.  From the top, Mt Timpanogos in the Wasatch range is clearly visible next to and behind Bald Mountain & Pass.  The trail heads south here, over several large but consolidated snow fields, through some cliff bands, and bottoms out at Pigeon Milk Spring.  From here it is roughly seven miles to 10,300 foot Hayden Pass on the Mirror Lake Highway.  This part of the trail is strewn with rock and tends to beat up your feet easily.  Watching the trail is paramount.

Ended up at the Highline trailhead at just before noon that Saturday, taking 4 and 1/2 hours to walk the eight miles.  I ended up getting a ride back to Park City with a bunch of 12-year old boy scouts and their two leaders.  That was fun.