#high uintas

Amethyst Lake

13.0 Mile Roundtrip

2,326 feet elevation game

Link: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/utah/amethyst-lake-trail

Emily’s first backpacking trip! Chris ended up having to back out last second due to his wife, Amber, being sick, so it was just Emily, Jake, and me.

We set off into the High Uintas through a good mix of highways and backroads, and ended up at the trailhead with no service and no downloaded maps. Now that’s a great start.

The trail was pretty tame, and we knew that we would be looking for a “rock pile” and that we would have to turn left at it. This was pretty much our only knowledge of the trail, and we spent the entirety of the first 2ish miles saying “is that the rockpile?”

At one point, I ended up leaving my pack to run ahead on a scouting mission, because we were unsure if a “rockpile” and something that kind of looked like a fork in the trail was our turning point. I ended up finding the rockpile only about 300 yards ahead, which was a huge relief.

We made our left turn and continued our trek up a brutally steep and long trail with lots of slabby rocks to slip on. All we could do was press on, being sure to take frequent breaks. It was a bit of a slog, but we had a beautiful river that ran parallel to the trail, so we never had to worry about not having enough water.

After finally cresting the apex of this segment, we found a serene little meadow with a firepit already made, so we decided to call it a night and set up camp. We built a nice fire, enjoyed our “flavorful” and “delicious” freeze-dried meals, and headed off to bed for an early start in the morning.

After an uneventful morning (besides waking up to Jake having already made a fire… what a guy!), we packed up our day packs and headed off to Amethyst Lake. We passed stunning alpine meadows, crossed over freezing streams via rickety bridges, and happened upon a stunning, emerald-green lake. Eventually, we finally made it to Amethyst Lake and set up to make some lunch and hang out for a bit.

I tried my hand at fishing using beef jerky and apple bits as bait, but ended up with no bites. I did, however, discover that the reel on my fishing rod was broken, and the spinning handle would fly off anytime I tried to cast it. The first time it happened, I had to go about shin deep into the coldest water I’ve ever experienced. After that, I was sure to put the handle in my pocket when casting and then re-attach it when it was time to reel in. Of course, I managed to forget to do to this on my last cast and dropped it into the lake AGAIN, this time even farther out. I had to go about knee-deep and managed to drench my shirt reaching down to grab it. Sometimes it feels like I never learn…

After hanging for a bit, we had a calm trek back to camp to pack out. I always know it’s going to suck, but I still never feel prepared for the transition from a day pack to a full backpacking pack.

The hike back from camp to the car felt somehow longer than we had hiked the day before. The now downhill portion we had conquered on the way in was absolutely brutal on the knees. And you know when you’re getting kind of close to the car, and you keep mistaking something you see through the trees as being the car? Yeah, we did that for about a MILE before we finally caught sight of the beautiful orange hue of Jake’s car. Yeesh. The Arby’s on the way back was hard earned.