When I woke up in Evanston, WY this morning, I had no plans to actually set foot on the summit of Kings Peak today. Having just summited Idaho's Mount Borah the day before and driven through Salt Lake City's Friday afternoon rush hour, my goal for the day was a relaxing campsite at Dollar Lake, half way to the top of Utah's highest mountain.

After a leisurely breakfast in town, and a quiet drive to the Henrys Fork Trailhead I found a parking spot and packed up for an intended 2-night trip up Kings Peak.

Shouldering my pack and heading up the trail alongside the Henrys Fork drainage, I felt none of the exertion that I experienced earlier this week hiking up the William's Lake Trail to Mount Wheeler. Rather I felt calm and overjoyed to be in such a beautiful area. I made a few stops along the river to take photos or just stop and watch the river for a while, gazing at the mountains further up the valley.

Henrys Fork river and trail

As I proceeded further up the valley, I passed an increasing number of scout groups heading back to the trailhead. A few were friendly and chatted with me, some had summited Kings Peak that morning or on Friday. A few gave me strange looks, and I latter learned that most of the scout groups in this area are Mormon affiliated, and so had to be back home on Saturday nights for Sunday morning church. My hiking into the wilderness on a Saturday must have definitely marked me as non-Mormon.

Before long I'd reached the first trail junction, Elkhorn Crossing, and made a left to cross the river on a primitive log bridge. Shortly afterwards I noticed the trees were thinning out, and I had lunch in the last shade I could see for some distance.

Kings Peak from across Henrys Lake.

As I hiked on I kept lookout for Dollar Lake on my left. Since it was so prominently mentioned the guidebooks, I assumed the lake would be visible from the trail, or an obvious side trail would take me there. However, after a while longer I realized I was definitely past Dollar Lake. Since it was only a short time after noon, I decided to press on and camp closer to Gunsight Pass.

Gunsight Pass, West Gunsight Peak and Kings Peak

First Anderson Pass with Kings Peak tucked behind, then Gunsight Pass came into view as the trail turned slightly east. Looking at my map I figured I'd started hiking around 10am and done nearly 9 miles already. I was feeling good, and the weather looked promising. But I still had 4-5 miles until the summit, and I couldn't camp up there. I needed to make a decision to camp or push on.

I decided to go for it.

I've turned back from several mountain summits in bad conditions. I've cut trips short before, or never even started them. I've always obeyed early afternoon summit-or-turn-around times. Today felt right, I felt confident in breaking rules when I had considered the possible hazards and contingency plans.

Climbing up Gunsight Pass I pushed myself a little extra, to see if I could keep up my pace. I still had a lot of vertical to ascend before I could rest. Reaching the pass I had three options. One, I could descend into the next drainage, staying on trail only to regain all the elevation during the final climb up Kings Peak. Two, I could pick my way cross-country over rock fields, contouring around West Gunsight Peak. Finally, I could abandon my summit attempt today, and camp in Painter Basin.

While I was pondering my options, a couple following a faint trail headed towards me from the east slope of West Gunsight Peak. They confirmed for me that this was the "contouring" route. The trail is probably easier to spot earlier in the day before this side of the pass is in shadow.

I headed up the narrow trail and started picking my way across the rock fields. Hoping from rock to rock, trying not to twist an ankle and still carrying my full pack I headed towards Anderson Pass. Along the way I meet a few people resting on their return trip from the summit. They were concerned by the fact that I was still headed up, warning me that the summit was still 2 hours or more away. I told them how I'd been making great time, but I don't think that alleviated their fears much. I would probably have acted the same way in their shoes.

Just before reaching Anderson Pass, at the top of the "Avalanche Chute" mentioned in some guides, I stashed my full pack. Remembering my recent windy summits, I tied my rain jacket around my waist with an extra layer, and stuffed a hat and gloves into my pockets along with a snack. Water bottle in hand, I took off with my lightened load.

As I started to climb up, the north ridge of Kings Peak from Anderson Pass, I saw a few other people still headed up. That gave me some additional confidence in my plan, but I also noticed that we were definitely the last ones still climbing today.

Cheryl nearing the summit of Kings Peak.

Part way up, I caught up with one of the other hikers, and struck up a conversation. We both agreed that heading up at this time of the day was not something we normally do, but that the weather was perfect and appeared to be holding. We continued to the summit together, Cheryl, her dog Sheeba and I.

Reaching the summit we found a few other people still hanging around, took some pictures, signed the register and chatted with the other late-day summiteers. I looked at my watch, and realized I made it from the trailhead to the summit in 6 hours. I felt great. There were only a few scattered clouds in the sky and we still had enough daylight to descend.

On the summit of Kings Peak, 8/17/2002.

At least one person had climbed up the Avalanche Chute out of Henrys Fork Basin instead of coming up Gunsight Pass. He carried a set of sandals on his pack, which he said were for his hands on the descent of the same route, since it was full of loose rocks.

Heading back down with Cheryl and Sheeba, we passed Cheryl's friend Audrey on her way up. We took her dog down with us since he was looking quite tired. I rigged up a leash with my extra sweater to keep the dog with us instead of following Audrey to the summit.

Reaching Anderson Pass, Cheryl headed towards Painter Basin (the route they came up) and I retrieved my pack. I then headed over to Cheryl and the dogs, fetched out my water filter and filled up our water bottles from the alpine puddles dotting the area.

Audrey meet back up with us, and I took them across the short cut to Gunsight Pass and we continued on into Henrys Fork Basin. They retrieved their packs (where they'd wisely stashed them well before Gunsight Pass) including the dog packs, which only Sheeba could still tolerate after the day's activity.

Kings (partly obscurred by the trees) and surrounding peaks bathed in the red evening light.

Camping at Dollar Lake we went a wonderful evening trading stories and watching the sunset. We even saw a moose grazing in Dollar Lake's feeder stream.

Sunset over Dollar Lake, our evening campsite.

In the morning, we lazed around for a short while, the decided to return to our cars by another route. We followed trail 114 around Henrys Lake, passing by the herd of sheep and the rancher's cabin. After this we got off on the wrong trail (there were several use/herd paths branching out in this area), and headed cross- country towards Elkhorn Crossing. Along the way we saw several more moose.

2 of the 7 moose spotted on this trip.

At Elkhorn Crossing we meet up with the same people who had been on the summit with us who had used the Avalanche Chute route. We took pictures for them, and they returned the favor.

Audrey, Adam and Cheryl at Elkhorn Crossing

Finally, we hiked out of the Uintas Wilderness and reached our cars. Cheryl and Audrey had stashed a few beers in the stream near their car, and were kind enough to offer me some. After some final goodbyes and trading of email addresses I returned to Breckenridge to finish out the rest of my vacation and hiking up Oklahoma's Black Mesa on the return drive home.