Peaks: King's Peak

Location: King's Peak, Uinta Wilderness, Utah
Date: 9/11/2010
Elevation: 13,528 ft

King's Peak is the highest mountain in Utah and is located in the High Uintas. The Uintas is the only mountain range in the U.S. that runs east-west. King's Peak is just south of the Wyoming border and the peak offers views as far as Mt. Nebo to the south and as far as Mt. Olympus to the west. We took the traditional route via Henry's Fork.

The trip in total is an estimated 34 miles. Most hikers summit and hike out in 3 full days of hiking. We did it in less than a day and a half. We arrived at the trailhead on a friday night around sunset. We hiked 4 miles in and set up camp in the bitter temperatures. It was a cold night!

The next day we hiked close to 30 miles. We hiked through Henry’s Fork Meadows where we had our first view of King's Peak in the distance. After a long gradual incline through the green meadows, we climbed up to Gunsight Pass, scrambled to Anderson Pass, and climbed the summit ridge to King’s Peak Summit. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky. The views were fantastic and my pringles have never tasted better. Unfortunately we still had 15 miles to hike back to our car and a 4 hour drive back to Salt Lake. We tried a shortcut from Anderson Pass.

The short cut down from Anderson pass was an unwise decision. It turned out to take longer and the risks involved were too high for some in our group to handle. We renamed the pass to SOB pass due to the stressful circumstances we found ourselves in. It was a long day before we reached our car by nightfall, but we made it.