It was 40 degrees cruising up the Mirror Lake Highway towards the High Uintas. The morning chill was downright cold in the open Jeep as I flipped on Ranger Doug’s Classic Cowboy Corral on Sirius-XM, cranking up the volume crossing over Bald Mountain Pass. The sun was just painting the mountaintops.
Today would be an adventure of rewarding panoramic views, mixed with a little history.
Turning off at the Gold HIll Road, I aired down the Jeep tires and was quickly ramping up the revs to climb a rocky slope. Ascending through the aspens and evergreens, my mind raced back to a time 150 years ago. I could envision this towering structure rising out of the forest as lumberjacks dumped fallen trees into a flume for a harrowing 36-mile ride to Wyoming.
I love this part of the Uintas. It’s a bit remote and past most of the typical day destinations like Mirror Lake. Whitney Reservoir and Moffit Peak are the big draws. From Moffit Pass you can look down into Weber Canyon to the west towards Oakley, a stunning view from the high mountain meadow.
Early in the drive I looked for the remains of Mill City, a ghost town from the 1870s, but to no avail. When the transcontinental railroad was being built through Wyoming and into Summit County via Echo Canyon, in the late 1860s, wooden rail ties were constructed from timber in the Uintas. To serve the tiehacker era, in 1872 an enterprising entrepreneur built a wooden flume 16 feet above the ground. Water filled the huge trough, sending logs racing down from Mill City to Hilliard, Wyoming, over 30 miles away. It was one of several log flumes in the area. Today, there are few remnants of Mill City, which once housed 500 lumberjacks.
Dropping down over Gold Hill Pass the crystal blue waters of the Whitney Reservoir came into view. No time for fishing today as the big objective was still ahead. Rocks and ruts added to the challenge as I climbed up the trail in the shadow of the 11,003-foot Moffit Peak, cresting Moffit Pass as an entirely new world opened up before our eyes.
The 10,500-foot-elevation panoramic-ridgeline drive just north of Moffit Peak is one of my favorite mountain drives. On the east side, you look down on Beaver Lake, the Whitney Reservoir and the skyline of the Uintas. To the west, you can see the length of Weber Canyon to the Park City ridge line, 30 miles away.
Even in the highest mountain meadows, well over 10,000 feet, the wildflowers were lush and vibrant with dozens of varieties from larkspur to skyrockets to bluebells. It was a bit like being in Albion Basin with every color of the rainbow in full bloom.
Descending from the ridge line toward Whitney Reservoir, I glanced at the temperature. At midday on a hot Sunday afternoon when Park City would top 90, it never got above 52 up in the mountains!
Now that’s a great way to spend a summer Sunday.
DETAILS
Getting There: Drive S.R. 150, the Mirror Lake Highway, out of Kamas, passing Hayden Fork Campground. The gravel road past Milepost 43 to the left is very distinctive and marked Gold Hill. There’s a small siding where you can lower your tire pressure (around 15 pounds). Plan on four to five hours on the trail.
Vehicle: The Gold Pass Hill road and the climb up through Moffit Pass is definitely 4WD but low difficulty. This is a route for an offroad 4WD vehicle, not a Subaru or SUV.
Map: Map your route in advance on a GPS map tool like GaiaGPS. Many turns are not intuitive and the forest roads are constantly changing numbers. Save to your smartphone as you’ll have no cell coverage. Do a clockwise loop on Gold Pass Road to Moffit Pass Road, returning on Whitney Pass Road — 20 miles.
Apps: GaiaGPS for navigation, Peakfinder to identify mountains and Picture This to discern the dozens of varieties of wildflowers.
Kids: Study up in advance to learn about the history of the tiehackers in the region.
Dining: Bring a lunch! You can hit Kamas restaurants on your return.