Anyone interested in joining me on a down grandview up new hance loop early Oct?

Oct 11-15 (4 nights)

This will be my first time in that area of GC. Have the permits for myself already so shouldnt be an issue to add a couple more. Have done some straight through r2r and backpacking hermit creek.

Comment/msg me if interested. I live in Northern AZ.

Looking for weekend trips

Any other weekend warriors looking for a backpacking partner?

Anyone else out there in the same boat with weekday and Sunday obligations that’s looking for a backpacking partner in Utah Valley or SLC ? …. Right now I can only do Friday Evenings to Saturday early afternoons that are a close to home ( 1 - 1 1/2 hr drive from Provo ) … new to Utah and don’t have any relatives or friends into backpacking and my wife is not good with me going solo

Never spent much time here before.

Saw the post on /r/ultralight

I'm interested in future trips or meetups

Reposting for format reasons:

I’m a new mod here on r/ulutah and I would like to make this community more active. I think there’s a lot of potential here. My goal is to organize meetups on trail and host shake downs with UL discussions in the SLC area.

I would like to organize two trips: one in the spring and one in the fall. I’d like for one of the trips to be introductory that’s very inclusive and an opportunity for all levels to learn, and one to be advanced that challenges the most seasoned hikers to new terrain and wilderness.

I will post a poll at the beginning of 2024 with dates and location options.

Looking forward to interacting with you more!

Anyone keen to do the RCT Sat, Sun, come back Monday (leaving SLC on friday afternoon)? Or does anyone have any leads on a shuttle situation out of Elko? The weather looks like it is going to be fantastic.

​

​

got ACL surgery a couple months ago and am unable to descend high angle terrain, but really feeling the urge to get out. wondering if anyone had recommendations here?

also open to renting some UL equipment if anyone has anything they'd lend. (specifically tent/tarp or sleeping bag) - have a big wall bivy but as recovery goes looking to make things lighter.

Are there any good places to get recent uinta condition reports/trip reports?

I'm considering heading out that way this weekend and wanted to get an idea of the snow situation, if any, up at higher elevations.

I was thinking about heading in from Henry's fork and camping a dollar lake, day two up and over kings and around smiths fork pass and camping at lower red castle. Day three back out.

I know Monday the start of rifle season...any special considerations in that area for a hiker, or just standard visibility stuff?

Trying to figure out if there’s a trail or If a hiker would just walk the road. Any ideas on this hike? Got a wild hair up my butt today and thought maybe this would be a cool trip. Thanks

Hello Utah!

Just wanted to reach out here and see if anyone was interested in a Uintah Highline Trip the last week of July. My partner just bailed this morning and am scratching at air to find a solution. If anyone knows someone hiking around that time, or would be willing to shuttle (happy to pay for gas/time) Please reach out to me! Message or DM on reddit is great!

​

I hiked the PCT in 2019, walked across Joshua Tree in 2020, Colorado trail in 21, and a bunch of other trips in the PNW and Sierra!

SOLVED: Taking $51 FlixBus from SLC to Vernal then hitching the short ways up to the trailhead. Thanks for the help!

Hi All,

I'm coming from r/ultralight where I asked about the best way to get from SLC to the Eastern trailhead of the Uintas Highline Trail.

Is there a group any of you know of that you can join to carpool/share any of the shuttles? I'm looking at going around July 9th but it's looking like $450 for a shuttle and I'm just one person.

Not opposed to hitching, also not opposed to bribing one of you lovely folk w/ pizza/beer/gas money if any of you are thinking about making the trip out there. Flexible on dates and times but def looking at sometime that weekend.

Thanks for any help! Also here's an ultralight tax seeing as I'm not from Utah.

Where: Behind the Rocks/Hayduke Section 2 alt, 28 mile loop, off-trail then 4x4, as described here by u/dahlibrary

When: April 8-10, Friday night to whenever Sunday (earlier the better imo).

Who: So far it's me, u/arcadeute, and u/ultramatt1

Tentative LP: https://lighterpack.com/r/rleati

Questions for the group:

- Who's interested in joining?

- How much water capacity would you bring? This is my longest dry stretch by far

I'm living in Utah this year (SLC greater area) and am making the most of it. Just had a killer trip in CRNP which sparked some interest in a group meet up.

I try to backpack every weekend I can. Weather looks good for this upcoming one. Anybody interested?

Any trail/route recommendations would also be appreciated as I'm still learning about this part of the country (coming from the east coast)

Hoping to organize some fun for the ultralighters along the Wasatch Front or wherever in Utah. I'm hoping for a trip maybe in April heading somewhere further south? Or up here featuring some Spring condition snow? Someplace that would be fun for a group would be terrific. I have a few ideas but have an open mind. Anyone feel like chiming in before I spew my bad ideas?

/u/noqueso0

/u/JuxMaster

/u/godx119

(Just tagging folks who have said they would be interested in a group trip previously)

I'll be new to Utah in January and can't wait to play in the snow. I have experience snowshoeing on the east coast (Catskills with Evo Ascent) but don't know anything about avalanches and all that danger. What are some trails I can snowshoe, including overnights, without avy risk?

Over the Memorial Day weekend my partner, doggo and I did a quick overnighter going up Grove Creek and down Battle Creek in Pleasant Grove. Indeed it was pleasant! We started from the Grove Creek trailhead at ~4pm and ended ~9am the next day, totaling ~8 miles with a good climb and decent. Logistically this trip is really simple and is great bang for your buck, knowing that it's an easily accessible location and adjusting your expectations accordingly.

Grove Creek -- awesome uphill, fairly steep, one of my favorite trails around. It's a good trail and sidecuts some scree. Views looking back over Utah Lake reminded us of Lake Tahoe. We camped 3.5 miles from the trailhead, a couple hundred yards away from Grove Creek Spring. The spring is shallow but clean and sufficient. Someone camped right at the spring which was kind of lame, and a party of folks arrived right next to us at dark. They collected a ton of firewood and stayed up late. There was tons of space but they decided to camp 50 yards from us. Other than their proximity, it was a nice night.

Battle Falls -- the short trail below the dirt Timpooneke Road is awesome. Chris' flat is so pretty. We started seeing people as soon as we headed down Battle Creek trail, and it soon became near chaos with so many children and people. Granted this was Memorial Day so we weren't surprised, but it was difficult to navigate with an on-leash dog and the fairly steep downhill. Our deduction = any trail with a waterfall is insanely packed and anxiety-inducing. Going forward I wouldn't recommend this trail on a weekend or holiday. It would've been better to OAB on Grove Creek trial.

I tested some new gear on the trip and snagged some other stuff on Garage Grown Gear's small business sale the other week:

• EE Apex Pullover Hoodie -- warm! I was toasty in camp and even wore it for ~45 mins while hiking before the sun hit us in the morning. Psyched I bought it. I was out of the backpacking game for a decade and am new to the UL thing, so I'm digging EE and think it's a great value. This + wind pants was not only functional but also stylish ;)
• CuloClean Bidet -- First time using a bidet outside. I used .5L of water which seemed like a lot. Still used a couple pieces of TP, albeit a lot less TP than sans bidet. I want to make this work and just need some more practice?
• Krafs Small stuffsack -- impulsively snagged this to use instead of a gallon ziplock baggie. I like it better than the baggie, but my deuce of spades sticks out. Do you carry your trowel loose? Always seems sketch / not 100% sanitary.
• UL toothbrush -- I'll use it again opposed to my airplane mini toothbrush.
• Huppybar -- Compact and yummy. Better than most grocery store bars, worth picking up a pack

I think I'm going to start taking Dr. Bronners instead of hand sanitizer.

Cheers!

Last night I got out on a quick overnighter to test some new gear. I figured I would write a report in case anyone else is interested. It's a nice hike and easy to do after work on a Friday.

Location: Alpine Utah

Length: .2 to 5+ miles depending on where you want to camp

Description:
Horsetail falls is a popular hiking spot for those in Utah County or Salt Lake County. The parking lot usually fills up Saturday mornings, but Friday evening it was only half full. The main feature of the hike is Horsetail falls, located approximately 2 miles and 1500 vertical feet up the trail. The trail meanders up the canyon, you can hear the water flowing in the valley below, but you rarely see water until you get to the top.

Routes:
Most people park at the Deer Creek/Dry Creek trailhead at the end of Grove Drive in Alpine and hike up the main path, TR 43. It's roughly 2 miles to the falls and stays on the south side of the valley. There are a lot of trees and so has a decent amount of tree cover.
Once you get to the falls, if you hang a right and continue up the path after around a half mile you will reach a junction for TR 42. If you take this junction you will head towards First Hamongog. From there you can hike down and end up at the School House Springs trailhead, a mile or so from where you parked. Or halfway to First Hamongog there is another junction that will take you straight up the mountain to Lake Hardy.
If you stay on TR 43, you will continue up the mountain and eventually reach a junction for TR 44 which can take you to the top of Box Elder Peak.

A lesser known route is to look for an unmarked junction around 100 yards up the main trail on your left that will take you down to the river. From here you can cross the river and take a less groomed trail up the north side of the canyon. This is actually a much more scenic route as you are very close to the water for most of the way. However it is difficult to get to the main falls from here. The trail goes up for a mile and a half or so, but eventually it turns into bushwhacking. With a bit off scrambling you can cross over at the bottom of the falls and hike back down the main road. With the current spring runoff it is not safe to cross the water though. I would wait until late summer or fall. This route is also great for kids as there are lots of rocks to climb on and water to play in.

Camping Spots:
There are a lot of camping spots along the trail. I've seen people camp literally 50 yards from the parking lot before. If you hike up the main trail there are a couple of spots where you can setup a tent. However water isn't always super close, and you tend to be really close to the main busy trail so it's not very private.

The north side of the canyon has multiple camping spots almost immediately after dropping down. This trail is much less used so you would get a bit more privacy. After 1 or 1.5 miles you also get to another spot that is popular for camping. I've seen youth/boy scout groups camp here though so I'm not sure if it's always free or not. But still you won't be camping 10 feet from the mail trail.

The best spot that I've found to camp is actually about a half mile past the waterfall. 99% of people stop at the falls. It is extremely rare to see people past it. I passed 20+ groups on the hike back down the trail Saturday morning, but I didn't see a single person above the falls my entire trip. A half mile past the falls, take the left junction onto TR 42. After a 100 feet or so there will be nice flat ground located in a grove of aspens. There is a small stream nearby, or if you hike 100 yards further up the trail you will get to the main river which is a good source of water too (The stream seemed a bit slow flowing and murky).

Gear Notes:
One of the reasons I did this was to test out some gear I bought over the winter.

Tarptent Protrail = I fit! I'm tall so most tents don't fit me, but this one had enough length. It's also quite wide for a one person tent, 42 inches wide at the head and 30 at the feet. The netting on the side also makes the tent feel even bigger and gives a place to store light small items. Setup took longer than I had hoped, I'm still getting use to how long and wide it is. I assume it will get better with practice. My one complaint would be headroom. It's only tall at the one end, but I'm happy trading vertical height for length.

Thermarest XTherm in large (mummy style) = My other sleeping pad is slightly lighter and 1.5 inches thicker. But I got very cold once it dropped down below 45 degrees so I was looking for something warmer. The XTherm was comfortable enough and I didn't feel any cold coming up through the ground. The extra width at the top was nice too, it gave my arms somewhere to go. I'm not sure if this would be a full time replacement due to the extra width, or if I will only use it for colder trips. I also didn't notice any noise.

Buff = Many people love their buff. I'm still not completely convinced, especially once it starts getting hot. But it's light and once I folded it over a few times it made a nice sleeping mask to block out the light and keep my earplugs from falling out. So I may continue to bring it anyways.

Misc = My Sawyer Squeeze doesn't have great flow after being in storage, I need to work on that. My sleeping bag was warm enough (34 degree comfort), the low was 42 degrees. The EE apex mittens were great while eating breakfast, but they do look like I'm wearing giant oven mitts.

Conclusion:
This is a great place to get out into the wild, but it's still close to both valleys. The hike itself isn't that long too so it's great for getting out after work. There are multiple places to camp, but I would highly recommend going past the falls as it is much less crowded up there. You do get some views into Utah valley, but unless you get up to Box Elder Peak the view is still somewhere limited since you are still in a canyon.

Hi everybody!

I've been looking at the Hayduke for this fall (roughly Sept-Nov) and was curious to hear your thoughts about how realistic that would be, given the drought.

For context, I live out east but have done a few trips in the Grand Canyon / Kanab Creek Wilderness. I'd be caching food along the route and could cache water too, but would prefer not to have to rely on that for the whole thing.

Would love any input from you all, given that you actually live in Utah. Thanks in advance!

I'm slowly working on getting my spouse and daughter into backpacking. The key right now is to do shortish one night backpacking trips. South eastern Utah is blessed with an embarrassment of riches when it comes to places we can go.

Rather than picking at random, though, I'd love some advice. Anyone have any suggestions for shorter trips in this area that they have liked?

Thanks!

Hi all who have/haven't been here for the last year.

Brief update on the sub: The sub was set so only "approved" users could post for the last year-ish by the previous mod (who has since gone AWOL, but I'm appreciative to them for starting this whole thing up). Due to their absence, I requested to help run this sub. So, here we are! I've made the sub open for all to post again.

Looking forward to some life in here again. I hope to be able to host some meetups in the future if there's interest. In the mean time, enjoy the spring temps we're getting.

Any suggestions for an overnighter near Zion but without snow over Valentines Day weekend? Loops are better. I’m looking for something around 20ish miles with some water. Off-trail is okay. I’ll be driving out from Vegas and would like to keep it under 4 hours for drive time. Thanks in advance!

Inspired by the Utah discussion over at r/ultralight, going UL allows us to go where others can't, so where do you go to challenge yourself and escape the crowds in summer?

Some of my favorite quiet spots:

• Upper Mill B South in BCC, past Lake Blanche towards the pass to Mineral Fork

• Stansbury Range - Willow Lakes

• Maybird Gulch in LCC

Hey all! I was thinking of doing the Zion Traverse sometime this fall. Thanksgiving would work out great for taking off work (I'm in Nevada) to travel. As far as I can tell, referencing average temperatures, November seems like a huge thumbs up with peak fall colors, cool to chilly temps and decent water availability following the monsoon season. However, doing this around Thanksgiving is pushing it a little close to December. Will it be too cold? Will there be snow to deal with? Some other problem I haven't thought of? Any help would be appreciated.

Sub seems dead but figured I’d post something, see if anyone wants to meet up for a weekend trip!