URGENT Update from the Forest Service and Personal Report

For 9 years this has been a public service that apparently has helped hundreds and maybe thousands. Find out how you can help it to continue going to:

HOW TO HELP?

In Duchesne Sheila and Lori were most helpful and send the word that conditions are still very wet and muddy, snow in the high country, and dangerously high streams with some roads and trails closed. I’ll give a place by place report, then insert the most recent Forest Service bulletins (from the South Slope). Eventually I’ll get to my brief trip report–frustration again, and in a day or two have a couple of YouTube videos on the web–one extremely informative, another ACTUAL VIDEO, and then the regular “video slide show.” I’ll advise all my Uinta Friends when they are up and running.

1. HADES CANYON leading to the Grandview Trailhead and Grandaddies–CLOSED!

FASCINATING NOTE: Last Friday on hearing that heavy rains were expected for the next 2 days, I decided to get out of there and avoid getting stranded. That night the rains came and the Splash Dam gave way and washed out the road and at 2:30 a.m. they had to evacuate the Hades Campground and Sheila and Lori described the whole situation as chaos! To get to the Grandaddies you have to do it the old fashioned way–hiking up the whole canyon! You’ll never forget Lightning Ridge!

2. LAKEFORK TRAIL to Brown Duck Basin, Tworoose Pass and beyond. Very wet, flooded, and incredibly muddy trail. One bridge out.

3. CENTER PARK TRAILHEAD – I tested the road as it was in doubt, but it was in wonderful shape with 3-4 vehicles at the Trailhead. Expect a couple of miles of muddy trail, and likely a lot of snow above 11,000 ft.

4. SWIFT CREEK (Yellowstone River) TRAILHEAD – Trailhead and trails open, but up the Yellowstone River trail 9 miles the crossing to go up into the Garfield Basin is impossible. The same up the Swift Creek trail where a couple of miles up there is a ford that right now would be deadly! I will post pictures when the creek was normal, and how the stream is this week.

5. CROW CANYON and DRY GULCH DRAINAGE – To get there you drive up Road 120 that leads to Jackson Park. Sandy, at the Ranger Station in Duchesne warned me not to try it as it was right now an impossible jeep road. I tried it for 1 mile and then gave up–my motor started heating up some again which had me worried. I have an appointment with the shop again on Monday.

6. UINTA RIVER TRAIL – Presently you can only get to the Chain Lakes. Roberts Pass and access to the Attwood area is still impossible.

RECOMMENDATION: Sheila and Lori beg us to wait until August, and suggest NO HORSES as they are ruining the trails. See the following Forest Service bulletins for details:

Click on image to enlarge.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The bulletins, the gals in Duchesne, and your’s truly all suggest calling the Forest Service offices for up-to-date information before you leave on a trip. In LINKS and in my previous posts I have inserted all the phone numbers, but remember they only work 4 days a week–off Friday thru Sunday. One solution……

Check the Forest Service websites listed below:
South Slope: ASHLEY NATIONAL FOREST
North Slope: UINTA-WASATCH-CACHE NATIONAL FOREST

ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATION: Might not be possible for some schedules, but they suggest backpackers wait until August.

I’ll post this and work on my photographs and video and post a report and a beautiful tour of the South Slope of the High Uintas a bit later–I’ll let you know. I’ll just insert one photo of Swift Creek back in normal conditions, and then insert Swift Creek today: