Headwaters: The (Real) Top of Utah

There exists a marathon called the Top of Utah (TOU) Marathon. While this is a beautiful run down Blacksmith Fork Canyon in Cache Valley, the name has always confused me a bit. Why? Because Blacksmith Fork Canyon is NOT the top of Utah. Kings Peak is! At 13,528 feet above sea level, it is undoubtedly the champion summit in Utah. Aptly named, you feel like a king while standing on top of Kings Peak.

Rather than tell the whole story of the last-second planning with Shawn, the gnarly meal from the night before, the fitful and snore-filled rest in the tent, the run through the gorgeous meadows, and the scramble across the world's (or state's) largest scree field, I will "begin with the end in mind", as Stephen Covey once taught. I will start with the end - the summit! I'm feeling non-chronological and non-linear in this blog post, just to mix it up. It keeps things interesting anyways.

Shawn, with Lake Atwood in the distant background.

Shawn and I were truly relieved to finally make it up here after our morning run, not to mention the campout and the long drive just to get to the trailhead. The weather was perfect: no wind, no rain, no lightning (important at this altitude), and cool-ish temps. This summit took some work, but it was worth it!

For me it was return to a hike I had seen only as a youth (14 years old) when we came to Lake Atwood for our High Adventure Campout. I remember decades ago that good old Troop 498 sponsored an amazing backpacking trip to this area with my amazing Scoutmaster Vern Utley and fellow scouts Jamie Utley, Gabe Utley, Matt Utley, Jared Cornia, Tyler Nixon, John Buchanan, and Matt Wade. We came up through the Chain Lakes and over Atwood Pass to Lake Atwood. Here we caught many nice brook trout all day long.

For Shawn, it was an old bucket-list item spurred by the Wasatch Wranglers Running Club. We were shocked by the crowds we found up at this elevation. I guess the window to summit (walk, run, backpack, or crawl) is really on 8 weeks out of the year. And by mid-August that window is already beginning to close. So we probably saw 30 other people on the trail coming up here.

Summit Selfie (not a great one).

Shawn navigating the endless scree field.

The (anti-climatic) destination looms.

One would think the highest point in Utah looks more sheer; it does from the other side.

The life forms up here consist of small wildflowers, squirrels, gray jays, and a few mosquitoes. That life is sustained by a few water springs that exist in this sub-basin you can see in the picture above. These springs proved vital to our success as there is no other water from Anderson Pass on to the summit and we didn't have a lot of it left in our minimalist running packs anyways. Anderson Pass is the low point shown on the right side of the picture above.

The vast Uintas, from the Kings Peak Summit.

While standing on the summit, I counted 5 different approaches to Kings Peak. So much to explore up here! It was truly an endless horizon of mountains in all directions. So much to explore and so very quiet. Here is the view to the west.

Amazing cliff band in upper Painter Basin, framed by the classic Utah Blue Sky.

Emerging from Painter Basin

Still fresh at mile 5, relatively early in the day.

The full blowout of the Topos, some of my favorite trail shoes.

Getting artistic on the trail

From Gunsight Pass

On the way down from Anderson Pass, I decided to take a small detour loop by running through Painter Basin and back up to Gunsight Pass to meet back on the main trail. Shawn was good with this brief separation and he fortunately only had to wait for about 5 minutes at Gunsight Pass before I met up with him again. This basin felt very remote and refreshing as I didn't see another soul while I was on this detour run. After slow-moving through the scree fields, it was really nice to be able to move well again on some very runnable trails. They were so runnable, in fact, that I took a hard fall on one corner where I got a bit over-exuberant. I kept thinking how I wished I had time to explore these different basins such as Painter, Atwood, and Anderson. But alas we had to get back to the Henry's Fork Trailhead where this all began at 5 am.

The world's largest cairn @ Gunsight Pass.

Shawn enjoying the Gunsight view

Long-distance trail runners always have to keep moving it seems because often the clock is the nagging enemy, for better or for worse. It's something I like and dislike about trail running actually.

Upper Henry's Fork

The Henry's Fork drainage is a vast series of meadows and gently rolling hills, dotted by lakes such as Dollar Lake and Henry's Lake. It is deceptively flat through most of it, such that you don't appreciate the fact that you are at 10,000' elevation for the majority of this section.

Middle Henry's Fork

We worked our way down through these meadows and finally found ourselves back at the car. The Wranglers were having their traditional chili cook-off, which was a nice touch to a long but rewarding day on the trail. All in all it was a beautiful 20+ mile day.

Shawn's ice bath in the Henry's Fork Creek

My turn for the same

Some cold specialty soda as a reward.

All in all Kings Peak was worth every alpine accolade it had received. I want to go back and try one of the 6 different approaches to that Peak, including ones that perhaps represent the "road less traveled."