Land O'Lakes - Northeast Ridge

Lake-O-Rama Loop Hike

Shortly after driving through the small town of Kamas , we started encountering all sorts of wildlife on our way into the Uinta Mountains. There were a couple of places where we had to slow down and/or stop to make way for cattle, and we also saw several deer and even a moose shortly after entering the designated wilderness area. Perhaps the sudden cold temperatures in the days leading up to this had led to the sudden animal activity, but whatever had caused it we thought it was fun to see (sorry, no pictures).

During the drive up towards Bald Mountain Pass, which is the highest paved road in the entire state of Utah topping out at around 10,715 feet, I made a note of snow conditions. Fortunately, 11,527-foot Mount Watson looked entirely snow-free, while 11,947-foot Bald Mountain only appeared to have a very slight dusting. Stopping at the pass overlook, we did our best to assess the conditions on 12,479-foot Hayden Peak. Looking at the mountain’s shaded southwest side in the early morning hours, it was difficult to determine the extent of the previous days’ snowfall, so to play it safe we decided to make the short drive back to the Crystal Lake Trailhead to do Mount Watson instead. We could always come back to do Hayden another time.







This visit to the Cache-Uinta National Forest I was able to catch a ranger in the parking lot, who told me that I could just stick my National Parks Pass on the dashboard of my car (with the expiration month info face-up), to help me avoid having to pay the wilderness fee. This info would’ve been useful during our previous hike of Mount Timpanogos, but it was no big deal. Luckily, David had actually been to the area to hike/camp near Ibantik Lake the most recently (it had been a couple years since I’d been to the Uintas with my family), so he was able to show me the trailhead that I had somehow missed during my previous visit to the same lake (we started off on the Divide Lakes Trail and then made a short/easy bushwhack around Lily Lake to get onto the trail leading to Wall Lake, because some rather large trucks/SUVs blocking our view of that smaller trailhead had caused us to start out on the more obvious one leading west toward Crystal Lake instead).

For anyone unfamiliar with the Uintas, the number of lakes mentioned in that short little recap should give a good indication as to what one of the main draws is for those who spend time here. I love this area not only for the many lakes you can find here (the Mirror Lake Highway is a suitable name for the main road, from where you can easily see many of them, and many come simply to camp do some fishing at one of the many lakes that are re-stocked with fish each year), but also for the unique wilderness feel. While the Wasatch Range boasts more prominent peaks with generally steeper routes, the Uinta Range, while only being slightly farther away from Salt Lake City, offers a more secluded experience at generally higher elevations (all of the trailheads in the area start out above at least 10,000 feet in elevation).

We covered the first mile of trail quickly, arriving at Wall Lake in short order. This first lake would end up being the largest and deepest that we would encounter on our hike, and offered a nice view of Mount Watson to the west and Notch Pass to the north. Continuing along the trail, we saw a few horses and their riders off in the trees nearby, but besides a few other horse riders later on, we would not encounter anyone else during the entire hike.

Above Hope Lake we passed by a rock wall that almost looked man-made, which I’m sure many people have climbed for fun over the years. We soon arrived at the Notch Pass trail junction, where we took a left to veer back towards Mount Watson to the west. Staying to the right would’ve lead us up to Notch Pass, from which point we could’ve continued down the other side towards Ibantik Lake, arguably the most scenic one in the area. Since we’d already been there before on individual hikes with our own families and our main goal was Mount Watson, we took the trail to the left.

The trail then brought us to Twin Lakes, the second of which offered some nice red fall foliage along the north shore. As we skirted the edge of the lake, the perfectly still water gave nice reflections of the clouds above us. I was pleasantly surprised by how well-maintained this section of the trail was, as I had heard that there really wasn’t much of a trail at this point (maybe it was improved recently). After figuring that we’d need to bushwhack and/or find our own way from Twin Lakes to Clyde Lake, this meant that the only place where we’d really need to do any route-finding at all would be on Mount Watson’s northeast ridge.

We walked past a couple more un-named ponds before arriving at Clyde Lake, the second biggest lake we would encounter that day. From here the northeast ridge started to look a bit steeper than its class 2 rating would’ve implied, but we continued on, soaking in the nice lake views.

Upon reaching the point where the trail contoured around Clyde Lake to the south, we continued straight off of the trail to the base of the ridge. Arriving at the ridge in person, it didn’t look as imposing as it had from a distance, so we simply started straight up. We soon came to some steeper ledges, which prompted us to start switch-backing our way up. The trail leading us to this point (which would continue looping back to the trailhead) had been mostly flat, so suddenly gaining a thousand feet in the remaining half mile to the summit served as a rude awakening for our legs. Our pace slowed a bit here, but the route-finding was easy and didn’t really require us to use our hands at all unless we chose to do so.

For the first part of uphill hiking we traversed below (to the left, or south of) the ridge crest as that appeared the easiest way to go, but halfway up we got onto the crest of the ridge. The remainder of the route to the top would require some boulder-hopping, with the occasional loose boulder and small patch of snow requiring a bit of attention. The route was relatively easy, giving us great views of even more lakes off in the distance, including John Lake and the Three Divide Lakes which we had narrowly missed on our way here.

More peaks became visible to the east as we gained elevation, and from here we could now clearly make out that there was more snow on Hayden Peak than we had originally thought there was. Since that route is a solid class 3 (with a few short class 4 moves thrown in), I was glad that we’d decided to save that one for another time.

We ate lunch and then went back down the northeast ridge. It would’ve been possible to continue down Watson’s south ridge to make a complete loop, but we figured it would be fun to go back down the northeast ridge and walk by a few more lakes on our way to the trailhead. I’d already hiked the trail leading from Clyde Lake back to the Crystal Lake Trailhead with my family a couple of times in the past, so this way we wouldn’t have to do any more route-finding, either.

On the way back to the car I noticed a couple of trail improvements since my last visit four years before. The section of trail just north of Watson Lake was a bit difficult to follow in the past, but a clearer trail now bypassed the steep hillside on the north shore in favor of the more gradual approach to the east. Also, a new boardwalk just south of Cliff Lake now led to a more direct connection with the Crystal Lake Trail (before, you had to cross a steep section of trail near the western shore of the westernmost Lily Lake).


While at first this little hike was just a back-up plan to doing Hayden Peak, it ended up being a very fun and scenic hike in its own right. For those only interested in trail hiking, I’d say the trail portion of the loop we did (going counter-clockwise, which I feel gives better views of Mount Watson to the west) is one of the best you can do as a day hike from the Salt Lake area, and the only one I know of where you can walk right next to a dozen lakes in just over 5 miles with only 600 feet of elevation gain. The terrain is easy enough to explore that you’d also find no problem getting your own secluded camping spot next to one of the many un-named lakes or ponds in the area, unless it was an especially busy summer holiday or weekend.

Mount Watson Stats

DISTANCE: 6.5 miles roundtrip
CRYSTAL LAKE TRAILHEAD: 10,049 feet
MOUNT WATSON ELEVATION: 11,527 feet
ELEVATION GAIN: 1,700 feet
DIFFICULTY (NORTHEAST RIDGE): Class 2+
TIME: 4.5 hours