Cliff Lake

Cliff Lake is a beautiful high alpine lake located in The Uinta Mountains. As it’s name suggests, it sits below a small cliff. It offers views of Mount Watson and if you find the right spot Notch Mountain, Bald Mountain and Reid Peak. You also pass by Crystal Lake and a couple little ponds on the way. It is a fairly short trail at about 1.4 miles round trip so it is a little more crowded than other nearby trails but it is a great short hike to do up in the Uintas. Might be a good option to take newbies or out of towners not used to the elevation.

Quick Details:

Length: 1.4 miles And about .6 miles around the lake ending at about 2 miles total.
Difficulty: DR3 there was some up, but not too bad.
Elevation Gain: 278 feet.
Restroom: Pit toilets at TH.
Dogs? Yes. Be sure to clean up after them.
Other Info: Fee area. Currently $6.00 for a 3 day pass. Also, there are a lot of lakes and swampy areas in this area so bug spray is recommended.

To Get Here:

From Kamas, drive 27 miles up the Mirror Lake Highway to the Trial Lake/Washington Lake Campgrounds. Pass Trial Lake, and follow signs for Crystal Lake TH. It will be the 2nd right. Then pass Washington Lake campground on the left. The last 500 feet is well maintained dirt road. If the parking lot is full there is an overflow lot. This will add about 7/10ths of a mile.

Heading up Parleys Canyon we passed the new wildlife bridge they are building (DBP). They are hoping this will reduce the number of animals hit on this road. I really hope it is successful.

Jordanelle is super busy today (DBP).

On a random potty break I found a Great Horned Owl!

I love this highway it is such a pretty drive (DBP).

I always thought this was Bald Mountain you can see from the road, but now I believe it is Mount Watson (DBP).

We made a wrong turn and went into the Trial Lake Campground (DBP). The reservoir is looking awfully low right now.

Now we are on the right path heading towards the TH.

The Trail:

Trailhead Map. There are a ton of different options up here. Quite a few years ago we camped at Washington Lake we stopped by the trailhead, but it was raining. I vowed to return some day. Didn’t think it would take me 7 years to do it  Oh well, we still have a lot to explore up here.

There are 3 main trail heads at this parking lot. You want to take the Lakes Country Trail towards Clyde Lake. Which is at the tip of the parking lot loop next to the big TH kiosk.

The path is very wide and pretty easy.

Mount Watson looms above.

The first little pond.

Shortly after the pond you will see a sign that says Cliff lake Left. and there is a faint trail back there. I thought for a moment that maybe the sign got turned or something and wondered if this was where we needed to go, but no. It is still pointing the right way, so keep going to the next trail split. I think this might have been the original trail, and it has been re-routed like Lake Solitude. They did that to protect riparian areas, and actual made the trail easier so I imagine something similar happened here.

You get some nice glimpses of Crystal Lake to your left.

There are a couple little side trails down to it if you want to see it better. We did that on the way back.

At about 3/10 of a mile you will come to the actual trail split for Cliff Lake. It is a pretty obvious trail split so, I knew this was the right way to go. Take the right fork.

The trail after the split is a little thinner, but still very obvious.

The forest is amazing up here.

Another little pond.

Neat bent tree. Kind of looks like the Lightning Tree at Trees Of Mystery in the Redwoods.

Probably the worst section of the trail, and it’s not even that bad.

More pretty forest.

Before long I saw the cliffs of Cliff Lake. Shouldn’t be much further.

First glimpse!

It’s so pretty.

Here the trail splits. I generally make a couple micro-decisions before we decide which way to go around a lake. I know a couple things I consider are amount of people, and what seems more obvious, what might be prettier, and sometimes as simple as well I am already walking this direction so we’ll keep doing that.. Anyway, we went right, or counter clockwise.

We ran across one of the Uinta Boardwalks. I guess these are fairly common up here over swampy areas. So far the only other trail I know I have seen them on was the Fehr Lake Trail.

First glimpse. I didn’t realize that was Notch Mountain until a little later, but it is.

With Mount Watson.

Mount Watson and the cliffs of Cliff Lake.

Quick panoramic.

Pretty forest around the lake.

The cliff again.

Another boardwalk.

Mount Watson above.

I love that most of the lakes in the Uintas have these cool old signs labeling them. This one is in a odd spot though as they generally are where the trail meets the lake.

Huh, now that I think about it, it is possible this is where the (theorized) original trail met it, and now that makes more sense.

Another panoramic.

Nice clear water.

From the far end.

Panoramic from this end.

A little spring.

From the far end.

At the north east corner there is a faint trail split here. I believe this will take you to Petit Lake. We decided not to do that today.

Looks like it is a bit of a scramble.

Boulder field.

The inlet stream appears to come out of the boulder field.

Doesn’t appear to be flowing into the lake right now.

The west side of the lake is a little sketchy in some parts, but it is traversable.

The lake from this side.

More pretty forest.

Faint trail, but it is there.

The wind stopped and the lake become mirror like.

Panoramic from this side.

The cliff above.

Another peak above the lake.

More reflection.

We scrambled our way up a little bit to try and get an above view.

Notch Mountain, Reids Peak and Bald Mountain.

Some rock climbers making an awful lot of racquet. General courtesy reminder: Nobody wants to hear your shitty music in the wilderness.

The outlet stream.

Notch Mountain.

Almost all the way around.

One last look before we head back down.

Heading back down.

More pretty forest.

One of the little side ponds again.

Back down to the trail split.

We took a short trail down to view Crystal Lake. I was hoping for a better view from up here, but it’s pretty nice.

A little further down we found a better trail down to it.

Crystal Lake is quite pretty as well. It was eh, 500 feet down or so to get to it.

Quick panoramic.

Not the trail we took, but another one that goes down to Crystal Lake.

A little closer to the first pond. I was hoping to see if there were some salamanders but it was too muddy to get too close.

Weird cone thingies. I guessed that maybe they were protecting new trees?

There was one close to where we parked so I was able to confirm yes, new trees.

The east trail that heads towards Wall Lake. Added to my list. I didn’t get a picture of the west trail head that leads to Crystal lake.

Mount Watson above the large parking lot, that is definitely not as full as when we arrived.

Heading down towards Trial Lake (DBP)

Reids Peak and Bald Mountain (DBP).

Heading down the Mirror Lake Highway (DBP).

Cows (DBP).

We decided to stop at the Provo River Viewpoint. I am glad we did cause it offers a pretty great view! Slowly working on knocking off all the little viewpoints. I have 3 left that I can think of. I am usually just excited to get to the trail so we zoom past them.

It looks like a deer didn’t get the ‘wet cement’ memo. haha.

We noticed this last time we were up here and I wanted to stop and get a better picture. From what I understand, it started as a prank back in the 70’s or 80’s and the locals just run with it. I think it is hilarious considering the state we are in. But yea, there really isn’t a nudist colony here, or if there is, they use the joke as a front really, really well.

They even named the road Nudist Rd. hah!

We have passed Dicks Burger Shack several times. On the way up they are always super crowded, and on the way down they are always closed. However since we did a shorter trail today we caught it while it was open, so we thought we’d check it out. The burgers were really good, and the shoestring fries were absolutely perfect! It was, I would say, local pub prices, and local pub quality so worth it. but, we are little and next time we will order one combo and an extra burger cause it was a lot of food for us! We didn’t order a shake, but the people who did seemed to enjoy them.

Heading down towards Parleys (DBP).

Back to the Salt Lake Valley (DBP). The wildfire smoke is really, really bad right now. Yech!

Well, I will say, this is certainly not my favorite trail in the Uintas, but like I said it was a short fairly easy one that leads to a great lake, with the option of adding a couple more. There were quite a few more people than I am used to up here, but, that did get rid of the normal nagging “you are alone in the woods” feeling I get up here sometimes so I guess that is good. Overall going with 8 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, the trail is wide and hard packed. there is some mild elevation gains, and a couple rocky segments, but not to bad at all. Going with a DR3.

Dogs are allowed! Please clean up after your furry friends.