King's Peak..."The Highpoint"

[TMax]

Just got back from an amazing trip out west, the highpoint of which was a 3-day back-pack to King's Peak, Utah's highpoint. The journal I kept of the trip is over 30 pages long. I won't bore you with all the details, but I thought I'd share the wonderful experience I had on KP. But first, here's the short version specs of the entire trip;

5 Colorado 14ers (Grays, Torreys, Bierstadt, Evans, Pikes)

4 state highpoints (King's Peak in Utah 13,528, Humphrey's Peak in Arizona 12,633, Wheeler Peak in New Mexico 13,161, and Black Mesa in Oklahoma 4,973)

Day hike in Bryce Canyon (BEAUTIFUL)
Day hike into Grand Canyon

Hiked 12 out 0f 13 days
108 hiking miles
31,000 feet of elevation gain
2980 driving miles
3000 flying miles

King's Peak
The night before I started this hike I had my first bed and shower in several days, so I had a late start. The drive out to KP's trailhead involves a twenty mile or so drive on dirt roads with almost no sign of human encroachment (other than the road itself and an occassional cattle guard). At the TH I heaved my full pack onto my back and started the 7 1/2 mile hike up to Dollar Lake where I planned to set up camp. The walk in is on a very gentle grade and fairly smooth trails. I saw probably 20 or more hikers on their way out on the lower few miles of the hike. Along the way I saw a female moose and a calf. I took this as a good sign. Eventually I found my way onto a very long and wide valley with amazing views towards KP. The sky started to darken and I could hear thunDer in the distance. Dollar Lake is not visible from the trail, nor is there any trail over to it. You just have to know when to divert. Thankfully I had done my research and with only a little bit of wandering I found it. There was not another soul anywhere to be seen. It was incredible. I chose a nice, fairly protected spot with a great view of the lake and the steep cliffs behind and set up the tent (thanks Guinness!!)

I had to get in the tent pretty quickly as the thunderstorm passed by but then I went out and did some route-finding for the morning, knowing I would have a pre-dawn start, wanting to avoid the afternoon lightening. I slept incredibly well (even though storms wandered over me throughout the night) and was up, fed, watered and ready to go before first light. I had some internal debate about it as the weather was still fairly unstable. But I figured I'd at least give it a shot and turn back if I needed to. I could after all, take another day to reach the summit. Shortly after dawn it started to rain, a cold rain but not too heavy. Again, I debated turning back, but knew I had plenty of dry clothes back at the tent if it got too bad. I heard the bugle of an elk and knew it would be a good day! I continued on to a feature known as gunsight pass and made the first ridge. From there I took the "shortcut" (a rough and pretty steep climbers trail that avoids another 600 feet of elevation loss and then regain) that provided some interest to the hike. Once up this, you have another choice of losing some elevation to get on the standard trail or a long and painful rock hop to try to avoid it. I wish I'd tried to avoid it! The rocks were slick and unstable and really beat my knees and hips up! But the rain had stopped and the sun peeked out from time to time. I walked along Anderson Pass that provides an emergency escape if lightening were to move in. But it's a nasty retreat down 1600' of loose crappy steep scree. I was hopeful I wouldn't need it! From just above Anderson Pass you get on the summit ridge. The guidebooks all quote the distance as 8/10 of a mile. Felt a LOT longer than that to me. It's a long, steep bouldering climb with many false summits. Every time I'd look up and think "there it is," well, there it wasn't. When I looked up at one of the last pitches I remember thinking "this must be the big secret of King's Peak, no one tells how hard it is or that you need to be roped up!" That last pitch was a tower! I briefly considered scrapping it, after all, I felt like I'd climbed the entire peak. Needless to say, the trail diverts behind the tower and climbs up to the highpoint, a fairly small summit with some breath-taking exposure. There is an American flag and a very well done carved stone as a memorial on top as well. I still hadn't seen another person. This led to a fairly cautious climb back down, knowing that a silly move could leave me stranded! Back down at Anderson Pass I would see the only other people I would come upon, a couple who had hiked up from Painter Basin. The hike back was beautiful but I had to regain some altitude when I dropped off too soon onto the "short cut" and got trapped off on really steep terrain. When I got back to my campsite, I spooked two moose, a bull and a cow. They ran off but not far. Pretty quickly they started to move back much closer. They were very intent on eating something specific that was about 20 feet from me. I sat for more than an hour watching them. It was so amazing. To be so alone in such an isolated place and have such a close encounter with nature. Eventually they moved off but then others came in just before dusk. I retreated to the tent and hoped nothing would spook them and cause a stampede over the top of me! The next morning I awoke to bright sunshine, packed up my gear and hiked out. I would have several more moose encounters on the way out, but wouldn't see another person until I was about a mile from the trail head when I ran into another couple who were highpointing.

This was a really sweet backpack. Thanks Sli for suggesting I take my time with it!

Here's a few pics. I'm still working with dial-up so it will be awhile before I can post a link to all the pics from my trip.

LIFE IS GOOD