Backpacking to Island Lake in the Uintas

Backpacking to Island Lake in the Uintas

Nick and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary by going backpacking in the Uintas to Island Lake! This was my second backpacking adventure and we decided to do just one night. We wanted to go more days but unfortunately our dog sitter was only available for one night so we made the best of it!

We arrived at crystal lake trailhead around noon, and it was a bit cloudy but not bad until about 5 minutes in it started to pour on us…we stopped and looked at each other like is this how it’s gonna go the whole time?!

We powered on knowing that pop up storms happen a lot here. The rain eventually stopped and we could relax a bit. We did this trail not too long ago so we knew what to expect. It’s a relatively easy trail even with the 35 lbs. on our back.

We passed multiple lakes, beautiful wildflowers, wildlife, and thick forest vegetation before reaching island lake and once we got there, we searched for a campsite to set up at. What we didn’t realize is that 30 other people had the same idea as us so the lake was a bit crowded but I will say the site we found felt nice and cozy. If we had come any later it really would've been a struggle to find a spot. 

We set up our site and then started a fire. It was pretty chilly since storms had been coming through on and off. After, we chilled out a bit we decided to do some fishing. We fished for about 1.5 hours and had zero luck! We noticed everyone else fishing had the same outcome too. A couple weeks ago, Nick caught a cutthroat trout but this time around we noticed a lot less activity in the water. Almost like these fish knew something was coming…

Around 7 pm we ate dinner and then just enjoyed our fire. Around 8 pm, the sky started turning really dark and then the thunder came. For a while we sat there just watching the storm roll in, thinking oh this just may miss us, but nope right at 8:30 pm the rain started coming down and the lightning and thunder really picked up. We dashed into our tent and laid there for 2 hours while the storm did its thing!

Once the storm died down, the cold air came rushing in, and not going to lie it was a rough night of sleep between the storm and cold weather. Luckily, we both packed some warm clothes to throw on but my face was chilly the whole night.

The next day, we got up and looked at all the damage. Our site was a mud pit and we had to clean a lot of our stuff off in the lake. We only stayed for a couple hours before packing up and heading back to our truck. We definitely wanted to stay longer but even the next day it started to drizzle so we decided to get going. On the way back, we hiked past duck and weir lake. It added a couple of miles, but it was worth to see. Those would have been another nice option to camp at too. We made it back safely and were happy to see our truck! What a wild night! Xoxo Kimmy

*Check out my gear list for our backpacking adventures here: Backpacking Essentials