Daily Distance: 17.67 miles
Cumulative Distance: 38.22 miles
It was a beautiful morning at Summit Park.
I was careful to avoid stepping on one of the many cow pies that were all around our campsite. We didn't see any cows though.
As we began hiking, we were excited to see some elk running across the park.
It was about a 4 mile hike to the Leidy Peak Trailhead.
We reached the point where the trail joins the road to the trailhead.
It was a short walk on the road and we could see snow on Leidy Peak.
Near the trailhead we stopped for a break to eat some food and to enjoy the view.
This is the trailhead where many people start their Highline Trail hike.
As we went around Leidy Peak there were great views to the north.
We could see a lake down below.
We didn't follow the trail in this area and almost stayed too low as we rounded the peak.
After a fairly steep climb, we could see the back side of Leidy Peak.
One of our first fantastic views of the Uintas was of Lakeshore Basin.
We could see the first of eight passes that we would hike: Gabbro Pass.
There were signs, but we had heard that the distances were not accurate.
We began the climb up Gabbro Pass with Lake Wilde visible to the left.
There was still snow, but the trail went between it in a place where it had melted.
View east from Gabbro Pass
Our first view of the high Uintas was looking west from Gabbro Pass.
We began our descent to Deadman Lake.
Deadman Lake
There is an option to hike on either side of the Deadman Lake. We decided to descend to the south, but it would be possible to stay at a high elevation to the north to reduce the climb to the unofficial pass to the west of Deadman Lake.
We began climbing back up. Looking back to Deadman Lake.
We enjoyed the view from the other side of the unofficial pass which was probably harder than Tungsten Pass, the easiest official pass on the trail.
We descended to Whiterocks Lake.
There is a dam at the western end of the lake and also an abandoned cabin.
Whiterocks Lake
As we made our way to Chepeta Lake the trail alternated between forested and open hiking.
After going around a peak called Rose, we came to an open area and could see a car crossing the Chepeta Lake Bridge in the distance.
Chepeta Lake Bridge over Whiterocks River
We didn't cross the bridge and walked up the road to the trailhead. A truck passed us on the way. At the trailhead there were a couple vehicles and an outhouse. This would be our last time on a road until the completion of the hike at Hayden Pass over 60 miles away.
Chepeta Trailhead
Chepeta Lake also has a dam. We had planned to camp at Chepeta Lake and by this point were feeling tired, but there wasn't a good place to camp on the dam.
Chepeta Lake
We hiked to the western end of the dam and followed a small trail along the lakeshore.
We found a nice campsite with a view across the lake.
Rose Peak was colored with beautiful evening sunlight.
Continue to Day 4
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