Hiking the Mirror Lake Area
Uinta Mountains
August 2011 - 62 photos


This covers the Mirror Lake area, hiking to Blythe Lake, Bonny Lake, Tad Pole Lake, Bud Lake, and other small lakes.

Did another hike in the Uinta Mountains on the 13th of August. This time few were able to go, only Bill, Cheryl, and myself. We decided to check out some lakes that we saw on the map, along highway S-150, but hadn't noticed signs or trailheads for them. Two were only a short walk from the road, the others a little farther. We went to Mirror Lake first, as it seemed to be pretty close to lakes Bonny and Blythe. There is a road loop at the south end of Mirror Lake Campgrounds with parking and two major trailheads. But there was a sign saying no parking. ??? Didn't understand that. The trail signs were marked, 'Mirror Lake Trail', and 'North Fork Duchesne River Trail'. We were looking for a trail to Bonny Lake and Blythe Lake, which the signs didn't mention. Inside the campgrounds at the north end we found a trail sign marked, 'Bonnie Lake', but no place to park. We found out later that the other trailhead, 'Mirror Lake Trail', would have been a good place to start hiking. Bonny Lake is along that trail.


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A cove at Mirror Lake, looking northwest


After driving back to the main parking lot, we walked the Mirror Lake Shore Line Trail along the east side of the lake to the north end. It was a good walk as Mirror Lake is one of the larger lakes up there. We thought there would be a trail up to the one we saw in the parking lot, but didn't find one, so went cross country looking for it. When we found it we turned back south looking for a trail down to Blythe Lake, a lake that the map showed to be a few hundred feet lower than Mirror Lake and about a half mile away. We never did find a trail going there, so again went cross country looking for it with my GPS. We finally did find Blythe Lake, it was a long, narrow, beautiful lake, and worth the trouble getting to it. To my surprise there really were no trails to it.

Next we decided to head straight for Bonny Lake, about 400 feet higher and to the north. The GPS map showed that going straight north to it would be too steep, so we angled around to the west getting there, and it was a long uphill walk through some rough country. When we topped the ridge, we could see water down through the trees, which indeed was Bonny Lake. There are 4 smaller lakes east of Bonny Lake and we checked out one of them. We had lunch at Bonny Lake, then took the trail back to Mirror Lake, surprisingly a very short trail, less than a mile.

The GPS track we took east of Mirror Lake doesn't make much sense looking at it... we were looking for a trail that didn't exist, so curved around almost in a full circle. Coming back from Bonny Lake we came straight through on the trail.

We walked 5.1 miles going to these two lakes. If we hadn't been looking for a trail to Blythe, we could have planned it better and gone straight across, probably cutting the hike distance in half. If you want to go there, I would suggest going straight to Blythe and back to Mirror Lake, (no trail). Use the trail to get to Bonny Lake.


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Blythe Lake looking southwest.


From Mirror Lake we drove up the highway to where the map showed Tadpole Lake to be a few hundred feet west of the highway. But the hillside there was very steep going up. Too steep to climb. We looked around and found a place that wasn't quite as steep, and climbed up about 60 feet high, then walked through the woods to Tadpole Lake. Found out why the name too. There were a lot of tadpoles in it, as well as some large salamanders. The lake is also pretty good sized, yet one with no trail going to it. I think it would be easier to get to from the north side though. This hike was not very long, 0.43 mile.

Next we went up the highway another mile for Bud Lake. Another one that we saw on the map, close to the highway. Close but way below, We had to climb down this time about 60 feet, and it was steep again. Bud lake was quite pretty, and like most of the lakes this year, it had a lot of water lilies in it. We walked around to the other side this time to get the sun behind us for better pictures. Another very short hike, 0.45 mile. Altogether we hiked 6.03 miles for the day.


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Bud Lake from the south side.

Mirror Lake is located 31 miles from Kamas Utah, along State Highway 150, called Mirror Lake Scenic Byway, running from Kamas Utah to Evanston Wyoming.

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 Map;
   - 62 photos -
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Mirror Lake 2013
 Mirror Lake 2013


Bald Mountain 2012
 Bald Mountain 2012


Clegg & Notch Lakes
 Clegg & Notch Lakes


Fehr Lake Trail, 2009
 Fehr Lake Trail, 2009


Uintas, early spring
 Uintas, early spring


More Uinta Hikes
 More Uinta Hikes




My photos were taken with a small Canon Powershot, SX210, 14 Megapixel Camera which has Image Stabilazation and optical lens from wide angle to 14x zoom. Some of these photos were taken by Bill Joy with his Olympus E620 SLR and lens assortment.

These photos are set to lower resolution and compressed 10:1 for faster loading. You are welcome to look at or download any of the photos. If you use them on any other webpage, please give credit and refer back to me.



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