Kings for a Day

After our successful climb of Gannett Peak in June, I was keen to get on another state highpoint before the summer passed.  I had never hiked in the Uintah Range and was anxious to go see some new country but didn't feel like doing the trip solo. John (Splattski), my climbing buddy had climbed Kings before so I wasn't sure if he'd be interested in another trip but when I proposed we try a one day, round trip to Kings Peak he was good to go. We left Boise around 9:00 AM for the 7 hour drive to the Henry's Fork trailhead/campground and other than the usual craziness of driving into the Wasatch valley traffic, it was an uneventful trip (just the way I like it). We arrived at the Henry's Fork campground with plenty of daylight left and spent a leisurely afternoon setting up our camp, eating and resting for our early start the next morning.

The next morning we were up at 3:00 AM and after a couple of cups of coffee and breakfast we started walking around 3:45 AM. We made it to the Elkhorn Crossing around daybreak and were able to put our headlamps away for the rest of the trip. The trail is easy to follow but well worn from heavy use and toe stubbing was the biggest hazard we faced on the way in. Farther up, we had to cross a couple of marshes where the wrong step would put you up to your shins in mud. We had opted for lightweight, approach shoes for this trip and paid for it with wet feet. Once we made it to Gunsight Pass we were met with bright sunshine and enjoyed perfect weather for the rest of our trip. We made the summit of Kings around 1:00 and after a short break John decided to get another summit under his belt so he dropped his pack, grabbed a water bottle and took off jogging for South Kings Peak. I had my fill of the Uintah boulder fields by now and decided to nap in the sun on the summit while he was off grabbing the glory of a "two-fer". He didn't look quite so hot an hour later when he got back, huffing and talking about his hyper-elevated heart rate. Jogging at 13,000' for cripes sake and we're both over 50. After a short break and change of socks we took off and made it back to our camp around 6:00 PM. In keeping with the spirit of this trip, we packed up the car, grabbed some fast-food, stout coffee and drove 450 miles back to Boise pretty much non-stop.