Page Type:
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Route |
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Lat/Lon:
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40.78340°N / 110.6232°W |
Route Type:
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Scramble |
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Time Required:
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A few days |
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Difficulty:
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Class 3 |
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Approach
From the traffic light in Kamas and the intersection of Route 248 and 32, head north 0.1 to SR 150 (Mirror Lake Highway). Turn Right onto SR 150 and follow for 49 miles to FR 058 aka "North Slope Road", turn right onto FR 058 (gravel road) and follow for 16 miles to the 4-way intersection with the West Fork Blacks Fork Road turning south. Turn right and follow the rough dirt road to where it crosses the river. It is highly recommended you park here, no matter what type of vehicle you own. The river crossing is very rough and driving through the meadows along the heavily rutted 4wd road is at best, environmentally insensitive, not to mention damaging to your vehicle.
Route DiagramRoute Description
This is the shortest and perhaps easiest route to NW Wasatch, alone. It is rather rugged, steep, and slow. It is not an easy route, and has loose rock. Unless you want to climb NW Wasatch alone, you can reach the summit from Tokewanna or Wasatch.From the trailhead, cross the river. The first few miles of the trail is actually a badly rutted 4wd road. The 4wd roads splits into a few routes, but don't worry about it as they all converge. The official trail marked on the maps actually crosses the river three times (no bridges). I have always stayed on the east side of the river all the way. Either follow the official trail for about 5 miles to the third river crosssing, or do the first river crossing and stay on the east side of the river for the entire way. A definate path does exist. What you are looking for is where the official trail crosses from the west side of the river back to the east side. Continue on the official trail for another .3 mile to where you cross a small creek.
Just after the creek, begin climbing the slope east. Stay on the south side of the creek and huge cirque basin. The ridge on the south side of the cirque becomes the NW ridge of NW Wasatch. It is possible to follow the ridge to the summit, though it is rugged and you must zig-zag around a bit, with much scrambling and some shifting boulders.
It is about three miles from where you leave the West Fork trail to the summit. The total round trip distance is about 17 miles, and usually takes two days. Along with the NW ridge of Tokewanna, this is the shortest, distance-wise route to the summit of a Utah 13'er, but the route to NW Wasatch is a bit rougher and slower.
From the summit of NW Wasatch, you can follow the ridge southeast to Wasatch Peak or north to Tokewanna Peak. Tokewanna is a rugged class 3 ridge for 1.2 miles. Wasatch is an class 3 ridge scramble to the northwest for 1.1 miles. Some of the ridge is gentle, but there are several rugged sections.