Kings Peak

Kings Peak via Henry's Fork

We arrived at the Henry's Fork trail head at 9:30 AM. The parking areas were full but we managed to find a spot off in the trees. We quickly gathered our prepacked gear and headed up the trail.

Approximately 3 miles later and (1 hr 30 min) we passed the sign for Alligator Lake. An hour later we arrived at Elkhorn Crossing. There are three trails here. One for heading west toward Bear Lake, one for hikers staying on the Henry's Fork Trail via the foot bridge and one for horses just down stream. Did I say "horses"? Yes, there is heavy horse traffic on these trails and it shows. This is one extremely rocky trail with very few areas of level ground. Horses tend to kick rocks about and generally destroy good hiking trails. Good boots with ankle support is a must.

We arrived at Dollar lake around 4:30 PM (7 hrs) to a very nice camp site located in the trees just off the eastern side of the trail. Along the way up we passed hundreds of boy scouts on the way out so we figured there might be some excellent camp sites opening up and here they were.

Note: Prior to the trip we had checked with the Ranger station at Mountain View for a trail update and were told there was no camping or fires within 200 feet of any lake. We paced off our distance from Dollar lake and estimated it to be about 600 feet so we were good to go. This particular campsite was obviously heavily used as there were "camp furniture" in the form of horizontal dead trees all around a huge fire pit. We also found hot coals within the center of this particular fire pit which is not good. Whoever had used it last did not make sure the fire was completely out before abandoning it. There was also lots of firewood piled up around the fire area so this site must have had a large group of people staying here last.

Anyway, we quickly built a fire and enjoyed a good meal before sitting around the fire prior to heading for our tents for some shut eye. It was then that Ranger Steve showed up huffing and puffing about how our campfire was illegal and how he liked to issue tickets "but his supervisor didn't want him to". He told us that there were no campfires permitted within "1000 feet" of the lake and that had we checked the trail head map we would have seen a red circle surrounding the each lake advising not to start a fire within those zones. Ranger Steve also told us how we were such bad people since we needed to practice "leave no trace" camping...what?

Have you ever run into a trail Nazi before? Well, neither had we and there were 10 very experienced hikers in our group but nevertheless this guy was the boss and was going to make sure we knew it. He told us he wanted us to take the fire pit down to nothing and to scatter the rocks in the willow bushes close by. We agreed and he left us alone for the night.

The next morning prior to heading for the summit we tore down the firepit and headed off. It rained most of the day and upon the return to camp late that afternoon everyone was soaking wet. One of the boys started a little fire in what use to be the firepit to get warm and within a few minutes here comes Ranger Steve again ranting and raving about the fire he had started. We politely apologized for his lapse of memory only to be dressed down once again about "leave no trace" policies. We all understood it would do no good to argue with this guy but vowed to write letters to his supervisor and the director of parks...which I did.

After spending night number 2 in this great spot we packed up the next mornig and hiked back to our cars which took a total of 5.5 hours.

In closing this is a very beautiful area and is heavily used by a ton of people. Just watch out for Ranger Steve and don't break any of "his" rules.