Distance

14.5 mi to summit

27.5 mi total

Elevation

9,410 ft start

13,532 ft max

Vertical

4,927 ft gain

Time

27 hr 9 min to summit

20 hr 21 min total

We actually summited Kings Peak on 8/18, but who's counting? ;) It's a 3-day track that I've uploaded, since that seemed the most fair as it had the entire trip on it. We backpacked in on Saturday 8/17 and went the 8 miles to Dollar Lake, where we set up camp. Sunday 8/18 we rose earlier, yet still took a leisurely pace to the summit. Part of said leisurely pace was me being sick AND me being out of shape, but I'm not complaining. It was about a 14.3 mile round-trip day on summit day from Dollar Lake, through Gunsight Pass, down and around (but we cut off some of the trail and contoured up), back up to Andersen Pass, and then up Kings to the summit. There was snow, but we avoided all but about 15 feet of it, and that was low enough down and with zero exposure that we didn't bother to break out our microspikes. The weather was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky, a nice breeze that came and went (we could have used it more rather than less...!), and a gorgeous sunny day with an intensely blue sky. The last day we broke camp and backpacked out the 8 miles, and made sure to take our photograph on the Highpointers Club Foundation bench at the trailhead. ;) Why wasn't it at the summit, huh?!? (yes, I know the answer, it's a wilderness area - I'm being facetious.) This was state highpoint #24 for me and #7 for Ken. I also think I fell in love with the Unitas/Wasatch area. The high Unitas wilderness is incredible. I want to go back and backpack around to the different lakes, maybe summit some more peaks... I could spend weeks there. Except for the mosquitoes... they were awful. Thank goodness for deet... This was my first ever backpack-to-summit trip, and I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to many more!

Route name

Henry Fork Trail

out-and-back
Obstacles

routefinding, rockfall/loose rock, snow on route

Key gear

GPS device