🏞️ There and Back Again, a Kings Peak Journey 🏞️
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We made it to the top of Utah! It was a #beutahful, fun, difficult, but totally worth it adventure. Although we only had one day away from our kids and wanted to challenge ourselves by doing it all in a day, I would definitely recommend camping. In the future, I'd like to be able to accomplish some twofers in this area. Doing it on one day made the flat 8+ mile hike out more challenging and in a sense, painful, especially to my feet.
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Elevation: 13,528 ft
Trailhead: Henry's Fork
Route: Henry's Fork Trail and took the shortcut from Gunsight Pass to Anderson Pass instead of dropping into Painter Basin
Start Time: 5:30am
Distance to Summit: 13.15 miles
Time to Summit: Approximately 7.75 hrs
Total Time: 13.5 hrs
Details: The first eight miles to Dollar Lake were mostly flat. Around mile 10 is when you start gaining elevation as you hike up Gunsight Pass. From there you can descend into Painter Basin which would involve losing elevation.
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We took the shortcut and continued up the ridge on a well defined path as of August 2020. There was some moderate exposure taking this route. Once we were above that there was a boulder field. We were advised to skirt it by going to the left of it. Even though that might have added a small amount of distance, we didn't have to expend more energy to climb up then down to reach Anderson Pass.
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Once you reach Anderson Pass, it's approximately a one mile ridge climb over boulders to reach the summit!
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Thanks utah.com and summitpost.org for the super helpful information from your sites.
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As always, please remember to pack out your garbage in order to keep places like this beautiful!