Kings Peak Highest Point in Utah

Kings Peak Highest Point in Utah

I recently took a group of youth and Dads to Kings Peak. This is the highest point in Utah and depending on the route you take, it is about 30 miles round trip. I’ve taken several groups up over the years but this time I got to be at the top with my son. What came to mind frequently was preparation. How you prepare determines your comfort while you are there, as well as discomfort afterwards. I love the saying “pick your hard.” I myself want to set myself up for success. I might be a bit of an over preparer, but can you ever be too prepared?

I prepared myself by staying as fit as possible. I like to run in the morning and on my lunch I’ll go to the gym and lift weights. That is just my habits but it doesn’t mean that you need to do the same routine. I’ve always hated running but as I started to prepare to go on bigger hikes I found that running was a good way to help me prepare. The more I ran the more I started to enjoy running. Just like most things, when we are not very good at it we don’t enjoy it as much but as we get better it starts to grow on us. That is what I have found with running. It also helps to see the benefits. I see the benefits in feeling more in shape and also it makes my hiking adventures slightly less tough. I noticed the benefits on this particular hike with the high altitude and long miles for each day I felt that the running prepared me physically.

Just as important as being physically prepared we also need to be prepared with the right gear. I shared a video with those going on how best to pack. I try to pick up little tricks and better ways to pack every time I go on a big hike. I’m always trying to reduce weight and bulk and become more efficient in the things I bring. We want to be prepared but at the same time we want our pack to be as light as possible. There is a fine line in deciding what are the bare necessities and being prepared and safe.

We drove Thursday morning three and a half hours to get to the trail head. We started hiking by 9:15 am to what would be our base camp which was about 9.75 miles up gaining 1,200 feet of elevation. We set up camp along the shore of Henry Fork Lake. We were offered a spectacular sunset looking out over the lake with Moose feeding in the water.

We woke up early for day two and started hiking up to Kings Peak with just day packs. It was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky which is rare in the high Uintah mountains. We started at just after 8:00 am and hiked almost 6 miles with 2800 feet of elevation with the last 0.8 miles boulder hopping and gaining almost 1,000 fee ending up at 13,528 around 1:00 pm. The last mile was very tough and due to the altitude can make for a long mile. We spent a few minutes at the top and then started our decent. Going down was much easier and it took us about two hours less to go down then climb up. We got back to our base camp around 4:30 pm. It was a long and tiring day but reaching the summit was the highlight of the day and a major accomplishment.

Day three started even earlier because we had almost 10 miles to hike plus a three and a half hour drive home. Hiking those miles with the gradual downhill decent was very nice especially from the day before with the 2800 feet of elevation. Luckily we all got back to the trailhead before noon and was on our way home before 1:00 pm. As we were driving home a huge thunderstorm rolled in and I was thankful that we were off the mountain and had enjoyed such wonderful weather the previous two days.

I mentioned earlier about being prepared and the benefits of the preparations. It was nice to not be sore at the end of the hike and also feeling like I had the strength and ability to face all the challenges on the hike. I told the young men that it is fun to do hard things and push yourself. My son responded that it wasn’t the young men that were having a difficult time and pushing themselves but it was the adults who were the ones. He was right!! There is something about being young. Hopefully we all can slow down the aging process as we sacrifice the time to stay in shape. Like I said earlier, pick your hard. We all have choices and we can choose which hard we want to have. It was hard getting up in the morning to run but its also hard to struggle while hiking or maybe even not be able to reach our goals. We can chose which hard we want to face.

We made this video to help the boys know how to pack.

Learn more about Collard Chiropractic here.


Search

Address

Hours

Monday: 9–12, 2:30–6
Tuesday: 2:30–6
Wednesday: 9–12, 2:30–6
Thursday: 9–12, 2:30–6
Friday: 8–12

Review Us

FacebookGoogle+Yahoo! LocalCitysearchWellness.comYelpLinkedIn