Alpine Utah Overland

Jens Brown
5 days ago
5 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

The Final Miles of the Utah BDR - Soapstone Basin to Evanston, Wyoming

Day Seven marked the final stretch of our Utah Backcountry Discovery Route. We had covered a wide range of terrain in the previous days - canyon rims, desert benches, remote mesas, and long forest corridors. Our last morning began quietly at Soapstone Basin, camped above the South Fork of the Provo River. The air was cold and still, the kind of alpine morning that suggested fall was giving way to winter.

We had agreed the night before that Evanston, Wyoming would be our endpoint. The northernmost segment of the BDR toward Idaho would wait for another time.

Watch the Video: https://youtu.be/YHnUB_MQFtI

Watch the full Utah Backcountry Discovery 'series'

Climbing Out of Soapstone Basin and Into Glacial Country

We rolled out of Soapstone Basin on Forest Road 037, climbing steadily through tall stands of lodgepole pine as the route followed the upper drainage of the Provo River. To the west rose Pitt Hill, Page Hill, and Haystack Mountain - subtle landmarks in a forest shaped by centuries of seasonal movement. Ute families once traveled these valleys, following game and the natural rhythm of the mountains, long before the first survey crews arrived in the early 1900s.

Higher on the slope, the terrain began revealing the deeper story of the Uintas. This is one

of the few major mountain ranges in North America that runs east to west, built on Uinta Mountain Group quartzite—ancient seafloor sediment hardened nearly 700 million years ago. During the last Ice Age, alpine glaciers filled these upper basins, carving cirque walls, dragging boulders downslope, and leaving behind the scattered moraines we crossed on the road. Many of the rounded stones lying in the meadows today sit exactly where glacial ice carried them thousands of years ago.

The climb out of Soapstone felt like a gradual transition from dense forest toward the colder, glacially carved basins waiting farther north along the Mirror Lake Highway.

Pass Lake, Mirror Lake, and the Edge of Winter

After roughly ten miles of dirt, we joined SR-150 - the Mirror Lake Highway. The pavement climbed in long curves between thinning stands of timber, gaining elevation as the air grew sharper and the landscape opened toward the high Uintas.

We stopped near Bald Mountain at Pass Lake, where the elevation reached ten-thousand five-hundred feet. Tree line hovered just above us, and fall showed its final colors along the shoreline. Up here, the alpine season is brief. Snow can arrive without warning in October, and by mid-winter these basins often sit under fifteen to twenty feet of snow.

Alpine Lakes - Pass Lake by Bald Mountain

Pass Lake and Mirror Lake both occupy classic glacial basin - steep cirque walls, smoothed rock benches, and deep pockets of meltwater. In early fall the lakes were still open, but the cold evenings made it clear they would begin freezing along the edges before long.

Much of the highway that carried us here was shaped by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. Their stone culverts, roadbeds, and drainage work remain essential to keeping this high-country corridor open.

North Toward Whitney Reserve

Beyond Bald Mountain, the highway held its elevation as alpine meadows, wetlands, and stands of spruce alternated across the hillsides. Snowmelt streams crossed the flats, feeding grasslands that stay green late into the short mountain season. These same passes once carried Indigenous hunters, and later sheepherders moving flocks through the Uintas.

We turned off at Whitney Reserve and returned to dirt—quiet, meandering track that settled into a comfortable rhythm between timber, open ground, and small creeks.

Chalk Creek Valley and the Antelope Herd

Chalk Creek Road opened into a broad valley framed by rolling hills. Off to our left, down near the creek bottom, a herd of antelope grazed in the mid-morning light. For a moment the scene felt almost safari-like - wide country, calm movement, and the animals working the slope at their own pace.

Antelope Herd - Chalk Creek Utah / Wyoming Border

Then one antelope lifted its head. The rest followed, and in an instant the entire herd pivoted and darted across the flats - fast, effortless, gone as quickly as they appeared.

This valley has carried travelers for centuries: Ute families, early trappers, and the ranching families who settled here by the 1860s. Much of that early footprint remains visible in the patterns of fences and the quiet rhythm of the land.

Crossing Into Wyoming and Entering Evanston

Not long after leaving the valley, the Utah line gave way to Wyoming; no sign marking the transition, just a subtle change in the shape of the land. The road continued through open ranch country before passing the Kern River gas facility, part of a wider pipeline system that crosses much of the West.

Yellow Creek Road carried us north toward Evanston, where scattered homes gradually gave way to the grid of downtown. Evanston emerged in the 1870s as a key service and maintenance point on the Union Pacific Railroad.

Steam Locomotive - Evanston to Ogden (Transcontinental Railroad)

Steam locomotives paused here for water, coal, and mechanical work, and the rail yard

became one of the busiest between Omaha and Sacramento. The roundhouse and machine shops—substantial masonry buildings built to withstand long winters - still stand on the edge of town.

Chinese laborers played a significant role in constructing and maintaining this section of the

line, particularly during its early decades when winter storms routinely halted operations. Though rail activity has thinned over time, the historical structure remains woven into the town’s layout and architecture.

Reaching Evanston after a week on the BDR felt like a fitting conclusion—ancient geology, alpine corridors, and quiet forest roads giving way to a historic railroad town that once connected the West.

Trip Details

Route:Soapstone Basin → FR037 → FR150 → Mirror Lake Highway (SR-150) → Bald Mountain Pass → Pass Lake → Whitney Reserve → Chalk Creek Road → Yellow Creek Road → Evanston, Wyoming
Distance: ~100 miles
Terrain:Forest roads, high-altitude pavement, alpine meadows, glacial basins, rolling valleys, open ranch land
Elevation:7,800 ft at Soapstone Basin → 10,500 ft at Bald Mountain Pass → 6,800 ft at Evanston
Highlights:Mirror Lake Highway, Bald Mountain Pass, Pass Lake, glacial basins, fall color at elevation, Chalk Creek Valley, antelope herd, Evanston’s historic railroad structures
Seasonal Notes:Cold mornings; sudden weather shifts; early snowfall likely at 10,000+ ft; lakes begin freezing in October. Mirror Lake Highway closed in Winter, much of these roads are likely impassable in Winter.
Caution:Rapid temperature swings at elevation; wildlife along Chalk Creek Road; limited services between Soapstone Basin and Evanston
Camping:Soapstone Basin (previous night); limited dispersed options near Mirror Lake; additional sites south of Whitney Reserve