New Fork Lookout Point Trail
Friday, July 26
With most of the setup done by mid-day Friday, six piled into Effie’s prize Explorer and drove three miles to the New Forks Lake trailhead. We hiked up the trail through an open aspen forest, and crossed over a ridge to and open, south-facing slope covered with sage and a few pines scattered here and there. There we were greeted with majestic views of Upper New Fork Lake below and the New Fork canyon to the east. We saw both yellow and red paintbrush, fuzzy and smooth lupine, gentian, and service berry. Reaching the end of the lake, we explored a short trail to the left which led to a campsite. There we found a peculiar flower which had fern-like leaves. We proceeded on east on the valley bottom a mile or so, skirting the marshy willows, passing first the Lowline Trail JCT on the right, then an old collapsed log cabin like structure on the left. As Thursday’s rains had left the bottom-land trail rather mucky, we turned around before long, returned to the Lowline Trial JCT, turned north onto the faint New Fork Lookout Point Trail. This trail quickly got us up out of the muck and into large, open wildflower meadows surrounded by aspen. Due to our late start, we had to return before getting to the Lookout Point, leaving that for a later group to explore. We took a short-cut (?) on the way back, following game trails west along the hill sides, finally rejoining the regular trail midway along the lake. Hikers were Effie Neth, John Agnew, Nora Nicolaides, Wayne Deeter, Lana Lindstrom, and Richard Hughes.
— Wayne Deeter
Lana, Richard, John, Wayne, Effie, and Nora
Looking back towards camp across the New Fork Lakes
“Slow elk” in the lowlands above the New Fork Lakes
Log cabin ruins
New Fork canyon
— photos by Wayne Deeter