For years I've been wanting to hike into and fish the Naturalist Basin of the High Uinta Wilderness. In late September 2020, I was finally able to get there with a very good friend.

Naturalist Basin is accessed from the Hayden Pass trailhead and the Uinta Highline Trail. It's about six miles in and surrounded on three sides by Mount Agassiz, Spread Eagle Peak, and Rocky Sea Pass. There are several named lakes in the basin.

The north end of the Fall 2018 Mirror Lake Complex fire burned a large section of the area around the Uinta Highline Trail between just before Scudder Lake and to the Packard Lake junction.

We base camped on the south side of Evermann Lake so we could day hike to and fish the other lakes. After setting up camp, we had enough time left in the first day to hike up to and fish the south shores of Jordan Lake. On our second day, we hiked up and fished the north shores of Jordan Lake before heading up to Shaler Lake, Faxon Lake, LeConte Lake, Blue Lake, and Morat Lakes before heading back down to our camp.

We fished all of the lakes we passed and in most, we were able to catch at least one fish. I was lucky enough to catch nine fish in the two days we wet our lures including one very small arctic grayling out of LeConte Lake. My friend caught a good size arctic grayling out of the same lake. Faxon Lake seems to be devoid of any fish. We also didn't have any luck at Evermann Lake, but we also didn't see fish of any size in the water.

The morning after our second night, we hiked back out to the trailhead.

Because a cold front was moving through the state in the days we were there, we had a lot of wind all three days and the second night was colder than the first. We think the fishing could have been better if the wind had not been so prevalent.

I would love to have Naturalist Basin become a regular two-night escape to the High Uinta Wilderness.