Reading Time: 16 minutes

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Status: Not yet proofread. Why would anyone hike from Sedgewick Meadows instead of Big Sandy Trailhead? There’s a great reason!

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➻ Quick Facts

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⤷Introduction

My birthday was July 12th, and my eldest daughter’s (Trail name Sweet Potato, as her initials are YAM) was the 11th. After talking with her mother, we decided that she would have most of her birthday at home, and then the night of the 11th we’d drive to Pinedale and get a room at Pinedale Hotel and Suites, as Yue loves the pool there. We’d also get a movie party out of it. This also meant that my mother could go on a hike with us, because we were choosing a southern trailhead as well. After the aborted jaunt to Frozen Lakes last year, I wanted to give them a shot via Sedgewick Meadows. PROTIP: DO IT. My only real concern was blowdown from the 2020 wind event and whether or not the trail I’d seen from Coon Lake across the Little Sandy Canyon was actually useful. 

When we got to Pinedale, the first thing we did was pick up some popcorn for our movie party night. Yue ended up not wanting to swim because it was too late (she claimed, but I think she just preferred the movies). The hotel is pretty run down at this point. We found two used pairs of underwear, a whole loaf of moldy bread, and some new jewelry, complete with tags, covered in an inch of dust, which YL kept. I mean she kept the jewelry, not the dust. 

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⤑Day 1: Sedgewick Meadows to…well, not very far!

My birthday! We stuck around the hotel and let Yue Little sleep in, but rather quickly she said she did not want to sleep, so instead we went and got food at the grocery store (during Rendezvous) and then headed out. Yue also got a great gift from Aunt Elaine.

My mom met us at the road junction that takes you to Farson. She had gotten a little bit confused with her GPS, so we’d ended up waiting a long time and wondering if she’d had a flat tire, and were relieved when she showed up.

We drove in two vehicles, my mom in my Jeep Patriot (which lives with her now) and Yue Little and I in the 2025 Wrangler ’41 Willy’s 4XE Unlimited. After dropping off the Patriot at the busy trailhead, where we still managed to get a good spot as people were reaching the trailhead at the end of their trips…yes, a late start, but well deserved! It was, after all, the celebration of day of my birth. 

The Willy’s had no problem getting to the trailhead, but my Patriot couldn’t do it, as we later discovered. On the way there, mom lost her phone, so we had to go all the way back and look at a place she’d gotten out to pee, and all the way back to the trailhead. No luck. Eventually We found it in the back of the Willy’s. We made Sedgwick Meadows at 1:20 PM, where we found an older, smaller Jeep. A guy hiked out to it as we were getting our stuff set up. He was very nice and knew a bunch of people that my mom works with; he’d been up fishing Dutch Joe Creek.

After getting everything sorted, I made YL a bouquet, and then we finally got on the trail, with YL wearing a pair of my Maui Jim’s. It was basically an OHV track for the first half mile, and then it became a side-by-side horse trail as we broke out into a huge meadow. The view was great, and we traversed the grasses, wondering if we should aim straight for the pass or follow the unmaintained trail we saw on the maps. We decided to go with the unmaintained trail, which we found with some difficulty in the trees. (It appeared that we should cross the creek, but this was not correct.) We saw a couple of horse people on trail, but that would be the end of our interactions for some time. 

Right after branching off onto the unmaintained trail, we got to see a mother grouse with her little babies. Yue Little wanted to chase them, but I prohibited the activity. We then continued on the trail up, following the river most of the way, which we spent too much time fishing. 

YL found a rock that she really liked to climb at mile 2.4. She much prefers bouldering to hiking, but we had more hiking to do. We then had to decide if we wanted to go to a lake upstream of an unnamed creek, or just follow Dutch Joe Creek toward the pass, as it was getting late. We decided to head toward the pass. 

One section of forest was annoying due to the downed trees, but nothing we couldn’t overcome with a little zigging and zagging. At mile 3.75, the real, continuous Dutch Joe meadows unfold, and they’re very easy to walk. Yl was griping nonstop, but I made her hike until mile 4.2 (marked by a marsh we ended up walking through), and then crossed and set up a camp on the south side. There are a billion places to pitch a tent! YL helped me get the tent ready for the most part, and then used the rest of the time to tenkara fish. She caught a ton of brookies. Dinner was Next Generation Backcountry Meals stroganoff (1) and lasagna (2) for me, and Mountain House chicken and dumplings for YL. My meals didn’t have a ziplock,which was difficult. The flavor was ok, but I won’t be a repeat customer. YL also had a Gastrognome huckleberry ice cream sandwich. (Excellent.) 

The sunset beneath Temple Peak was done no justice by my phone; it was a huge blessing to witness such beauty, and even more to watch it from the soft grasses of our campsite. We made a fire to assist with our camp baths, and Yue stole my big sleeping bag, so I ended up in her little one. This displeased me greatly, but thankfully I got warm enough. It was also my first night wearing my new Kuhl shorts, which are lightweight, yet not skimpy. I really enjoyed the night in them, and since then have been packing them everywhere. Yue Little thrashed all night long and practically beat me up, so I didn’t sleep well.

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⤑Day 2: .015MPH to Lower Frozen Lake

Day two. We got out of bed kind of late because we went to bed kind of late. We left camp after feeding Yue, but not too long after leaving, we stopped and let Yue fish. She fished until noon, with the promise that she must not whine if we allowed this! That promise was broken faster than the US debt ceiling. 

It was difficult to find a way across the braided channel that didn’t require us to take off our shoes; we ended up just going all the way along the south side until we were dang near the next canyon/steep area, and finally a spot presented itself. Mom was surprised that we weren’t going to follow the creek, but the ravine is too steep.

In the canyon area there are many intermittent paths of woodland creatures, mostly uphill to avoid the creek down below in the steep ravine. We followed them quite a ways, stopping nce at a little creek to get water. Yue and I were rather cross with one another, and she brought up her stepfather not liking me. My mom intervened, and we both promised to be better: I as a father, and Yue as a daughter. I told YL that we could take a trip together to Lagoon, an amusement park near SLC. (We ended up taking a far more expensive trip to Universal in FL!)

We then continued on the trails, and we even saw something I wanted to pack out—an old Safeway milk crate! At mile 5.72 we crossed another creek, then dropped down to Dutch Joe, which we followed until mile 6.1. There, we turned left and followed a little creek up to a meadow. I got some pictures of Yue playing, the mountains, and looked over the hill back toward where we’d camped, then we headed toward the pass on some more intermittent trails. Gloriously, we started finding cairns. (Cairn haters are free to go tear them down; while I do not make them, they also do not bother me.) 

The trail was pretty decent heading up to the pass. You could deviate left and go uphill more, which would then dump you out at the first of the lakes, but it’s probably easiest just to go toward the area most people/animals are using. We did have a little cell service at the pass, so mom and I sent messages saying we were safe, our plans, and checked the weather.

We followed the very obvious trail down the side, which I had seen back in 2019 from across the canyon, over near Coon Lake. Rather than go all the way down to the pond straight below the pass, we made our way through a boulder field, and soon enough popped out at the lowest of the Frozen Lakes. There weren’t many camping spots at the lake, though you could hike down about 150′ vertical feet, perhaps 200′, and find a field with a nice creek, if you wanted, which also had better views. Yue was losing her mind, so we stuck to the lake. 

The Frozen Lakes (at least the lower and upper, not sure about the one below Temple Pass) have no fish, and at this time of year, they earned their names. Yue Little said she’d pay me $15 to swim in it, and I did. I still regret it as I edit these notes I took during the hike, and much like her promise to not complain, the promise of $15 never materialized. 

Dinner was Peak Refuel’s backcountry bison bowl, if that’s what it’s called, and I was rather pleased with the taste, though I had something of a struggle getting the entire biscuit to rehydrate. Yue and I went to bed around 9. The night was completely calm and warmer than expected, but we slept quite well. Yue watched some kids shows on her phone, while I read some of my books. (And maybe I also watched an episode of something with Gordon Ramsay!)

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⤑Day 3: Hike Out

The objective was to reach Black Joe Lake, but spoiler alert, Yue’s attitude prevented that—to be clearer, my mom got so tired of listening to her that she asked if we could do the loop ourselves, including a quick trip up East Temple Peak, and march toward Big Sandy trailhead.

We left camp around 10, as YL slept in and then had to eat her customary eggs. Because we wouldn’t spend more time in the wilderness, this also mean my vacation planning was turned upside down, and that I had a lot more food weight to carry.

The climb up out of the lowest Frozen Lake was pretty easy and you don’t really need a map to figure out where to go, as following the ridge for portions and picking the easiest, grassiest way is very intuitive.  We reached the next lake in an hour, proof of our picture taking and Yue’s very sloth-like pace.

The uppermost Frozen Lake was something else–I know that all lakes are flat, but this one is oddly flat, as it’s on a very flat perch, filled with boulders mostly at the same level.  The boulders have plenty of tufts of grass to help you make your way through them. Yue was already ready for lunch, so we stopped on some rocks and ate, plus grabbed some more water. 

The descent down to the Frozen Lake beneath Temple Pass wasn’t too steep, and to have fun we took a snowfield for a portion of it.  Across the way, the pass seemed rather sketchy, as it was steep like Hailey Pass but seemed to mostly be loose pebbles and dirt. A snowfield cut across the main trail. By myself I wouldn’t like it, and with a child I really wasn’t a fan. At least the snowfield had some footprints going across it. Yue and my mom don’t have 20/10 bilateral vision as I do, so they couldn’t see it. In my head, I decided that if it was too crappy looking when we arrived, we could skirt off to the east and climb a section of grass and rocky ledges, then make our way back over to the trail. We still debated going over to Black Joe…or at least up East Temple…anything to rescue us from YL’s undermining of this adventure, God bless her.

At 12:48 we reached the last lake, crossed the outlet with ease, and started up the pass.We scrambled up to the trail, then followed it about to the snowfield, which was flat out impossible to cross, but certainly was a quick way to tumble back down to the lake. The pass is effectively just loose dirt on an insanely steep slope; if you started rolling, you wouldn’t stop. We passed beneath the snowfield and put ourselves into 4-wheel drive, trepidatiously making our way along.Yue did it like a champ and seemed to enjoy the experience.  Past the snow, another 30 feet of crappy, loose terrain graced us, but we conquered it and reached the top of the pass an hour after we reached the last Frozen Lake. That time included a water stop. 

After taking pictures and considering climbing the peak (no, due to YL), we headed on down. YL said she could handle 13-14 miles for the day, which seemed unlikely given how poorly she handled the first two days with what, 3-4 miles/day? However, getting out really motivated her, and she moved quickly. I told her for the third time to either wear my Maui Jims or put them in her pack. She complained about the PilotFish tethers I use, so she said she’d keep them safe in her pack.

Temple Pass is taller than it looks and follows a creek on the way down, at least early in the year. There are plenty of opportunities to slip on loose gravel, so mom and Yue used their butts for certain portions of the trail (trails, as they are really more braided). The views were just gorgeous! Not as nice as Wind River Peak, but certainly nothing to turn your nose up at. Yue kept inquiring about the distance remaining and the quickest way out. I told her I’d lie with every question, and that I did! I also told her that we’d be taking the rock ramp, but didn’t tell her that this bypassing of Raid Lake added some slight mileage—worth it for the views, for certain. 

Although there was a creek the entire way, we waited until near the base where there was a really steep gradient to get water. Looking up at the mountains made me realize how small I was, and how blessed I was to have this somewhat pugilistic little one with me. My Gaia map showed an upper path to navigate towards the rock ramp, so we made progress that way, going by the lake, along cliffy edges, up to some marshy tuffets of grass, and from there uphill a bit (and trust me, it looked tempting to just go back down and rock hop along the lake) until we were on the Gaia route. Once we got up there, we found a great use trail and progress really improved. We practically zoomed along the divide between the two drainages, one going beneath the prow of the boat (you’ll know) and the other going down to Raid. Down in Clear Lake we saw a pack raft with some rowdy family on the shore urging the rafter on; we also spotted a few tents. 

Down at the rock ramp, Yue was suddenly in love with hiking again, skipping across the shallow flows, flinging herself over cracked crevices, and generally giving me the heartbeeps with her enthusiasm sans worry for her own life. I showed her the brookies in the small streams as we made our way downhill, and presently we left the ramps and went into the forest—Yue was crestfallen for sure. We observed that multiple tents were right by the trail, and couldn’t figure out why anyone would want that. It’d be like routing the neighborhood sidewalk right through your bedroom!. A number of people with long, Canon L lenses were taking pictures of people climbing the Haystack, but the climbers we simply couldn’t spot with our own eyes. We trudged on, down around the next lake, and then down, down, down, for longer than it seems should be possible, and past a place where years before we’d met a man who’d reached the same spot twice that day, after having to backtrack all the way to the Cirque of the Towers and his last camp where he’d left his keys.  

Because we wouldn’t get into Pinedale until about 11:00, I called and made a late reservation for the Pinedale Hotel and Suites, hoping that the unused bread and used underwear would be nicer this time.

We checked into room 208 to enter to find it absolutely trashed, like it had been raided. We headed back down and talked to the night auditor, and he assigned us room 318. We got there….and the room was completely trashed. Given that, we headed back down to talk to him and he said sorry, and sent us on our way. We had to drive all the way home and got in at 0300.

Extra: YL kept putting special creams and lip balms on me so that I wouldn’t “look like I was 70 years old.”

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➤Conclusion and Rating

This hike was a true treasure, though the company was less than stellar. Still, if you want to tack on Frozen Lakes, this is by far the way to do it. That said, they are not exactly staggering in their beaty.

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