The High Uintas are Utah's magnificent mountain anomaly. According to Intermountain Flora , the Uintas' area above timberline in a true alpine flora surpasses all of the alpine areas in the Intermountain West combined. Hundreds of glacially carved lakes dot small and large basins, some as high as 12,000 feet, others hidden in dense spruce and fir forests. While active glaciers no longer find refuge in the Uintas, these mountains are continually re-shaped by the harshest weather imaginable. The North Slope is a gentle, almost plateau-like region of lodgepole pine forests surrounding meandering open parklands and high mountain meadows.
River bottoms are wide and filled with willows, potholes and beaver ponds.
A series of steep glacial stairs give rise to a belt of spruce and fir forests leading to the tightly packed krumholz of alpine basins. Looking into the South Slope, the heart of the Uintas, one fathoms the unique massiveness of this range. Here huge glacial basins dominate the immediate landscape. Off in the distance deep glacial canyons lost in the long jumble of spruce and fir forests gently tumble down river basins into lodgepole pine and out into the sagebrush of the Uintah Basin. These extensive forests make the Uintas unique in the Intermountain West.