Nobletts Hike

Near the start of the Nobletts hike

Our friends at Enjoy Utah recommended a hike to us in the Uintahs called Nobletts. You can read their take on the hike here. We decided to check it out ourselves and made the journey.

By the time we pulled up in the parking lot (it’s a huge lot with 2 signs, you can’t miss it) we were already excited. Dense aspen trees and soaring pines surrounded the meadows. It was a beautiful trail. We parked and looked at the map, but found it a little confusing. To avoid trouble, take the trail from the map board back toward the left. It looks like a trail forks right, but stay along the parking lot until you drop down into the stream bottom. There is a sign on the right side of the trail that says Nobletts trail shortly after the “fake” trail to help you know you’re on the right track.

The trail passes this sign on the left.

The stream chuckles along here, and the trail follows it pretty closely. The water is clear and perfect (and freezing—even at the end of July). There are a few ups and downs, and the careless person may stumble over a branch, but the scenery is worth it. Thousands of butterflies were flitting about. We saw chipmunks scampering in the pines. Birds darted from tree to tree.

Most of the trail is shady even in the middle of the day.
We were there between 1:30 pm and 3:00.

There are lots of great places to throw rocks--always important for our boys.

The trail was so lush and green!

We saw at least 6 different types of butterflies.

Our boys had fun learning the difference between blue spruce cones and fir cones, too.

Fir on the left, Spruce on the right

You can walk the trail as far as Nobletts Spring, which is 1.5 miles according to the sign. We didn’t really feel like a destination was necessary. When we’d had enough, we simply turned around.

On the way back we were in for a special surprise. As we climbed the hill back to the parking lot we heard a rather loud ruckus in the bushes. We turned to see a bull moose tramping his way through the thicket. We watched him fight his way through the marshy stream and cross the road, excited that we’d “scared him up.” It was the perfect ending to the perfect hike, and our boys will be talking about it for years!

The moose we scared out of the bushes.

Nobletts is found southeast of Kamas. Head out of Heber City going north toward Park City. Turn right onto Highway 35, go past Jordanelle State Park, and travel through the small towns of Francis and Woodland. The huge parking lot for Nobletts hike comes up on the left after mile marker 12.