A Fall Journey Through Utah’s Fishlake National Forest
We had a full post-Rimrocker plan ready to go — hit a few classic Utah parks, hike for a week, soak up some sun. And then the sun decided to crank things up a little higher than we expected for that time of year. Within a few hours we scrapped the whole thing and pivoted. We still hadn’t found the fall colors we were chasing in Colorado, so we pointed the rig toward Fishlake National Forest instead.
I’ll be honest: I didn’t know Utah looked like that. In my head it was all red rock, sand, and heat. My only real Utah experience was Salt Lake City and highway driving, and between that and the endless desert-themed park photos, I had basically decided Utah was just… rocks. So Fishlake completely floored me. The combination of golden aspens and deep-green pines felt unreal. It was the kind of fall color I haven’t seen in years (maybe ever).
We spent a few days wandering through the forest (plus one drone crash and rescue for flavor). But our trip ended earlier than planned thanks to some, “creative” roads. We set out to explore another section of the forest and rolled past miles of incredible campsites, saving ourselves for what we thought would be the ultimate spot near the ski area. And then we got there… and realized the “roads” I had researched were not roads at all. They were dirt chutes pitched at wild angles, with tight turns that made zero sense for what was supposedly a neighborhood leading to ski houses. If we didn’t feel good about climbing it in an EarthRoamer in the middle of fall, how on earth was an SUV supposed to do it in winter on ice? Truly baffling.
Every other potential camping area turned out to be ATV-only trails. And of course, by then we had already passed every perfect campsite on the way up. We debated backtracking to them but ultimately the idea of burning the time and fuel just to turn around again a couple days later for our next planned destination felt silly. So we bailed on the dispersed-camping dream and booked a paid campground just outside the forest. After the fall trees, Colorado, and the Rimrocker… it was underwhelming, to say the least. But we did squeak in a bike ride.
Overall a 10/10 fall color experience. Fishlake in autumn is absolutely worth it. Maybe skip the Eagle Point detour and just sink into the magic of the trees instead. The whole trip made us want to redo Colorado in peak fall, too. And someday we’ll get to the Utah parks… probably in winter.
Watch the video of the entire adventure!