Utah is about to get a hut-to-hut system. Here’s what skiers and hikers can expect.

Kamas • Deep in the Uinta Mountains, past the ice skating pond and beyond the snowmobile tracks, something both new and steeped in history waits:

A yurt, and an adventure.

Green, round and tucked in among the pine trees, the Smith and Morehouse Yurt fits into its surroundings on the south side of the reservoir of the same name as though it has squatted there for decades. In actuality, the crew at Inspired Summit Adventures put the final touches on it in mid-December, completing a key step in a project to create what the outfitter is calling Utah’s first year-round, four-season backcountry hut system.

The Western Uinta Hut System is envisioned to eventually include five yurts strung through the mountains northwest of the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway. Roughly 60 miles of trail, some accessible by snowmobile and some only by foot, skis or mountain bike, will tether them together. Though located in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, all the structures will be privately owned by Inspired Summit Adventures, which has permission to operate them as part of its 10-year permit in the Heber-Kamas Ranger District.

Currently, the system includes just two yurts: the one at Smith and Morehouse Reservoir and one at Castle Peak, 11.5 miles to the south. The latter has been in place since 1978 but was remodeled by Inspired Summit Adventures in 2021. The outfitter’s founder, Shaun Raskin Deutschlander, plans to have a third smaller and more rustic yurt in play near Elk Lake as soon as next fall.

Raskin Deutschlander had the vision to create an official hut-to-hut system in Utah in 2020. She sees it as a tool for shepherding more people away from crowded trailheads — which have exploded in popularity since the pandemic — and into the backcountry.

“How do we help motivate people who, by nature, are kind of lemming-esque?” she wondered. “How do we motivate them to see this fantastically beautiful western part of the range? And I was like, ‘Well, if we give them a reason, give them security, give them an opportunity, they will come and they’ll see that it’s spectacular.’”

As she explained her thinking, Raskin Deutschlander was sitting at the head of a long pine table inside the cozy Smith and Morehouse Yurt. A charcuterie board filled with cheeses and olives stretched the length of the table, which was surrounded by three cushy bunkbeds whose bottom mattresses converted to futon couches. In one corner, a black, woodburning stove-slash-pizza oven stood guard against the chill of a mid-December night at 8,000 feet of elevation.

Outside, the Smith and Morehouse Creek babbles as it bubbles up through pockets in the ice and snow. Raskin Deutschlander said kokanee salmon spawn there in the fall. In the spring, she said, a crew from Inspired Summit Adventures will work to replace invasive plants growing in the nearby marsh with native species.

The Smith and Morehouse Yurt sits just a few feet from an access road and is planned to be ADA-accessible. Other yurts will be more difficult to get to. But Raskin Deutschlander said her team tried to make staying in the structures easy. Or as easy as possible with no wired electricity and no running water.

Solar panels power a string of delicate but bright bulbs that — along with an expansive skylight — light the yurt. Just outside sits an outhouse equipped with a WAG bag toilet, which is armed with a disposable bag full of gel formulated to help eliminate odors and break down waste.

“The idea was really to make it elevated so that it could really fit for multiple users,” Raskin Deutschlander said. “I don’t think any gnarly backcountry skier is going to be sad to roll up on this elevated style [of yurt]. And it will only help people who otherwise might be really intimidated to get out into these spaces overnight feel comfortable.

“Like, it’s OK to … do burly things during the day and come back to a space like this.”

From a Forest Service perspective, Lee Maness, acting ranger for the Heber-Kamas district, said the yurts will help the agency live up to its promise to provide multiple uses on its public lands.

“It’s a really unique recreation opportunity,” Maness said. “It attracts a different user group than would usually be visiting that area.”

Hut-to-hut systems are common in Europe, where accommodations can range from sparse to luxurious. They gained a toehold in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s but remained limited for more than a century, according to hut2hut.info, an informational site focused on hut-to-hut trips in the U.S. Huts had a resurgence in the 1980s, though, and some 25 of the 34 hut-to-hut systems documented by hut2hut.info have been built in the past 40 years.

Not on that list is the hut system near Lilly Lake, also in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. The Bear River Outdoor Recreation Alliance, an Evanston, Wyo.-based nonprofit, established that network of yurts in Utah about 20 years ago. Yet the six structures do not meet hut2hut.info’s definition of a hut system. At between a half-mile and two miles apart, they are too close together (Hut2hut.info sets a standard of 3 to 11 miles apart). Plus, they were designed to be visited individually rather than as part of a loop.

The popularity of those yurts, though, may be auspicious for the Western Uinta Hut System going in just 20 miles to the south.

Justin Robinson, the district ranger for the Evanston Mountain View Ranger District, said the Lily Lake huts typically are booked as soon as they are made available. That includes in the winter, when they can be reached only by cross country skiing or snowshoeing. The website for the Evanston Rec Center, which manages the reservation system, shows sparse availability until April.

“I’m looking for opportunities where we can expand because these are so heavily used,” said Robinson, who has taken initial steps toward building a seventh, ADA-accessible, yurt . “As soon as they go up for reservation, they are taken.”

Robinson related staying in a yurt to “glamping,” which has seen leaps in popularity in recent years. A report by Kampgrounds of America showed that 34% of new campers glamped in 2023, up from 18% in 2021.

As with the Western Uinta Hut System, guests must bring sleeping bags and food but don’t have to set up a tent or sleep on the snow.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity,” Robinson said. “Winter sports overnighting is a difficult thing. People tend to have to go to a (ski) resort and stay at a lodge. This is different.”

The cost of staying at one of the BRORA yurts, which sleep up to eight people, ranges from $100 to $150 per night. As with Inspired Summit Adventures’ huts, they are privately owned and maintained and the Forest Service does not set the usage fees. Neither BRORA nor the Evanston Rec Center run any guiding or expedition services out of the yurts.

Staying at one of the two yurts in the Western Uinta Hut System, which both sleep up to 10 people, will cost $450 for up to four people plus $100 for each additional person. However, for $575 per person per day, guests can get an even more catered experience. For that price, with a four-day minimum, Inspired Summit Adventure guides will take visitors on daily guided excursions, including such options as backcountry skiing in the winter or fly fishing in the summer. They will also provide food and keep the hut fires burning.

If guests want to experience the hut-to-hut aspect and spend time in both yurts, a A $500 per person fee will be added to account for gear transportation. Because the Uintas are avalanche-prone, Raskin Deutschlander said, winter hut-to-hut expeditions will likely only be available as guided experiences.

“You go through a ton of really consequential avalanche terrain, and the terrain itself is very convoluted,” she said. “One of the things I love the most about the Uintas is the same reason I believe it has stayed so quiet compared to what we’ve seen in the Wasatch: the terrain is very nuanced.”

Addy Jacobsend, a professional skier and outdoor influencer living in Salt Lake City, said she sees considerable value in the guided ski experience — especially for anyone unfamiliar with the Uintas, one of the only east-west-running mountain ranges in the U.S. She also found the prospect of using the yurts as a base for backcountry adventures enticing.

“I’ve been getting way more into skiing some bigger, more challenging backcountry lines,” she said. “And I think that I’m especially drawn to the hut aspect of it because then you’re not fully winter camping but you have that sort of access, and that’s so up my alley.”

Raskin Deutschlander said she expects most of the people who book the yurts will be adventure seekers like Jacobsend. But she hopes they will also bring out grandmothers who want to watch their grandchildren play in a river or skate on a frozen pond.

“The vision here is to really leave the place better than we found it,” she said, “and to help be a voice for maybe some people who haven’t really felt like they are totally heard in the forest space.”