Inspired Summit Adventures began as a guide service in the Uinta Mountains in Summit and Wasatch counties. Founder and lead guide Shaun Deutshlander expanded the business in 2021, purchasing the Castle Peak Yurt from White Pine Touring.
Since then, she hatched a plan for a network of yurts for multi-day, hut-to-hut adventures including cross-country skiing, hiking and biking.
That idea is now a reality; the Western Uinta Hut System is opening this winter with the completion of a second yurt.
The Castle Peak Yurt is located off Mirror Lake Highway and the Smith and Morehouse Yurt is next to Smith and Morehouse Creek.
“We're offering guided and catered hut-to-hut trips where you start at Castle Peak that is at 9,800 feet, and you ski tour all the way down to Smith and Morehouse Yurt, which sits at 7,200 feet,” Deutschlander said.
The yurts are about 450 square feet and sleep up to 10 people. Deutschlander said each is fully equipped for self-guided or guided and catered adventures, including woodstoves with ovens, propane stoves and other kitchen essentials.
She said the company plans to build three more yurts; one each summer starting in 2025. The goal is to complete the hut-to-hut system construction by 2027.
The Big Elk Yurt will sit next to Big Elk Lake, Ramona Yurt will be near Ramona Lake and Slate Creek Yurt will be in Slate Creek.
“These yurts are all set around pre-existing summer trail systems. So we're not building more infrastructures. We're not creating more impact,” Deutschlander said. “The goal and a big mission for this hut system is actually to increase accessibility while diffusing some of the heavy impacts.”
She said the Castle Peak, Smith and Morehouse, Big Elk and Ramona Yurts make a loop.
Inspired Summit Adventures operates its yurts under a special use permit from the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. The U.S. Forest Service’s Heber-Kamas Ranger District must approve each site before construction on other yurts begins.
