These two caches are at the north (GCBNT78) and south (GCBNT7C) ends of the seasonally closed road, Miller’s Flat Road, which leads to the August 2000 cache, Potters Pond (GC3B). Much information follows about getting to the Potters Pond Campground where the cache is located. The information is duplicated on both cache pages. The easiest answer is to go between June and September when the road is sure to be open.
Know Before You Go
No apostrophe - When searching for anything relating to Potters Pond, please note that it is not possessive.
No cell service - Be sure you have caches and maps (on-road navigation and trail) saved offline.
Gear for Water Crossing
Your hike to the cache will involve a water crossing. Late season it will be a trickle. Early season while spring runoff is occurring it could be over the top of most hiking boots. Rocks have been aligned to provide steppingstones. Plan your footwear accordingly. Bring hiking poles to help you balance on the rocks.
Getting to Miller’s Flat Road
Follow your navigation software to one of these two access caches. That is why they exist. Depending on your starting point, there is a remote chance your navigation software could still try to route you down Skyline Drive. It is much better than it used to be, but unless you are driving a jeep or similar vehicle and are comfortable driving it off-road, DO NOT TAKE SKYLINE DRIVE.
Watch your gas. North or south the cache is about an hour/30-40 miles from the nearest gas.
Miller’s Flat Road
Miller’s Flat Road is a good forest service road that sedans and full-size buses can easily do when dry. There are also many caches along it. When wet, depending on how wet, it can range from a bit dicey to quicksand. Miller’s Flat Road closes approximately Oct 15 to May 15 every year because of snowfall. The exact dates depend on snowfall. Use the snowpack link below to monitor snow levels at stations north and south of Potters. There is no station right at Potters Pond.
Snowpack Monitoring - https://wcc.sc.egov.usda.gov/reports/UpdateReport.html;jsessionid=ZVtIGF5MOImmEIB3e4O6CgZKZoT9exm0OI_E96Su.nrcsprd0383?report=Utah&format=SNOTEL+Snowpack+Update+Report
In San Pitch River section of report look for these two stations:
- Huntington Horse (9,650 ft) – to north of Potters Pond
- Red Pine Ridge (8,990 ft) – to south of Potters Pond
Although the seasonal closure of Miller’s Flat Road is usually the biggest problem in timing of accessing the cache, fires can be a problem too. Hopefully not right at the cache since the area has had recent prescribed burns. However, fires could affect your routing. Check the wildfire site below as you plan your trip keeping in mind fires can ignite and change directions at a moment’s notice.
Utah Wildfire Information - https://utah-fire-info-utahdnr.hub.arcgis.com/
Sites with information about Miller’s Flat Road
It’s a forest service road so not listed by UDOT. The USFS site does not do a good job of posting the status of the road. These sites described the road pretty well. Check the campground sites for the best status. When the campgrounds are open, the road is.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/r04/manti-lasal/recreation/miller-flat-joes-valley-huntington-canyon-rec-area
https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/9750-miller-flat-road.html
https://utahutvrentals.com/arapeen-ohv-trail-system/skyline-drive-trails/
https://www.onxmaps.com/offroad/trails/us/utah/millers-flat-road
Potter’s Pond Campground
https://campflare.com/campground/potters-pond-892 - still must reserve through recreation.gov but this site gives better info about openings and the area.
https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/233892
Also check Miller’s Flat Reservoir Campground for weather information. It’s located about halfway between Utah 31 and Potter’s Pond Campground.
https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/250039
https://www.fs.usda.gov/r04/manti-lasal/recreation/miller-flat-reservoir-campground
When the gates are closed
For those who want to push the issue when the snow gates are closed, the southernmost gate is 8.4 miles to the turn for Potters Pond Campground where the cache is located. The second gate from the south is 1.5 miles from the campground. The gate from UT-31 in the north is 11.8 miles from Potters Pond Campground. Dig through the logs you will see there are a few crazy cachers who have walked/cross country skied those distances round trip when there was only a little snow on the ground, but the gates weren’t open yet. If you get crazy with the snow remember the cache is at 9100 ft. Bring a shovel!! Also be aware of the boundary between crazy and stupid. In the end, it’s just a cache.
Parking
When you finally get to the campground, if no one is in site 17, that is the best place to park as the trailhead is N 39° 27.115 W 111° 16.411. If the site is occupied, you will need to park in the lot by the pond at N39° 26.982' W111° 16.270'.
Extras
If you are going to make the trek to get this oldie, plan to stay in the area at least one night. There are many campgrounds in the area as well as dispersed camping. All the links above have other area campgrounds listed at the bottom of the page. There are plenty of caches in the area including GCKBDX Peak-A-Boo: East Mountain Cache. At 10,728 it is the county high point and a 2004 cache.
In addtion to Potters Pond, there are 5 other year 2000 caches in Utah (and 188 caches placed in 2001!) A few are even within reasonable striking distance depending on your route to/from Potters.
Often a local will host an event at one of the group sites in the campground in mid-August, around the cache’s birthday. It’s not dependably annual as in the past, but worth checking.
Many thanks to emilierene and Merlin1392 for inspiring the placement of these caches.