From Mountain View Wyoming, go south out of town on WY-410 toward Robertson. At 6.4 miles, WY-410 makes a hard right hand turn. Instead, continue straight on county road 283, resetting your odometer. The county road is signed forest access, and is a good, well graded dirt road. It crosses a wide open flat before climbing and entering the forest.

Stay on the good road for 12.1 miles from WY-410 to a signed junction. Go left, toward Henry's Fork. Follow this well graded road 7.0 miles to where it makes a U-bend to the left. Henry's Fork Campground/Trailhead is signed (straight ahead, instead of making the bend), and 3.4 miles at the end of the road.

There is a small campground at the trailhead with a pit toilet (no water), however there are many good primitive campsites nearby that will likely be quieter.

Summit: 4123 m ( 13527 ft. )
Trailhead: 2878 m ( 9443 ft. )

Trailhead to Elkhorn Crossing (~5.25 miles / about 2 hours)
From the trailhead, the well-used trail heads south. A side trail to Alligator Lake on the right is unsigned and easy to miss, but the main trail is not. Follow the main trail about 5 miles to Elkhorn Crossing. There are a couple of decent campsites along the trail before Elkhorn Crossing, but from the crossing up, the camping gets much better (and more crowded). The basin comes into dramatic view as the trees open at the crossing. Be sure to stay on the main trail headed up the basin after crossing Henry Fork.

Dollar Lake (~8 miles from the trailhead / about 4 hours)
Dollar Lake is an easy 2.5 or so miles above Elkhorn Crossing. This area receives HEAVY use. Try to minimize impacts. If looking for isolated camping, consider camping off the trail between Elkhorn and Dollar Lake.

To the summit (10 miles round trip from Dollar Lake via the shortcut, 14 miles via Painter Basin / about 6-7+ hours)
Fill up the water bottles before leaving Dollar Lake. The work, and elevation gain, begins shortly after leaving Dollar Lake as the trail begins a steep climb to Gunsight Pass.

Upper Shortcut
At the top of the pass, before dropping from the pass south into Painter Basin, a shortcut trail leaves on the right and more directly crosses to Anderson Pass. This can be a bit difficult to spot but is well worth finding. It saves a fair amount of distance and elevation. Stay lower out of the rock field and cross to the southwest, contouring over and rejoining the main trail below Anderson Pass. If missed on the way up, it is easier to spot on the return trip and makes a shorter route back.

Painter Basin Route
The regular route descends into Painter Basin. As you reach the basin, there is a junction with a social trail on the right, the lower cutoff trail, that stays closer to the bottom of the slope. This cuts off a bit of distance and is recommended. It rejoins the official trail right where it begins climbing steeply up toward Anderson Pass. If you stay on the main trail instead of the cutoff, it crosses the basin. Once on the south side of the basin, at the trail junction, go right (west) and begin the climb up to Anderson Pass.

From Anderson Pass
Scramble up the ridge south to the summit of Kings Peak. The west side of Anderson Pass is a very dramatic basin.