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Tag: fishlake national forest

The High Plateaus of Utah: Proper Edge of the Sky

The Plateau Provence: Peaks & Plateaus of the Colorado Plateau
Wednesday – Friday, August 30 – September 1, 2023

The High Plateaus of Utah are a group of elevated tablelands that form the boundary between the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin in Central Utah and are what Wallace Stegner once described as “those remarkable mountains that are not mountains at all but greatly elevated rolling plains.” Although I have driven around and between the High Plateaus many times over the years, I have not spent very much time up on top of any of them and I wanted to change that this summer so I could see what they were all about. And what better way is there to get to know a new place than by driving the backroads and visiting the highpoints along the way! I figured that I would start at the northern end of the Wasatch Plateau and then work my way south, looping back around to finish up on Thousand Lake Mountain, where I could hop back on I-70 and head back home after a nice introduction to the area. That was the plan, and I thought it was a pretty good one, but as you will see, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

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Delano Peak: Top of the Tushar Mountains

Friday & Saturday, July 8-9, 2022

This weekend I was going to be travelling all the way to San Diego to spend the following week at the ESRI User Conference for work, and figured this would be a great opportunity for me to hike some peaks along the way if I drove instead of flying, so that’s what I made plans to do. I left from work on Friday afternoon and started my long drive west into Utah, though I wouldn’t be going too far this first day. It was very windy out this afternoon which killed my fuel mileage and I just barely made it to Richfield to fill up my gas tank and get some dinner. My first stop along the way was going to be the Tushar Mountains, which I have driven around numerous times before, but never actually been into, so I was looking forward to checking them out for the first time. I figured a good introduction to the range would be to climb Delano Peak, which is the highest peak in the range at 12,169 feet and is also the Highpoint for Beaver & Piute Counties.

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Fremont Indian State Park in Clear Creek Canyon

Friday – Sunday, February 11-13, 2022

It’s been over ten years since I last visited Fremont Indian State Park (not counting speeding through on I-70 a couple times each year) and Diane had never stopped there before, so I thought we were overdue for a visit and decided to spend my birthday weekend there this year. It’s funny since the last time I spent a weekend at the park was also over my birthday weekend! Established in 1987, Fremont Indian State Park encompasses 1,200 acres of land within Clear Creek Canyon at the juncture of the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin and is nestled between the Tushar Mountains to the south and the Pahvant Range to the north. While planning the trip late last year I noticed that the park now has two cabins that are available to reserve in the Sam Stowe Campground, so I booked one of them so we could spend the weekend in a little more comfort than usual. We were looking forward to checking it out as we explored the rock art in the park for the weekend!

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The Upper Paria River Gorge & Sheep Creek Loop

Canyons of the Paria | Deer Creek Canyon & Lower Bull Valley Gorge
Southern Utah Wanderings | Friday – Monday, October 2-5, 2020

This year for our annual week-long trek into Southern Utah, Jared and I decided to spend most of our time exploring the canyons of the upper Paria River located within the Paria – Hackberry Wilderness Study Area. As usual, I left right after work on Friday afternoon and headed to the BLM Visitor Center in Cannonville where Jared and I had planned to meet up. Our timing turned out to be pretty good since he arrived about 15 minutes after me. We then we made our way over to Between the Creeks Point and found a spot to camp for the night. We quickly got our tents set up and went right to bed since it was getting pretty late.

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Petroglyphs of the Waterpocket Fold

Southern Utah Wanderings | Backcountry Petroglyphs of Capitol Reef
Monday – Tuesday, October 1-2, 2018

After spending Sunday evening and Monday morning in Salt Lake City it was finally time to start my annual October trip to southern Utah. I planned on starting off the week by searching for some remote and little-known petroglyphs hidden in the backcountry of Capitol Reef National Park with my friend Jared. On our drive back from Salt Lake City, Diane and I stopped at Dennis‘ house in Price to pick up my Jeep. I had left my Jeep there on Saturday morning so we wouldn’t have to drive both of our vehicles all the way to Salt Lake City and I wouldn’t have to go all the way back home to Grand Junction to get it afterwards. From Price Diane headed back home and I made my way over to Torrey where I would be meeting up with Jared who had already been hiking in Capitol Reef all weekend. One nice thing about driving from Price to Torrey was that it finally gave me an opportunity to drive Highway 72 from I-70 to Loa through the eastern edge of Fishlake National Forest.

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