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The High Plateaus of Utah: Southern TrekThe High Plateaus of Utah: Southern Trek

The High Plateaus of Utah: Southern Trek

The Plateau Provence: Peaks & Plateaus of the Colorado Plateau, Part IV
Friday – Sunday, August 30 – September 1, 2024

After spending Friday morning visiting a number of rock art sites along the Old Trappers’ Trail in the Book Cliffs, I left the canyon shortly before noon and continued on to Ray’s in Green River where I stopped and had a burger for lunch. Afterwards, I topped off my gas tank and headed west across the San Rafael Swell into the High Plateaus of Utah for the rest of the weekend. After my recent Northern Trek into the the High Plateaus earlier this summer, I’ve been looking forward to getting back out and going on a loop through the southern plateaus including the Table Cliff, Paunsaugunt, and Markagunt, plus making a return to the Sevier Plateau so I could visit a new peak along the way. Now after this weekend I have visited the highpoint of all the major plateaus on the Colorado Plateau in Utah except for the Kaiparowits Plateau, which is next on my list!

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The High Plateaus of Utah: Northern TrekThe High Plateaus of Utah: Northern Trek

The High Plateaus of Utah: Northern Trek

The Plateau Provence: Peaks & Plateaus of the Colorado Plateau, Part III
Friday – Sunday, July 19-21, 2024

After spending two weekends exploring the High Plateaus of Utah last summer, I have been looking forward to getting back out into that high country again this year and thought this weekend would be a good time to do so. This time I decided to head up into the northern region of the High Plateaus and planned to start at the edge of the Tavaputs Plateau before making my way westward to the Gunnison Plateau (San Pitch Mountains) while driving some of the backroads in the area and visiting a couple new highpoints along the way. My timing for this trip couldn’t have been much better since the weather forecast was predicting very wet and stormy weather throughout the mountains of Colorado the entire weekend, while it seemed that Central Utah was going to be staying mostly dry, aside from the typical afternoon thunderstorms. Just like last year, I had a great time exploring this region and am hoping to get down to the Southern Plateaus later in the summer.

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The High Plateaus of Utah: Proper Edge of the SkyThe High Plateaus of Utah: Proper Edge of the Sky

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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