Spanish Fork Peak, elev 10,192' July 2006

With the next two weeks not looking very conducive to hiking with my work schedule, I thought I better get another mountain under my belt. Spanish Fork Peak seemed like just the place. After reading about other hikers’ trip reports on the Internet, I thought I’d make the attempt.
The trail head was pretty easy to find. I just headed up Maple Canyon until I came upon Whiting camp ground. I drove through the camp ground until a dead end where there is a small parking lot with a noticeable trail at the end (trail #006).
I got to the trail head a few minutes after 10:00 and left around 10:10 for the summit. The beginning of the trail is on what appears to be more of a four wheeling track. After about .25 of a mile, the trail to the summit splits off to the right and crosses a river (trail #007) .
I crossed the river and began climbing at a steady pace which really didn’t ease much the remainder of the hike. The scenery of the hike was spectacular, with pretty much every landscape available in the Wasatch range. The trail took me along side the river for quite a ways, though pine forests, meadows, aspen groves, desert landscapes, and lush vegetation. I also came across a couple of places that had been recently used as makeshift camp spots.
The first point of interest to me was Maple Canyon Lake. This was a small lake surrounded by large meadows on the West and pine trees and cliffs on the East. Looking at the top of the lake, I could see swarms of Mosquitoes, that fortunately were more interested in staying in their formation of flying around in circles than they were in using me as a meal. Still, I hiked past the lake quite quickly as I didn’t feel like donating blood. It was actually from the lake that I had my first views of the summit and the triangular summit station.
After leaving the lake, I quickly came upon a spectacular view of the Spanish Fork Peak Cirque. I couldn’t see how I could possibly get from where I was at the bottom to the ridge. Making matters a little more challenging, was the large amount of snow left in the bowl that was left over from the winter. It covered the trail in a spot for about 50 yards. When I crossed the snow, I could not find where it picked up on the other side. I took out my GPS which indicated that I was quite a bit off course. I tried to get to where my GPS said I should be, which amounted to quite a bit of bushwhacking and wasted energy. It wasn’t a total waste, though, because when I got to the spot where my GPS indicated the trail should be, I turned around to see where I had just come from and I could faintly see some switch backs leading from the cirque to the top of the ridge that I couldn’t see from my vantage point on the trail. A quick note to future hikers: at the point where the snow blocks the trail, cross the snow and start hiking steeply up toward the ridge. You should stumble upon the switch backs.
After getting to the ridge, a trail comes in from the right, but the trail to the summit goes off to the left. Instead of taking the ridge line to Spanish Fork Peak, the trail descends to the north/west side of the summit. Here I had my first view of the city below. The trail then winds through a beautiful pine forest. The trek was made a little more difficult by some downed trees that were blocking the trail, but it was easy to find a way around these trees.
Next, the trail takes a sharp left and goes from a lush forest setting to a desert landscape where I actually stumbled across a rattle snake on the trail. One final small snow field crossed the trail but it was easy to navigate around.
The final climb to the summit was steep and I found myself resting far more than I had previously on the hike. Finally I reached the summit at 1:24 and had terrific views in every direction. I took some time to sign the summit log, eat a couple of granola bars while swatting at the many flies on the summit, take some pictures, call my wife, and then decided to headed back down the mountain.
The descent was rather uneventful, but I did realize how rocky the trail is in some spots, which made it very hard on my ankles and knees. Also, it seemed to take forever. After 5 hours and 17 minutes and 10.6 miles (I went .2 miles out of my way trying to find the trail) I made it back to my car.
It was a very tough hike for me because of the altitude gain and the total milage of the hike. But the views along the trail and from the summit made the trip very much worth it. A very beautiful hike!




Near the small lake pictured below, I saw this bear paw print. A reminder that I wasn't alone out there!