Stansbury Mountains
Deseret Peak Wilderness Area
Personal Notes
This page presents our personal notes on our visits to the Stansbury Mountains west of Grantsville, Utah.
| Sunday, July 17, 2005 | |
We've been to Stansbury's a couple of times, which is a shame, since this location is not that far from our home. Our first visit was during a "Sunday Drive" with our dogs. We just drove to and through the area, stopped for a quick romp with the dogs in one of the picnic areas, and swore that we'd be back. I'm sure at least five years or more went by before our second visit, detailed below.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Route In
6:13 a.m.
Heading out to the Stansbury Mountains and Deseret Peak. They are west of Salt Lake City near the town of Grantsville. It’s about an hour and a half’s drive from Sandy. We had clear skies and expected another hot day. Our recent temperatures had been in the 100 plus range. But the weather service predicted highs only around 90 today.
7:12 a.m.
We reached Grantsville. Take Highway 138 from I-80 to Grantsville, but don’t turn at the sign that says Deseret Peak Complex. We got fooled and then found out that what they mean is a sports complex. That’s a nice drive, but it takes you about 15 minutes out of your way. So, on 138, continue west into Grantsville to West Street, which is on the west side of town. There is a sign on the north side of the road, pointing south. The sign says Wasatch-Cache National Forest, North Willow Canyon, and South Willow Canyon.
7:18 a.m.
As we headed south on this paved road there is a sign marked South Willow Canyon and Loop Trailhead. From this point it is eight miles to our destination. This junction is just south of the Grantsville Reservoir on the west side of the road.
7:22 a.m.
The road into the canyon is paved, but narrow and bumpy. Along the way we saw a hawk sitting along side of the road; rabbits dashing off into the sage; and, two separate flocks of wild turkeys, including adults and their young ones. They seem to be a slightly different variety than we’ve seen in some areas.
7:26 a.m.
The pavement eventually ends at a gravel road, where there is a Forest Service gate. It appears that it is open during the summer months, but closed during the winter. The dirt road is okay for cars, but it has a high center line and has many rocks and holes. It is bumpy, rutted, dusty, and rough.
7:38 a.m.
Along the road there are several small campgrounds. They seem to huddle close between the road and the stream, but are at least under the shade of the broadleaf trees. First we came to the Cottonwood and Intake Campgrounds, near the South Willow Guard Station for the National Forest. Then we passed the trailhead for the Medina Flat Trail. There is a small parking area there that would hold maybe one or two vehicles.
The road passes through a narrow gap in a ridge, with the stream on the left. There are tall cliffs and scree slopes on the right. It’s a neat area. Then there is another campground on south side of the road, probably the Boy Scout Campground. It looks like you have to cross the stream on a bridge to get to the sites. It’s possible that this is just a day use picnic area.
After that we passed the Upper Narrows Campground and then another tight gorge with steep cliffs and a roaring stream.
Deseret Peak Trailhead
7:43 a.m.
Eventually we came to a one-way road as we entered the Loop Campground and looked for the trailhead. The trailhead is at the top of the loop and has parking for maybe a dozen cars, depending upon how people park. There were about three vehicles in the parking area when we arrived. We spotted a doe and two fawns near the trailhead. There seems to be quite a few campers in the area, and on the way in it didn’t look like there were many, if any, open sites. There is an $8.00 day use fee for picnicking, but we were not sure if that applied to hiking. There is also a camping fee. Near the trailhead there is a picnic table and a pit toilet, but there is no drinking water in the campground, so make sure you bring your own.
The area is mostly shady, with lots of lush vegetation, and there seems to be a lot of insects, especially flies. They became quite irritating before we were able to get moving and onto the trail.
8:03 a.m.
The trailhead is at GPS Coordinates 40 28.608N; 112 36,810W; at an elevation of 7,418 feet. There is an informational kiosk where the trail begins, near the southwest corner of the loop.
Stream Crossing
8:28 a.m.
The trail heads out through the trees, with the stream roaring nearby. There is a bit of a climb right away, but the slope is consistent and the trail is pretty solid, though rocky in places. At about .7 miles we crossed the stream. There is no bridge, and there seems to be a lot of downed trees and other debris down along this area. Perhaps there had been some high water earlier in the season.
We worked our way across a pair of downed logs, with the help of a few large stones. The water is still flowing hard, but we made it across okay, without getting our boots wet.
Shortly after crossing the stream we came to a junction in the trail. There is a sign indicating that the trail to Deseret Peak heads off to the left. Our return route should bring us back down the other trail, which heads north. We proceeded up Mill Fork.
Mill Fork Trail to Deseret Peak
9:05 a.m.
As we climbed up the trail we had to cross several areas where avalanches had apparently crashed through during the winter. It’s amazing to see the amount of devastation that a wall of snow and ice can do. There were downed and damaged trees all through the area. There was also a thick layer of snow and ice still sitting under the covering debris. We had to work our way around several of these avalanche debris piles to get to the trail on the other side.
At one point we spotted a young buck grazing in a lush meadow. He spotted us as well, but was far enough away to seem unconcerned.
As we moved higher up, the trail used switchbacks to cut back and forth across wide meadows and through stands of tall pine. There were a few wet places along the trail, but for the most part the trail was dry and solid. We did have to cross several patches of snow, but nothing significant. There were also many downed trees lying across the trail, which we had to climb over.
Even though we were climbing in high elevation we were doing pretty well. We were breathing heavy, but doing okay. Our legs were holding up, and we seemed to be on course to reach the peak in about three hours.
But after we got up there a ways, more than two miles out, I began to get dizzy. We had been afraid of that possibility. I recently began some blood pressure medication which warned of possible dizziness and drowsiness within the first week to ten days. We had skipped hiking the previous weekend, assuming that that would be too soon, but figured I’d to okay on this hike. No such luck. It seemed the higher we climbed the dizzier I got. I could only go a few feet before I had to stop and regain my composure. And it wasn’t necessarily my breathing. I was sucking air, but no more than on many other climbs. We should have been able to make it. But, just shy of three miles into the hike, and just below the pass where the trail comes to a junction, I had to turn back. I was getting pretty faint, to the point of seeing dark spots in my vision.
The junction, which must have been just above us, has GPS Coordinates of 40 27.420N; 112 376.575W; at an elevation of 10, 042 feet. Our GPS showed that we’d climbed 2,700 feet to that point, over 2.9 miles. It is really disappointing to get so close without making it. But I didn’t want to collapse.
And even the downward hike was a chore. I remained dizzy and had to stop several times to catch my breath. We averaged 1.9 miles per hour hiking time. Way below our normal average of 2.5 to 2..8 miles per hour.
We met lots of hikers on their way up as we went down. I'm sure that we were the first up on this day, because we didn’t see any footprints in the snow ahead of us. When we got back to the trailhead there were lots of vehicles there. It was hot and buggy and I just wanted to get out of there. I also started getting blurred vision and was seeing more dark spots. I was losing my peripheral vision as well. So I laid back on the seat and Anne drove us out of there.
By the time we got home I was feeling better, but, definitely, disappointed.
