Pahvant Range 2018

For Memorial Day this year, I went back to the Pahvant Range in central Utah. The Pahvants run for about 45 mi north/south between Fillmore and Richfield, reaching elevations of over 10,000 ft. The west side is mostly early-to-mid Paleozoic limestone and related rocks, while the east side has Cretaceous conglomerate and colorful Tertiary lake deposits. The conglomerate makes a big reddish-orange wall that looms over Maple Grove Campground in the Fishlake National Forest. Sue, Michelle, Dave and I managed to snag three adjacent sites at the first-come, first-serve campground by arriving by noon on Friday. Stanley showed up around 1 PM.

After setting up camp, we first went over to vertical gorge of Dry Canyon to see whether we could pick up Forest Service Trail 12, which allegedly runs in switchbacks up the north rim of the canyon to the glacial cirque of Robins Valley. I'm glad we checked — there is no sign of this trail on the ground. That ruled out a loop through Robins Valley for Saturday.

We then drove over to the mouth of Red Canyon, to check out possible routes up to Beehive Peak. The roads (Forest Roads 394 and 911) are rocky and rutted, and test your vehicle's clearance, but we managed to get there. Beehive Peak can't be seen from the bottom of the canyon, so I had the thought of checking on the Willow Creek Road (FR 102) to see whether it had been opened for Memorial Day. To my surprise, it was open, so we drove to the summit and checked out FR 442 as an access to the top of Red Canyon. We hiked a short distance to an overlook and got a splendid view of the peak, and everyone agreed that we should approach Beehive from the northwest ridge.

The rest of our group (Nancy, Michele and Stephen) arrived late that afternoon just as the rest of us returned from our drive.

On Saturday, we did a tough hike starting at the campground and running up Rock Creek (Trail 13) to the ridge, then following FR 096 to Jacks Peak (10,072 ft). The Rock Creek trail is not heavily used and is hard to follow in a few sections where it disappears in deadfall or meadows of flowers. It has a constructed tread, so when you find the trail, it's fairly obvious that you are (back) on it. The lower part of Rock Creek has vertical conglomerate walls and a lovely waterfall; the upper part has pretty flowers and forest. We were grateful for the switchbacks in the upper part, but it was still a slog to reach the summit road. Once on the ridge, it was a scenic 2.5-mile road walk to Jacks Peak. The view on top is superb, with peaks and valleys in every direction. Due to the drought, there was very little snow, but there was enough to block the ATVs from the road section north of Jacks Peak, for which we were grateful.

go to the Jacks Peak gallery

My goal for Saturday was to get onto the white platter of limestone on top of which Beehive Peak rests like a pointy pyramid of pink jello. It's really hard to describe just how odd Beehive looks, and it gets odder as you get closer to it — you'll have to check out the photos to see why. We approached the peak from the northwest ridge, and I was pleased to discover that the top of the ridge is a firebreak, so it has been cleared of deadfall and mountain-mahogany thickets. The firebreak was created to help stop a fire that burned out patchy sections of upper Red Canyon, leaving blackened aspen trunks scattered everywhere. (I wasn't the only person to think of cavaletti when I saw the debris.)

We walked right up to the prow on the northwest end of the summit platform. I couldn't see any way through it, although I suspected that there was a route somewhere toward the south end. I had read on Summitpost that there was a “class 4” route through the cliff band on the east side of the prow, and with somewhat dicey weather, I decided to check it out, hoping that it was easier than it sounded. We struggled up through very loose soil to a first cliff band, then found a way through it. That led me to be optimistic: Nancy went up to look at the final cliff band, and I followed, slipping and sliding on the crappy footing. We did find the class 4 route, and it is a solid class 4, unfortunately — a steep crack with a fair amount of exposure and less than wonderful handholds and footholds.

I declared surrender and we retreated. Hail pelted us as we worked our way back up the northwest ridge. But the sun then came out unexpectedly, and we took the opportunity to have lunch with a really nice view of Beehive and the upper forested basin of North Cedar Ridge Canyon.

When we got back to the cars, the sun was still shining. I proposed that we drive south on the skyline road and enjoy the scenery. That worked out splendidly; we got some amazing views of Beehive against the backdrop of a huge thunderstorm over the Sevier Valley.

go to the Beehive Peak gallery

Nancy, Michele and Stephen left on Sunday night before the rain started in camp. The rest of us drove south on Monday, Memorial Day, to visit Cottonwood Canyon, just west of Richfield. It's a charming spot, with what appears to be a perennial stream. The canyon isn't terribly deep, but it has steep, colorful walls and occasional narrows, with lots of cottonwood trees and surprisingly little undergrowth to thrash through. We walked casually for an hour or so up to a narrow section where our progress was blocked by a pool that someone had enhanced by building a rock dam. We got sprinkled on, but it was still a very pleasant day. We finished up at noon and drove back to SLC before the Memorial Day traffic reached its peak.

go to the Cottonwood Canyon gallery