Mary's Nipple (Musinia Peak), Etc.

[Udink]

I've been wanting to hike Mary's Nipple (also known as Musinia Peak) for a while now--I kept seeing it from the US-89 corridor in northern Sevier and southern Sanpete counties, staring down prominently from the Wasatch Plateau, for the past couple of years. A friend and I finally decided to go there this past weekend before it got snowed-in. While we were at it, we drove around and visited several lakes and reservoirs in the area and enjoyed the fall colors.

http://castlecountry.org/geo/MarysNippleEtc.kmz


We got an early start because my friend got off work from the mine near Scofield at 6:00AM, and we reached the starting point for the hike at around 9:15. It was only 1.2 miles from there to the peak, but with 1,600' of elevation gain. It started out moderately steep, climbing through stands of aspen and a few open areas. About halfway to the peak it got extremely steep, and we found a gully to scramble up that made it a bit easier. There was another section of moderately steep ground, then one last very steep scramble to the top. It took two hours to reach the top, and we spent about 30 minutes up there taking photos. It took another hour to hike back to the truck.


View of Mary's Nipple at sunrise, taken from Twelvemile Canyon


Another view of the peak from Skyline Drive


Mary's Nipple from the start of our hike


Hiking through the aspen


Nearing the really steep part


The gully


View north from the base of the steep part of the hike


View east toward White mountain


The last steep part before reaching the peak


View west from the peak


View northwest off the peak, looking down into Twelvemile Canyon


View east toward the summit


Panorama looking west



After the hike, we just puttered around, finding a few geocaches and enjoying the scenery. We drove east off of Skyline Drive and descended down toward Henningson Reservoir, curving north around Block Mountain and eventually rejoining Skyline. We ate lunch at the campground at Twelvemile Flat, then drove west and then south along a very rough road around the base of Mt. Baldy. We went to Deep Lake and the WPA Ponds, then headed back north across Twelvemile Canyon and hit the South Fork of Sixmile Canyon, checking out the Sixmile Ponds. We called it a day there and headed home back down through Twelvemile Canyon.


A small pond near the head of Beaver Creek


Colorful aspens


Upper WPA Pond and Mt. Baldy


Deep Lake


Upper Sixmile Pond


South Fork of Sixmile Canyon


Sunset on Mary's Nipple, taken from Twelvemile Canyon

http://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.U...arySNippleEtc#

[goofball]

as i drove by there along i70 sunday i thought that would be a fun peak to hike. the colors in the fishlake nf were just fantastic ! looks like a great day.

[ibenick]

Excellent photos. Looks like an awesome peak, err, nipple to climb.

[oldno7]

I'm thinking that all the pioneer women were named Mary or Molly.

[mtthwlw]

Mary's nipple-- She's a butte!