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Thread: Box Elder Peak (my first Wasatch Elevener!) - July 14

  1. #1

    Box Elder Peak (my first Wasatch Elevener!) - July 14

    Sunday I hiked Box Elder Peak from near Granite Flat Campground. Route was the Deer Creek Trail to Dry Creek Divide, and the north ridge of Box Elder Peak. This route is described in the book "Wasatch Eleveners."



    I was not able to drive all the way to the Deer Creek trailhead because the entrance gate to Granite Flat campground was locked! Probably because I arrived at around 5:40 AM. There is some parking right outside the gate and it is only about a five-minute walk from there to the trailhead.

    This is a fairly well marked trail and easy to follow, with one exception: about 5-10 minutes from the trailhead, the trail is following a streambed uphill when a side trail appears on the left. This junction is unmarked but you need to turn left as that IS the trail!

    The trail is often rocky and steep and in places a bit overgrown. Since I was heading up so early, the vegetation was damp and I ended up getting my pants soaked! But they dried quickly up higher once I was out in the sun.





    I reached the divide at 8:30 and turned left to head toward Box Elder Peak. Following this trail, you end up losing some elevation (the guidebook says 180 feet but I think it's a bit more!) before you actually begin climbing up the north ridge. There is a well-defined use trail that splits off from this trail and heads up the ridge; it begins at N 40 30 07.2 W 111 41 42.8 (WGS 84).

    The use trail is crazy steep much of the time. I had no problem following it for awhile, but at some point either I lost it or it faded out.



    I ended up making my own way up a steep, open slope for maybe 200 feet, and by veering to my left I eventually located the/a trail and followed that the rest of the way up. I was on the summit at 11:00 sharp.



    There's a cairn and a small summit register container (pictured; does the mailman get up here very often? ), and on this day also several hundred flying insects. Tiny gnats, ladybugs, butterflies, bees, what looked like houseflies but have a nasty bite, and others I couldn't identify. No other people, though.

    While there, I shot a 360-degree panorama:


    And took lots of photos, including this one of Mt. Timpanagos, which looked pretty awesome from that vantage:


    After 20 minutes or so, the bugs were becoming increasingly annoying and aggressive, plus some clouds were building, so I reluctantly departed. On the way down I again did well following the trail for awhile. But I think I chose to go left when I had an option to go right, thinking that trail didn't lead in the right direction.

    However, my chosen route again faded out and left me to sidehill across a steep open slope. In fact it was the same one I'd had trouble on during the ascent! However I did not locate my ascent tracks, so I ended up angling across and down across steep terrain through the trees in hopes of finding the trail again. I did, and the rest of the descent of the ridge was straightforward, though the steepness demanded attention.

    Of course, soon after the steep descent was over, it was time to climb back up to the divide. The bugs were out in earnest up here too. And after reaching the divide (at about 2:45 PM) and starting, I found the trail was a whole lot hotter now. A lot of clouds had built up, but not enough to provide good cloud cover where I was. I hadn't seen a soul all day, and didn't until I got down to about a half-mile or less from the trailhead. There I encountered two women and several dogs out for a stroll. By 3:30 PM I'd returned to my car just outside the now-open gate. My first Wasatch 11er was a wrap!

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  4. #2
    I haven't done this one yet. There is not much better than having the mountain all to yourself in my opinion. Great shot of Timp.

  5. #3
    Nice one. Planning an assault on Box Elder via Dharma later this summer.
    Just where is it I could find bear, beaver, and other critters worth cash money when skint?

  6. #4
    Awesome. I love that trail, great snowshoe route too.

  7. #5
    Awesome. Nice report!


  8. #6
    Reminds me of the time I hiked it about the same time of year a few years ago (2009?); bugs, bugs, bees, flies, evil looking things, and more bugs. And a decent party of mountain goats reached the summit just ahead of me. I made a loop out of it, ascending the S. couloir to the high S.W. saddle and ridge to the summit, descending on the route you took. I'll not soon forget, I was just part way up to the divide, when upon hearing a startling loud ruckus crashing down in the trees above and behind me I quickly turned and watched a good size buck bounding down the slope at full speed covering in seconds what had taken me forever to descend.
    Last edited by xjblue; 07-17-2013 at 02:27 PM. Reason: sp. couloir

  9. #7

  10. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by xjblue View Post
    Reminds me of the time I hiked it about the same time of year a few years ago (2009?); bugs, bugs, bees, flies, evil looking things, and more bugs. And a decent party of mountain goats reached the summit just ahead of me.
    Unfortunately, I had all of that except the mountain goats! The bugs definitely weren't limited to the summit, they were pretty annoying all the way down. Since I started early I missed out on them during the ascent.

    Thanks everybody for the nice comments and likes!

    I spent the last couple of days in the Uintas, just checking out the area since I've never been there. Maybe I can manage a thirteener before the season ends. But it looks like Tokewanna is the only one that's a non-epic dayhike!? I'd love to bag Kings Peak of course, but I'm not into backpacking so I'm not sure if that one will happen. BTW, I was shocked how busy the Henrys Fork TH was on Tuesday! I'd hate to see the area on a high-season weekend!

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