Mt. Nebo North and North Peak, August 17

[Candace66]

On August 17, I hiked Mt. Nebo North (first) and North Peak (on the return trip) from the North Peak trailhead. This trailhead is .4 mile up the Mona Pole Road from the Monument Trailhead parking area, which is just off the Nebo Scenic Road. Again I was following route information I got from my "Wasatch Eleveners" book. This guide suggests that .4 mile road segment might not be doable in a passenger car, but I had no problem driving it in my tiny Honda Fit.

It was a little hard to find a good spot to park at this trailhead, as there were a lot of vehicles there already at 6:15 AM. There were also a lot of cows hanging around. I got started up the trail a little before 6:30. This is a nice hike, but definitely a bit undulating until you are on the actual ascent up to the ridge (i.e., the north ridge of North Peak), and that section is quite steep.

On the way I passed a campsite with numerous tents and some kids and adults up and moving around. I'd see a lot more of them later, as they were headed to Nebo as well. In fact they must have hit the trail fairly soon after I passed by, since I saw the whole group on the trail (see second photo below) after I reached the ridge. The third photo below shows North Peak on the left and Nebo North on the right; the other highpoint you see is the "false summit" you cross on the way up North Nebo. The Middle and South summits aren't visible here.






Though I hoped to bag both peaks, given the weather looked a little unstable, I focused on going directly to my main goal which was Nebo. At about 8:15 I was taking a quick break at the spot where the climber's trail up North Peak branches off from the main trail headed to Nebo. As the trail traverses the west slope of North Peak, it looses a fair amount of elevation by the time you reach Wolf Pass (pictured below). I was there at 8:40 but there were already people well ahead of me on the route, and the large group coming behind.



This route is steep, but I chugged along steadily, and reached the false summit about 9:20. Below is a view of the trail I'd come up, as well as a look over at North Peak (you can also see the trail traversing its west slope over to Wolf Pass), and a look ahead toward Nebo North:







As the photo shows, you face another elevation loss before beginning the rough (class 2, unless you want to make it a little more challenging!) and steep climb up North Nebo. There are multiple use trails at times, but all roads lead to Rome as they say. By 9:50 I was on the summit, which features one unique summit register container and lots of great views. Below are photos of the summit; the traverse over to the Middle and South summits; and a look back the way I had just come:







There was a party of four already on the summit (and I'd passed two guys descending just below the summit). Other than taking some pictures, I didn't stay very long and instead started back down. Along the ridge I began encountering the kids (and their accompanying adults) on the way up. As I was grinding back up to the false summit, I noticed some mountain goats lounging on the slope a little below the high point. I'm not sure if they were there while I was ascending and I just didn't notice them, but they looked quite comfortable.



Descending back to Wolf Pass, I encountered quite a few people headed up. By now some clouds had started to build, but I was confident I had time to visit North Peak's summit on my return trip. Though there's no clear use trail headed up from Wolf Pass, it is mentioned in "Wasatch Eleveners" as a possible route. As it turned out, and as I expected after looking at the route from Nebo North's ridge, the slope up from Wolf Pass was much easier than what I'd just climbed and descended.



It was a bit windy as I was traversing along the summit ridge; by 11:37 I was at North Peak's summit, and there was definitely nobody else up there! Perfect place to sit down, take off my boots, relax, and enjoy the solitude. There was a summit register up there, which was a nearly-new small notebook (the only names in it were members of a small party from San Diego) in a Ball-type jar. An old steel can painted red was sitting inverted on top of the jar, and the whole assembly was nestled in a small cairn. It was mostly sunny and breezy. There were a lot of bugs buzzing around, but fortunately they weren't interested in me.

Gradually it was clouding up, so I packed to leave. It was about 12:20 when I started hiking down the use trail to the north, headed for the same trail junction I was at several hours earlier. Soon after I got going, I heard some thunder from an obvious thunderstorm brewing over a large mountain to the northeast (not sure of the name). As I continued down, thunder and lightning continued to occur over in that direction, but the storm didn't seem to be moving toward my locale. However, it looked pretty dark in the general direction of North Nebo (by now I was back down in the drainage and couldn't see it directly), where of course there were still lots of people. Here's a photo of the storm to the northeast:



By 1:50 PM I'd returned to my car. Despite all the people I'd seen up the trail, there seemed to be fewer vehicles than when I arrived. Perhaps most of them parked in the main parking area (Monument TH) and walked the extra bit. Headed back down the Nebo Scenic Road toward Payson, I got a chance to see the result of that thunderstorm: a dusting of fresh snow on that mountain!

[TXtrailhunter]

Looks like a good trip. Nebo is one of my favorite hikes here in Utah.

[accadacca]

Congrats! Excellent photos.