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Thread: Desert Peak (7,005'), Newfoundland Mt's, Utah

  1. #1

    Desert Peak (7,005'), Newfoundland Mt's, Utah

    On Nov. 8, 2013 I hiked up Desert Peak in the Newfoundland Mt's. This is not DeserEt Peak west of Tooele, but a more remote summit in the desert west of the Great Salt Lake.

    I first visited the area on Oct. 25 and tried unsuccessfully to hike up from the east side. I had no information about the peak other than its name (from the Utah atlas I was navigating by), but thought I might be able to reach the summit from an old mine camp that I drove up to. I later learned this was Dells Canyon (the USGS 7.5' topo doesn't show a name for the mine or camp).

    That day, I did reach the Peak's north ridge and got a ways up it toward the summit, but I found the terrain a bit more than I wanted to deal with so turned back. What I saw from up there suggested to me it would be climbable from the west, and photos linked on Google Earth confirmed someone had hiked up that way, so I determined to visit the west side of the range and try from there.

    So on Nov. 8 I found myself back in the area, this time driving the road on the west side of the Newfoundland Mt's. I arrived at Miners Basin and headed up the dirt road to a saddle south of Desert Peak, which was to serve as my trailhead. The road continues down to the east, and as far as I know it's the only road that crosses the range. The last bit of the road up to the saddle was very steep, had loose rock on it, and was also off-camber.

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    I parked at the saddle and started hiking up the ridge. There is a clear use trail at first, though it becomes less obvious as you continue up:

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    Last time I was in the area, I saw a bighorn sheep ram walking along a ridge, but this day I was not so lucky. However, it's obvious they move around up here a lot: use trails, hoof marks, and scat are all signs of their passage!

    This route is steep but simple: just follow the ridge up. There is a lot of rock, including a lot of LOOSE rock, to deal with, but the difficulty never reaches class 3 (unless you go out of your way). Just before the first section of the ridge tops out, you might see this view:

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    From here, you see a saddle and then the steep SE ridge up to the summit. Did I mention this route is steep? If you park where I did, you'll be able to see your vehicle from nearly the entire route, including the summit! Here's another pic taken partway up the ridge; I chose to skirt the rocky outcroppings on the right:

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    At the summit, I was greeted by an official USGS benchmark (hooray, no one has stolen this one yet!) and two old military ammo cans serving as register canisters. Actually, one was a geocache and one was a traditional summit register:

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    Needless to say, there were fabulous views from the summit. I also had the place to myself, and it was very quiet except for a few jets flying around the Air Force range. And even they disappeared before I left the summit. It was cool and a bit windy with variable cloudiness, but still a pretty nice day:

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    Skimming through the logs, I verified not many people come up here. I saw one entry stating they had come up the route I bailed out on last time. But looking at the ridge from the summit, I'm content I skipped it and tried this route instead! Note the upper part of this peak consists of rotten, shattered quartz. Here's a look at the north ridge from the summit, and another photo of the rock south of the summit:

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    After an hour or so of enjoying the views, I headed back down. On my ascent, I had tried to avoid the outcroppings and slabby areas. But now they seemed more appealing than the steep, loose rock I'd come up, so I utilized them as much as possible. I made it back down to the saddle without incident, but then I still had to drive down that steep road into the basin!

    There's definitely a bit of "pucker factor" involved in piloting a full-size vehicle down here, especially the top bit. I eased down very slowly but still slid about 20 feet at one point, fortunately in a straight line down the road. And the off-camber sections seemed much more precarious than they did while driving up. But I made it through without mishap and continued down south to the end of the road at the Air Force range boundary, passing some very pretty country along the way, then made a U-turn to drive home.

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  3. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by Candace66 View Post

    There's definitely a bit of "pucker factor" involved in piloting a full-size vehicle down here, especially the top bit. I eased down very slowly but still slid about 20 feet at one point, fortunately in a straight line down the road.
    Great report! You know, I think a big cause for slide offs down steep roads is when the brakes are locked in. I'm not sure how you were navigating, but you'll have better luck if you put your vehicle in 4X4 low gear and just let the transmission roll you down. You'll have the slowly turning wheels and you'll keep a lot of traction. Keep off the brakes if you can. This is how we had to do it in the days when Lion's Back was still open.

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  4. #3
    Nice TR. Never heard of this peak before.

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Sombeech View Post
    Great report! You know, I think a big cause for slide offs down steep roads is when the brakes are locked in. I'm not sure how you were navigating, but you'll have better luck if you put your vehicle in 4X4 low gear and just let the transmission roll you down. You'll have the slowly turning wheels and you'll keep a lot of traction. Keep off the brakes if you can. This is how we had to do it in the days when Lion's Back was still open.
    Oh, I had it in 4L and 1st gear. But that one section is steep enuff that I would have been picking up speed anyway had I not used some braking too. I was on the brake from the beginning, just easing off enough to allow the vehicle to move. I should mention that I was still using "highway" tire pressures too...lower pressure probably would have prevented any slipping & sliding.

    I like that slick rock "knifeedge"...though unlike a shelf road, you can fall off either side of that!

  6. #5
    Nice! The Newfie's are super remote, not necessarily by miles but by the number of people going there. We also took a scramble up the east side canyon with the mining camp (and the old tram) and it was definitely loose rock and jagged everywhere. Creepy out there but very cool.

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