Page Type:
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Route |
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Lat/Lon:
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40.27500°N / 111.9398°W |
Route Type:
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Hike |
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Time Required:
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Half a day |
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Difficulty:
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Walk up |
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Approach
From Utah route 68, turn left or south onto Redwood Road as it passes the Smith Market mall area. It is 5.3 miles to a signed turn off for Israel Canyon. Turn right (or west)on Stillwater road and follow it until it ends at the high end of the housing development and becomes a dirt road. This is the beginning of the Israel Canyon road. The road gets steep in places and twists and turns its way up the mountain. Narrow in places and busy at times due to service vehicles (lots of tower structures on top) and locals who use it for their ATV's and snowmobiles. (When I was there it was snow covered most of the way and it was obvious that the locals enjoy it for snowmobile use. My suggestion is that you find a place to park at the bottom of the canyon and hike up the road since driving all the way to the highpoint seems to lessen the value of this already messed up mountain.Route Description
Depending on where you want to start, this road is hikeable all the way to the summit area. As I mentioned in the above section, you could drive it but I feel that it would be best to hike it unless you were up against a time situation.It is 4 miles from the jct with highway 68 and gains 3000 feet. As you get onto the upper plateau, the area where all the antenna farms are located, there is a road that forks to the right and climbs west up to the actual highest area, the area that contains the FAA Loran beacon as well as another antenna installation on a peaklet that is just to the south west by about 300 yards. Hit them both. Now, the Loran beacon is behind a fence, most of it with barb wire except for a small portion that is devoid of barb wire but any decision to climb over this fence is totally your choice but remember, you will be a trespasser.
Also note that before you reach the road that leads to the Loran station, there is another little spur road that takes you up to one of Utah's triangulation structures. [img:503907:alignright:small:]
8 miles round trip 3000 foot gain
There is another road that comes up from the south, called the Mercer Canyon road. This does offer another route of access but is considerably longer and the road junction with road 68 is not very clear. I checked the roads out on a scouting trip and couldn't find the correct one but on a topographical map, it seems obvious that I needed to find the road that connects with Soldier Pass. I intend to scout that out again on my next trip to this area.