Sundance Peak (UT)

Overview

It's not the highest point in Sundance, I'm not sure it's entirely inside Sundance, but the best access is through the resort. This is a well hidden little peak. No chairlifts go up it's little slopes, so even in winter, it should have some solitude. If your looking for a winter snowshoe with low risk of avalanche, give this a try (before the lifts start, Sundance doesn't like you there on foot during ski season). Best time to visit is just after the resort closes for the ski season. You'll have hardpack snow to walk with views of the surrounding mountains in snow. The pictures below are from a fellow hiker who went up a few months after me after the snow had melted (I had forgotten my camera).

First view of Sundance Peak

Getting There

Go up Provo Canyon (HWY 189) looking for a sign to the left for Sundance and the Alpine Loop Road (just after the tunnel). Drive up that road a few miles to the resort. There are 2 parking areas. If you can, access the upper lot and you will save a 150 vertical feet or so of climbing.  

Sundance Upper Parking Lot

Sundance Parking Lot

Map for Sundance Peak

Route

Hike up the ski slopes or service roads staying left, working toward a valley between 2 large hillsides. Once you are between them at 6700 feet, there is a reservoir with Sundance Peak standing beyond. You don't see the peak until this point. In winter, the safest route is to snowshoe up its west ridge. In summer, a trail works around the east side of the reservoir.  

Service Road

Route up Sundance

Deer Creek Reservoir

Cascade Mountain

Looking North

Timpanogos

Red Tape

Don't hike on the resort when it is ski season, go up early or wait for the resort to shut down for the season. Summer, you could bike most of the way up with a short scramble at the end. Dean wrote in 2011 "They have now posted a sign between the lower and upper parking lots that "No Hiking is allowed beyond this point". I didn't see that sign until after I had hiked but others may want to be aware of this restriction." I would guess the no hiking is because of hiker/biker conflicts. You could easily go up and down early on a spring morning before the staff arrives. There should be a period of time between the closing of ski season and the opening of bike season that might be best. They promote summer hiking in their summer activities website saying "Sundance has over 10 miles of alpine hiking trails, from meandering forest to steep mountain terrain, with an additional 25+ miles of single track biking trails."

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