Timpanogos from Sundance Peak.

Wasatch Summits - May 21, 2012 9:38 pm - Hasn't voted

Thank you Melinda! I ended up paying the $12.00 fee for a trails only pass for mountain biking. I biked up "Archies Loop," which essentially skirts up from the base around the south east aspect of the peak. It is about 4 miles from the parking lot up to Scott's Pond area, very near Sundance Peak's west ridge. I rode the bike around the south side of the dry reservoir, shouldered it up towards the saddle north of Sundance Peak, and stashed it under a tree. From that point it was a steep hike up the north aspect, lots of scree and loose dirt and a few small cliffbands just under the summit. I headed back to Sundance on Archies. On the route I took on foot it was in the trees and brush, I don't think anyone saw me heading up there on foot at all except maybe standing on the summit itself. Seems like the only staff from Sundance, at least while I was there, were at the ski lifts for those riders who take their bikes up to the top that way.

I can't remember seeing the no hiking signs on Archies Loop, though I might have missed them. Sundance opens the mountain to mountain biking at 10:00 a.m., if you got an early start, hit the peak and got back to the base before they open, they might not even notice. That Archies Loop would make a great trail to jog on as it rises only about a thousand vertical feet in four miles.

Here is a map of the area, Sundance Peak is just above the "Archies Basin" text on the map.