Mount Delano

 My Sunday was spent climbing one of the high peaks of Utah, Mt. Delano. It is located near the city of Beaver, and standing at 12,169 feet, it rises above most of the state. The Delano Peak Trail is lightly trafficked, we hiked on the 9th of October and the signature before ours in the log book was from September 25th. A moderate five mile out-and-back trail that traverses along the ridge line makes this is perfect for a day hike.

Summit Picture :)

Getting There

From the I-15, take either exit into Beaver, Utah. Take state highway 153 towards Eagle Mountain Resort. In about 16 miles, there will be a small wooden sign for Big John Flat Road on the right, the  road is on the left. Take this road to Big John Flat camping area, staying left at all forks. Once you reach Big John Flat, continue driving through the camping are. This is a beautiful area to stop for some dispersed camping if you want to spend the night. Stay on this dirt road. You will take some switch backs up to the ridge line, and eventually you will see a radio repeater tower, continue towards this and park under it. Get your packs on, follow the dirt road to tower, the you will see a rough trail along the ridge.

The Trail

 Once we broke the treeline and came to the ridge-line, the views were incredible! The drive is worth it even if you only hang out at the top of the road. This is a big mountain, and the peaks surrounding it offer incredible sight seeing. Once we reached the radio tower we could see a rough trail through the grass (which was brown by this time of year, I can't imagine how beautiful this will be in Spring and Summer). 



This was taken part of the way up the trail where we could see across the ridge line to the peak. You can see how faint the trail is here, at times there were mountain goat trails that were far more distinct than the actual trail itself. It would also disappear at points, but normally we could see where it picked up again.
Tip: Just stick to the ridge, it all connects, even if it looks like it doesn't. (We learned that the hard way)

Starting down the trail! It was a crisp fall day for sure, but nothing a few jackets and beanies couldn't handle.

Looking back a bit into the hike, while the Delano Trail was a grassy ridge with no technical sections or scrambles. Relative to how big of a mountain Delano is, it is an easier summit trip. The peaks surrounding it however, where very craggy and seemed to be composed entirely of loose rock. Check out that peak in the background! That's Mt. Belknap, just about 20' shorter than Delano, and covered in talus fields.

Once we arrived at the valley in the picture above, we lost the trail. From our location, it looked as if a deep canyon divided part of the ridge line (wrong). So we descend down into this valley to climb around said canyon and out. While we probably added about a mile and a half in distance and an hour in time, just to avoid a 10 foot deep rut. However, our little detour was beautiful and gave us a chance to make our own way and challenge ourselves a bit.

We took a short break in the valley to catch our breathe and take some pictures :)

Making our way back up the ridge, the pups were having a blast! This was Kodiak's (red heeler) first mountain.

The final push to the summit began! All the brown you see here was dead grass, I can't imagine these rolling hills of the sky covered in spring flowers and shimmering green.

Juneau and Andy leading the pack toward the peak.

The boys took this vista as the perfect opportunity to play some harmonica while we admired the view. The wind was strong enough that it played the harmonicas when they were held up.

 
The summit is in reach! The peak on the far left was our destination.

Signed the log book, we were the first to sign since the 25th of last month.

I am a firm believer that hiking with dogs is one of the most rewarding experiences. Juneau was thrilled to be up in the mountain air, and they were both right at home perched on this ledge at the peak.

Here you can see we were level with some clouds off in the distance. It felt as if the wisp of cloud above us would reach down and gently touch the top of our heads.

Keep your eye out for some interesting rocks! Tony saw this gem on the peak, and plenty more on the way down.

Southern Utah used was once volcanically active, and Delano boasted her evidence. Here are ancient lava flows, frozen in time. It was humbling once we realized what we were looking at. I don't know about you, but I see a PJ ;)

Juneau felt right at home in the thin air. Here are some more pictures as we made our way to the end of the trail.

Delano is a bit of an other-worldly alpine hike, just at the elevation where the forest is within a short distance, but you have left the tree line and are entering the treeless world of the high peaks. An accessible, very do-able day hike I would highly recommend.