This was a weird hike. I finally bagged American Fork Twin Peaks, the highest point in Salt Lake County and my 25th Utah county high point, leaving only four high points left until I’ve hiked them all. I’ve put this one off for so long not necessarily due to the difficulty of the hike but more my unease with passing through the ski resort. Hiking around a bunch of people also didn’t appeal to me so I chose to go on a Tuesday. I parked at Snowbird and started hiking just before 7:00 AM. For more than 2.5 miles and 1,900 feet of elevation gain I meandered through the ski resort, mostly on gravel and dirt roads, with one short section each of a ski run and an actual hiking trail. Occasionally there was a nice view down Little Cottonwood Canyon into Salt Lake Valley. At one point I wasn’t paying close attention to my GPS and took a wrong turn, which was fortuitous because I saw a couple of moose before I got back on course.
Parked at Snowbird
Hiking along the road
Ski run
Mount Superior
Ski lift
Long view down Little Cottonwood Canyon
Steep slope below the lift
Wilbere
My first good view of Twin Peaks
Steep road ahead
Steep road
Columbine
Moose
Trail through Gad Valley
Gad Valley pond
Trail through Gad Valley
Finally, above the southwest side of Gad Valley, I left the resort behind. I rested and had a snack before climbing up a steep talus slope to the ridgeline leading to Red Top Mountain. I expected this talus section to be the worst part of the hike but it wasn’t too bad. Once atop the ridge there were some nice, more distant views, including south all along the Wasatch Range past Mount Timpanogos to Mount Nebo.
Below the talus
Ascending the talus slope
Cottonwood Ridge
Ridge above the talus
View down Little Cottonwood
View down Little Cottonwood
Cottonwood Ridge and Snowbird
Big metal box
What’s in the box?
Twin Peaks and Red Top Mountain
View toward White Pine Lake and Pfeifferhorn
The ridge got steeper and rougher with no clear route to follow. Once I dropped down off one side because there was sort of a trail but it dead-ended, and I backtracked and found a different way up. Often following the crest of the ridge wasn’t the easiest way so I’d drop down whichever side looked better, but none of it was easy–it was worse than the talus section earlier.
Dead end below the ridge
Snow drift
Steep ridge ahead
West Twin
White Baldy and White Pine Lake
White Pine Lake
Timp and Nebo
Cottonwood Ridge from below Red Top
I got to Red Top Mountain and the rest of the hike was fairly easy. There was a faint trail most of the way, and I had to lose about 200 feet going down to the saddle before climbing another 300 feet back up to Twin Peaks. I only visited the west Twin, which is 56 feet higher than and a third of a mile away from the east. I just didn’t feel like adding any more distance to the hike.
Weather station on Red Top Mountain
Twin Peaks panorama
Gad Valley
Final ridge to the west Twin
Mount Timpanogos
Last push to the summit
On top of the west Twin
View toward Red Top
View over Little Cottonwood
I rested and ate lunch near the summit and then reversed course. The hike down was unremarkable. I chose different ways to bypass the difficult portions of the ridge but they didn’t seem any better than the way I’d come up. The worst part of the descent was actually on one steep section of gravel road, where with every step the gravel would roll under my shoes and threaten to drop me on my ass. I had to slow down and use caution through there, which actually takes more leg strength than hiking faster downhill. My hike was almost nine miles and took 10.5 hours, a pretty slow pace but I got ‘er done.
GPS stats
Photo Gallery: Twin Peaks AF