I don’t even know what led me to want to hike Young’s Peak and Nelson Mountain. For some reason I can’t now recall, more than five years ago (which is as far back as my Google Earth backups go) I had been scanning the satellite imagery in that area and noticed what looked like a prominent game trail going up a ridge east of these two summits. I marked a waypoint there and then didn’t think about it much for a few years. But in the past couple of years that trail kept cropping up in my thoughts while planning trips, and had been moving up my priority list until it finally bubbled to the top. I’ve also been using Peakbagger more for trip planning lately, and Young’s Peak had no ascents logged yet, which added to the allure. It’s a bigger hike than I would have considered tackling a few years ago but now that I went and got myself in shape it was within comfortable reach.
Young’s Peak and Nelson Mountain viewed from near Ferron
There are easier ways to get to these peaks–for example, one could drive up to Sage Flat and hike over with minimal elevation change–but I decided to start way down low about half a mile west of Highway 10 near the north end of the Moore Road. Gotta keep these legs in mountain shape in order to finish my last two Utah county high points later this summer! I correctly discerned in the sat imagery that a couple of short sections of road beyond my parking spot were too washed out and rutted for a full-sized truck so I brought my mountain bike to carry me to the end of the road, or at least as far as I felt like pedaling before even that became too rough. I started a bit after sunrise, though clouds to the east kept things shaded for almost the entirety of my ride. It was about 50/50 riding versus pushing the bike when the road was too soft or steep. An hour after beginning, and about 0.4 miles shy of the end of the road, I stashed the bike under a juniper and hiked, forgetting to also leave behind the tire pump, patch kit, and bike tool in my backpack that I ended up carrying the entire hike. 😀
Ready to roll out
Layered clouds at sunrise
South Horn Mountain illuminated
Cow trail on the road
Young’s Peak on the left and Nelson Mountain right
Hunter Power Plant
Steadily climbing
Bike stashed under a juniper
Once the road ended there was a bit of flat terrain to cover before the game trail began and things got steep. There wasn’t much of a view at first except for behind me. All along the trail were animal tracks in dried mud: elk, deer, cougar (or maybe very large bobcat?), and coyote. The last good precipitation was only 1.5 weeks earlier so these were probably all fairly recent tracks. I topped out on a north-south ridge and had nice views east into the San Rafael Swell, then reached another ridge trending east-west and enjoyed the view to the south.
End of the road
View north along the Wasatch Plateau foothills
Beginning of the steep trail
Cougar (or bobcat?) track
Rocky trail
Atop the ridge
First view east from the ridge
More climbing ahead
Nelson Mountain caprock
A switchback returning to the ridge
Steep and loose
View to the south
Hoodoo below
The trail continued to climb west toward peak 8,883′. I got my first good view of Young’s Peak and was surprised to see the survey tower from 1937 still erect and remarkably intact. I reached the cliffs surrounding the top of peak 8,883′ and angled southwest, traversing the steep slope between cliff bands. Then it was an easy walk down the ridge and along the saddle and back up to the cliffs surrounding Young’s.
Trail through some rocks
Emery Town
First good view of Young’s Peak
I love this view to the north!
Trampled, dried mud on the trail
Scrambly section
Almost at the top of the ridge
Traversing below peak 8,883′
Young’s Peak survey tower and golden eagle
Looking toward the San Rafael Swell
Ridge leading to Young’s
Western view toward White Mountain (left) and the Skyline Drive area
Deadfall below Young’s Peak
I had read the NGS datasheet for the benchmark describing the route, and this part mentally prepared me for a potentially difficult climb: “STATION REACHED BY GOING UP A CREVASSE ON N SIDE OF GROUP OF PINNACLE ROCKS.” I didn’t like the use of the word crevasse. I walked all around the cliffs encircling the summit, examining every weakness and even trying a few out but not finding anything that was within my ability or comfort level that would put me on top. I saw a battery that looked the same as one I’d seen a month earlier near the survey marker on Flattop Mountain. I had wanted to attribute that one to the survey crew but had no way of really knowing, and finding another one here confirmed my thoughts.
Intimidating cliffs
Cliffed out
This doesn’t go
Nope
No-go
Old battery
After a full circuit I gave another look at one chimney that I’d earlier ruled out, and decided to drop my pack and give it an earnest try–the ground below was pretty forviging and if I fell or slid down I probably wouldn’t injure myself. And it worked! I reached the summit and clambered around on the pinnacles, taking photos of the benchmark and reference marks, and of the views all around me. It had slowly grown overcast as I approached the summit and now it was breezy and a little colder.
I gave this chute a try
Success!
Survey tower
Young 1937 benchmark
Panorama of Nelson Mountain and peak 8,883′
The distant Henry Mountains
Ferron
When I started this trip I honestly wasn’t certain whether I would continue on to Nelson Mountain after hitting Young’s Peak. It was going to depend on how all the things went: the bike ride, the steepness and condition of the trail, the climb to the summit. But everything was going well and I felt great so I continued north to Nelson, skirting around the west side of peak 8,883′ this time. I was also apprehensive about the cliff band surrounding the Nelson Mountain plateau. I didn’t have any specific information about its difficulty but I could see no clear route through in Google Earth, although I assumed with such a prominent game trail up to that point there had to be a way through. It proved to be easy, much easier than the cliffs on Young’s Peak, but I’m not sure how elk and deer are navigating through there. Their tracks above and below the cliffs indicate that they are doing it. It was kind of scrambly in a couple of places.
West side traverse of peak 8,883′
Overlooking Bill’s Fork toward the Pines and Wildcat Knolls
Route up the Nelson Mountain cliffs
Route up the Nelson Mountain cliffs
Route up the Nelson Mountain cliffs
Ridge south of Nelson
I topped out on the plateau and from there it was a flat and pleasant stroll through stands of mountain mahogany and open grasses to the little knoll that holds the high point of Nelson Mountain. There were a couple of possible spots which could have been the highest point so I hit them all just to be sure. I found a rock to sit on and had a quick snack and big drink of water before heading back down.
Flat top of the Nelson plateau covered in mountain mahogany
High point knoll of Nelson Mountain
Cactus
The knoll
This may be the high point of Nelson
Another contender for the highest point
The way back was all repeat ground except for the trail below the north side of peak 8,883′. I might as well have also climbed that peak since I hiked around all sides of it! I kind of wish I would have but at the time I wasn’t even thinking of it. I spotted what I think was mountain lion scat under a pinyon pine. It was big, bigger than anything my ~35-pound dogs would have left, and full of what appeared to be deer hair. The clouds were low over parts of the Swell and it looked like it might be raining, but it never even sprinkled where I was. I got back to the bike and had an easy and fast ride back, downhill almost all the way to the truck. Some cows were grazing to one side of the road as I approached and, instead of either ignoring me or at least running away from the road, they ran onto the road and turned in the same direction I was traveling. And then I noticed one straggler trotting behind me, mooing in distress. I think her calf must have been with the group ahead of me. So she chased me and I chased the others for probably over half a mile, all the way back to the truck. I felt bad disturbing their grazing but, hey, what choice did I have? I didn’t realize it until I hefted the bike into the back of the truck that I’d ran over some of their fresh shit and flicked it up onto the bike, which I then had to wash from my hands before I started driving home.
Scat full of hair
Well-defined trail
Almost back to the ridge
Solar panels near Moore
Back on the road
Picking up the bike
Cows running ahead of me
Trailing mama
In all, I hiked eight miles and biked 5.5 miles with 3,900′ elevation gain. A friend from Ferron saw my Instagram photos from the hike and asked how the “Barton Trail” was. I didn’t know anything about any history of the trail prior to that, but he said he heard the Barton family from Ferron used the trail to sneak cattle up and down Nelson Mountain after the Forest Service was created. He wasn’t sure if the Barton’s actually pioneered the trail and thought perhaps the Beach family (who also ran sheep on Sid’s Mountain) originally used it and maybe the Barton’s followed later with cattle. After hiking the trail I’m not confident it ever saw cattle–there were places that seemed too steep or ledgy for them to negotiate. There was little, if any, noticeable construction. I suspect it was always a game trail and only sparsely used even by sheepherders. There was basically no historic trash. The only can I saw was a newer, small steel can (like the small tins that almonds come in now with a foil seal and plastic lid) where the trail topped out on Nelson. I consulted Utah’s Canyon Country Place Names by Steve Allen, hoping to find some info, but it doesn’t mention the trail at all. It notes that Young’s Peak was named after some “early settlers,” and Nelson Mountain was named for several Nelson families who ranched near the mouth of Ferron Canyon. I looked at historical topo maps and found that Young’s Peak was always called Young’s Point until it changed in 1979, and all subsequent maps have favored “Peak” over “Point.” Though, interestingly, the NGS benchmark station description from 1937 does refer to it as Young’s Peak. Okay, history lesson over. For whatever reason I took a lot of photos and, rather than including too many in this post, I’ve added them in the gallery link below.
Photo Gallery: Young’s Peak and Nelson Mountain