For what’s now an annual trip, I guess, I went camping for 11 days along Skyline Drive with mine and my wife’s family, some 19 people and nine dogs. Last year we camped on north Skyline and this time we did the same except it was about six miles farther north. I worked remotely during the week but on weekends I hiked. Since our camp spot was farther from pavement and off the main road it was much quieter than last year’s, and we had better views of the setting sun each evening.
Camp on Thursday evening
Pine trees and sunset
Sunset
Wildflowers
Sunset
A short distance from camp there was a fox den with three cubs in it. It was entertaining watching them play all the time.
Fox cubs
On the first Saturday Mark and I drove to Miller Flat Road and hiked up Rolfson Canyon. I didn’t have a specific plan for how far up the canyon we would hike but I kind of wanted to go all the way to Skyline Drive if Mark was up for it or didn’t mind waiting in the head of the drainage basin while I climbed the one mile and 500′ elevation to Skyline. I was carrying a lot of extra water because I had Delta with me but we were always close to running water so I ended up not using any of it. Like most creeks draining from the Wasatch Plateau, Rolfson had several beaver dams and ponds along its length.
Starting up Rolfson Canyon
Rolfson Reservoir
Rolfson Canyon
Delta in a beaver pond
Beaver pond
Delta and some lupine
Beaver dam
There wasn’t much of a trail most of the way, although the route did follow an old road that was often still discernible. The USGS topo map shows a trail but in many places it was just wrong. When planning this hike I had mapped out the old road using satellite imagery but in one stretch through some dense trees I lost it, and even being there in person we couldn’t find the road but did pick it back up on the other side of the trees. Along the way there were a handful of carvings in the aspens dating from the late 1920s to mid-30s.
Lupine on the old road
Nice cursive aspen carvings
Something Henry Bohn, Aug 9, 1929
Skyrocket
Spring bubbling out of the ground
Spring bubbling out of the ground
R.N. ’32
1936 Bob Madsen
Naked lady
We got to the head of the basin where I’d have to make the decision whether or not to continue to Skyline Drive but the decision got made for me. I had just stopped to pick up a chert flake and then tossed it back on the ground when Mark and I spotted a brown animal scurrying into some trees. What followed is probably one of the dumbest conversations I’ve ever been part of, because it took us both way too long to realize what kind of animal it was. I said something like, “That wasn’t a deer, was it?” But neither of us thought it really looked like a deer. We both tossed other ideas around. I thought it looked like a very large, brown hare. We kept hiking, and I jokingly said “Capybara,” knowing full well that those don’t live around here, but in the brief glimpse I had it really did look like one. And then Mark said very soberly, “Bear cub.” We both froze in our tracks because we knew that’s what it was, and we were following it right into the trees!
Upper Rolfson Canyon
Chert flake
Small stream
We briefly contemplated going wide around the little stand of trees that the bear cub had run into, but we had no way of knowing which direction it and its unseen mamma had gone on the other side. So we made the right decision and hiked back down the canyon. I stopped looking over my shoulder after we’d retreated about half a mile. It was three miles back to the truck, making for a six-mile round trip hike.
View down Rolfson Canyon
Above Rolfson Reservoir
Stream flowing into Rolfson
The next day, Sunday, I did a short solo hike into Valentine’s Gulch, and then on Friday the 4th of July I did a long solo hike along the Fish Creek National Recreation Trail, but both of those are worthy of their own trip reports which I’ll link here when they’re ready. On the second Saturday of the trip I hiked with my brothers-in-law Mark and Jaysen, and nephew Skyler, to point 9,973′ above Huntington Reservoir. It was a steep bushwhack up from Highway 31 at first but then the hill leveled out and it was a pleasant walk to the high point of the little mountain. It was only two miles total with 400′ elevation gain so we probably spent as much time driving as we did hiking, but it was a welcome respite from camp life on our last full day there.
Parked along UT-31
Somewhat steep ascent
Easy walking on top
Huntington Reservoir
Big snow drift
Lupine and a faint trail
Near point 9,973′
Photo Gallery: Skyline Drive Camp 2025 & Rolfson Canyon