On the first day of my annual trip to southwestern Utah I had big plans to visit some obscure but really nice rock art, but those plans didn’t pan out at all. I was stopped by locked gates, “No Trespassing” signs, and muddy roads. After wasting too much time trying to find a way to access the rock art I gave up and instead ended up doing some suburban hiking straight from my friends’ house in Washington along the Virgin River. It was a short hike, only a couple of miles, but nearly strenuous enough to be a good substitute for my normal exercise routine.
Locked gate
Rodeo livestock sign
Muddy road
Above the Virgin River
Bench above the floodplain
Roadrunner
Maybe a petroglyph?
Lower end of Grapevine Pass Wash
The trail out
The next day we all went to a geocaching event in St. George. I hadn’t made any plans for afterward but hoped to tag along on an adventure with somebody else, and that ended up being with my friend Jim and an acquaintance, Dale. They wanted to hike Jarvis Peak, southwest of Ivins, which I had never even heard of before. I didn’t know what I was getting into and the peak looked daunting from below. It turned out to be pretty easy though, just over two miles round trip with over 1,000′ elevation gain. Dale lagged behind and said to go ahead without him so Jim and I pressed on. Just below the very steep and rocky ridge leading to the summit we ran into two guys descending who said the scramble up was easier than it looked.
Starting up the ridge
View toward West Mountain Peak
West Mountain Peak
Road southwest of Jarvis Peak
Ridge to the summit
Flat part of the ridge
View toward the Virgin River Gorge
Getting steeper
Square Top Mountain and Jackson Peak
We had to do some easy scrambling but when the ridgeline got really steep we were able to traverse around to the north along a rocky, snowy slope that made for a relatively easy ascent to the very top. The USGS topo map shows a triangle symbol atop Jarvis Peak so I expected to find a survey marker there but couldn’t locate one. Later I checked the NGS map and it doesn’t show a benchmark there so maybe the topo is wrong. There was a very odd entry in the summit register presumably from the people we’d talked to on the way up. There was one other name in the register from the same day, and I was surprised this peak got so many visitors in one day considering how remote and obscure it appears to be. The views were wonderful all around. We made quick time back to the road and found Dale taking a nap in his Jeep. 🙂
Starting up the steep part
Jim climbing
Traversing to the north
Atop the ridge
Jim on the summit
Looking southwest to Scrub Peak
Very odd summit log left earlier in the day
Mine and Jim’s names
View north
View west
View south
View over Ivins to Pine Valley Mountains
Scrambling down
Dale’s Jeep below
On Sunday I did something I’ve never done before: went for a hike in the dark to watch the sunrise in a scenic spot. Shinob Kibe was the perfect place because it was close by, with nice views, and nobody else around. I’d already lost an hour of sleep due to the daylight savings time change, and I got up earlier than usual. I hiked up the trail entirely in the dark with only a headlamp for light, but by the time I reached the top it was just getting light enough to see see without the headlamp. I just wandered around the top of the mesa as the sun came up, enjoying the changing light and views from different vantage points. Once the sun was fully up I headed back to my friends’ place for a while before my wife and I headed home.
Early morning view over Washington
Trail illuminated by headlamp
Navigation arrow and American flag
View west toward Pine Valley Mountains
Signal Peak
Red Mountains
West Mountain Peak
Hot air balloon over the Red Cliffs temple
Sun over the horizon
Navigation arrow and flag
Shinob shadow
On the trail back down
Photo Gallery: SWUT 2025: Jarvis Peak and Shinob Sunrise