Top of the Desert: Ibapah Peak, Deep Creek Mountains

Slowly but surely, I've been knocking off some of the West's most prominent peaks. To make things more challenging, I've climbed most of them by starting from the adjacent valley floor. If I can avoid driving halfway up the mountain to a trail head, I will. It doesn't matter if I'm biking, hiking, running, or using some combination of the three, as long as I'm using my own flesh-and-bone motor, I can truly say that I conquered the mountain.

In mid-September, I had a free day in northern Utah, and quickly planned an assault on 12,087-foot Ibapah Peak--high point of the seldom-visited Deep Creek Mountains which is the fourth highest range in Utah. The plan was to park at the junction of Snake Valley and Granite Creek Canyon Roads (5,500 feet), bike as far as possible up Granite Creek Canyon, then continue on foot to the top of Ibapah.

My timing was perfect. Temperatures were pleasant, aspen were flashing their fall colors, and snow had yet to hit the high country.

Golden sunrise in Snake Valley. Deep Creeks are in the distance. Situated near the Utah-Nevada border, you must drive many long miles on graveled roads to reach the remote Deep Creeks. 

Rugged canyons are cut deeply into granite along the eastern slopes of the Deep Creeks' central core.

A near full moon sets over the colorful Deep Creeks.

After a long, early-morning drive, it felt great to stretch the legs and start pedaling upward. My knobbies hit the dirt at 9 AM. Here, I'm nearly a mile up Granite Creek Canyon Road. The aspen-covered sub-peak just above my left hand is blocking the view to the higher Ibapah peak behind.

Typical scenery midway up Granite Canyon. The canyon road ends at 7,360 feet in a grass-floored aspen grove that would make an excellent camp spot. From there, an easy-to-follow foot trail continues up-canyon. It took 1.5 hours to cover the 6 mile/2350' climb to the end of the road. 

Despite its central location in the Great Basin desert, the Deep Creeks' lofty peaks capture large amounts of winter snow that feeds numerous springs and streams throughout the summer and fall. A couple of perennial streams in the Deep Creeks support native Bonneville cutthroat trout.

Domes, spires, and caves formed on granite make for some unique scenery in the aptly named Granite Canyon.

Near the 10,000-foot level, Granite Canyon starts to open up into a wide, luxurious meadow.  Red Mountain (11,588'), above the tree line towers overhead.

The wide meadow at the head of Granite Creek Canyon provided a nice opportunity to get some longer strides in before the final grunt up to Ibapah Peak.

A mild fall meant there were still plenty of colorful leaves clinging to the aspen, even at 10,000 feet. 

The final push up blocky talus slopes.

I reached the top at 1:45 PM, taking a little over 3 hours to cover the 5 mile/5,060' climb to the top from the end of the road in Granite Canyon (4.75 hours from Snake Valley Road). On top are the remains of a triangulation survey station and a stone windbreak shelter. Views in all directions are vast, and will leave you feeling rather insignificant.

View south along the Deep Creeks' summit ridge. The stone shelter provides relief from the wind as you refuel and check out the summit register.

West view into Nevada from Ibapah Peak.

Upper Granite Creek Canyon from Ibapah Peak.

View north along the summit ridge. Largest peak to the north is Haystack; at 12,020 feet, Haystack Peak is only 67 feet lower than Ibapah. After lingering on the peak for about 30 minutes, I headed back down. It took a little over 2 hours to reach my bike, and another 45 minutes to blast down to my car, finishing just after 5 PM.

I had a crazy thing happen with this herd of pronghorn. As I cam cruising out of Granite Creek Canyon, these pronghorn were also heading downhill across the sage flats FAST. I stopped to snap this photo, but quickly hopped on my bike and sped off to see if I could perhaps get an even better shot down the road. I soon found myself racing neck to neck with the herd--me, flying down the dirt road at full throttle, and them, galloping in the same direction less than 20 feet off the side of the road. It was incredible to glide along the side of these animals, seemingly as part of the herd, but I soon realized that they were getting closer to me and that they had every intention of crossing the road up ahead. I couldn't believe how fast they were moving. I had no chance of beating them to the crossing, so I slammed on my brakes and let them cross, watching in amazement from just a couple of feet away as some of them effortlessly bounded across the road in a single leap. An experience I'll never forget.

If you access the Deep Creek Range from Wendover, you'll pass through this near-ghost town of Gold Hill--a rather unsettling place in the middle of nowhere.

I left that morning from my home-base in Erda (near Tooele, Utah) at 4 AM and did not get back home until nearly 10 PM. At the end of the day I had completed about 22 miles and 7,300 feet of climbing via bike and foot to the top of Ibapah Peak in 8 hours.

This was a very long and exhausting day, but also an extremely fulfilling day that left me with a wide smile on my face as my head finally hit the pillow that night.