Notch Peak, Millard County, Utah - An Awesome Hike

Notch Peak dominates our eastern horizon, with its, 1,000+ foot cliff dramatic along the skyline. 

Fortunately there's a way to get up to the top of it that isn't too demanding, although I wouldn't call it easy. It's about eight-miles round trip, with 2,700 feet elevation gain (and loss). I've done it a couple times before, and this time we camped out with friends the night before (Miller Canyon has lots of options) and then started mid-morning with some cool temperatures. I highly recommend doing this hike when it's cool, as there's not a lot of shade along the way, and it gets very hot on a sunny, summer day.

The road off Highway 6 & 60 to the Amasa Basin junction is good for even regular cars. Then it's high clearance for the next 1-2 miles to get to the Notch Peak Trailhead in Sawtooth Canyon. 

Soon one of the kids had caught a lizard. Fortunately we had a herpetologist in our group!

The kids got a chance to hold it.

What fun!

Then it was on to more hiking, with occasional surprises like beautiful wildflowers.

When we stopped for lunch, I took a closer look at the trees around us. I spotted four different cone-bearing trees. Do you know this one? The "mousetails" sticking out from the pinecone are a big clue.

This is a Douglas fir tree.

I gathered up pinecones from the four trees. Do you know them?

Starting at the top and going clockwise: bristlecone pine (note the bristles on the pinecone), Douglas-fir (with the mousetails), white fir (small and plain), and pinyon pine (large spaces between the scales to hold the pinyon pine nuts, which most likely have been eaten by rodents and birds). 

I also found this snail shell. What? Snails in the desert? Yep! These are land snails, probably of the genus Oreohelix. They usually don't move more than 100 yards from where they came to life, and prefer talus slopes with limestone rock. They hibernate and aestivate (stay dormant in the heat of the summer). This one is dead, it's just the shell.

As we moved up canyon, we found all sorts of obstacles. At one point there were a lot of trees down in the canyon.

We found some rock cairns off to the right (north) and followed them. Big mistake! That scrambly trail is a mess. It's a lot better to stay in the canyon (except maybe in winter). 

This alternate route did go by this cool cliff.

We took a break looking down canyon and watching some other hikers who were as confused as we were about where the trail was. 

Finally we got up to the saddle and had our first glimpse of the amazing canyon down below.

From the saddle you can see the way up to the top. There's not much of a trail, but it's not hard to go through the bushes. And fortunately, that's not a false summit at the top, it's the real summit!

The top then drops away to the cliff.

We looked at the completely full trail register at the top.

Then it was time for snacks and waiting for our entire group to make it up.

Looking down might give you a little sense of vertigo! This is a place base jumpers occasionally climb up and then sail off. 

Here's to friendship! It was so lovely doing this hike with friends. We did it on Mother's Day, as we figured our families had to do what we wanted that day. Ha! It was good to get out.

There's a US Coast & Geodetic Survey marker from 1957 on the top.

We still found some snow in May in places in the canyon.

I enjoyed seeing this maple tree, we don't have many maples around here!

The kids at the beginning of the hike. I wasn't sure they were all going to make it, but they all persevered. We left the trailhead about 10 am and returned about 6 pm. I think with fit adults, you could do the hike in about 6 hours. 

Bonus biology photo: a solfugid, or wind scorpion/camel spider. They're rather uncommon, so I was so excited to see one. 

I highly recommend the Notch Peak hike for anyone who likes climbing desert mountains. Just don't go when it's too hot! Here are some directions. And a previous Desert Survivor post about this hike.