Checking on Four GLORIA Peaks

Buck Mountain

I had most of this post written, and then, poof, it disappeared! So I'll try again!

One of my tasks this summer has been to check on dataloggers on the GLORIA peaks in Great Basin National Park. GLORIA is a world-wide program looking at how vegetation is changing on mountain tops. The basic idea is that the higher up you go, the cooler it gets. So plants that need cooler temperatures are found up high. If it gets too warm and they can't get any higher, than poof, they just disappear (like my previous text!--except not so easy to replace). GLORIA plots were installed in 2008 on Buck, Bald, Wheeler and Pyramid Peaks in the park. In 2013, they were re-read, and already changes were seen, with new plants moving in. Dataloggers were also installed, four on each peak, in each cardinal direction. The 2008 dataloggers only lasted about five years, so I was worried about the 2013 ones. Since 2016 is three years later, I figured it would be a good idea to go check on them and bring some replacements.

The first peaks tackled were Buck (about a 45-minute hike up from the Glacier overlook on the Scenic Drive) and Bald. Buck has some trees on the summit, so it makes it interesting. It also has outstanding views (see above). We found 3 of the 4 dataloggers, downloaded them all, installed new ones, and then headed across the saddle (new terrain for me!) to Bald Mountain.

Bald Mountain is our botanically most diverse mountain top, I think because it's so flat, so there is lots of nice habitat. You can see me below with Jeff Davis and Wheeler in the background.

Some of the flowers include Silene acualis (the pink one) and phlox.

Here's another alpine garden, with yellow Geum rossii and white Erigeron leiomerus and a few other things mixed in (e.g., Phlox, Astraguls kentrophyta, Poa secunda?).

Another day we tackled Wheeler Peak, the highest peak in our summit areas, at 13,063 ft. It was a warm day.

We saw lots of pollinators on flowers. I think this is a bee mimic on some Geum rossii.

At the top there were butterflies and bumblees on the phlox.

I advise everyone summiting Wheeler to walk the ridge towards Jeff Davis. The views are amazing.

I don't do selfies often, but I couldn't resist here!


I noticed some spots on the rock glacier. Turns out they are thermokarst ponds, or basically the rock glacier melting. Boo, it's getting smaller!

The amazing Parry's primrose (Primula parryi) cheered me up. For some reason it grows on this mountain, even though it's usually a riparian plant.

And a closer view.

Finding these dataloggers can be tricky, as we had no UTMs for them (we do now!). We used directions and photos to relocate them, and in some cases were trying to find matching lichen patterns.

We still had one peak left, Pyramid Peak in the middle of the park. We started at the Shoshone trailhead up Snake Creek. Because I hadn't done it for a couple whiles, we took the Dead Lake route, which is supposed to become a trail to connect into the Johnson Lake trail. It's super nice, but a lot of the flagging has blown away. The trailhead sign says the trail exists, but be prepared to do routefinding if you go for it. Dead Lake had more water in it than I expected. It's a lake in a moraine, and it can dry up to just a puddle about five feet across.

Up near Johnson Lake we ran into the Historicorps crew, who along with a park archeologist are working on rebuilding the historic cabins that miners built when they mined tungsten up by Johnson Lake. We puzzled over the extremely small door with them. Maybe some of the miners where short? In the background you can see some of the original tree stumps--the miners must have cut these in winter, as they are over ten feet tall!

We went by the lake, up the deteriorating trail to the ridge, and then were on the final approach to Pyramid Peak.

The view is exquisite looking south, with Johnson Lake and more of the South Snake Range.

The view looking north is also fabulous, with the backside of Baker and Wheeler peaks. In the foreground is Holmgrem's buckwheat (Eriogonum holmgrenii), a plant that is endemic to the South Snake Range. I always enjoy seeing it. The good news was that all the dataloggers we found downloaded just fine. They generally showed that flatter areas are more buffered from cold temperatures in the winter (probably from a snow layer), while the steeper sides of the peaks got very cold. We couldn't find all the dataloggers, but we installed new ones so we'll at least have some data.

Thanks so much to the volunteers, Hallie and Andrew, who went along on these hikes. 

It won't be long until this high country looks very different!

Spring Wildflowers up Hendry's Creek

Back in late spring (mid-May, I think), we took a Sunday drive up Hendry's Creek (en route to doing some ranch work for my husband). I was amazed by the orange desert floor, lit up by globemallow.

We continued driving up the road until we got to the Hendry's Creek trailhead. Hendry's Creek is the main trail on the east side of the North Snake Range, especially now that the Hampton Creek road has been obliterated by the flooding following the wildfire.

It must have been a chilly morning if Desert Boy had to wear his winter coat!

It was warm enough that flowers were blooming and insects were pollinating them.

We didn't get far when we reached the obstacle. The trail crossed the creek bed. While it is sometimes dry here (like last fall), on this spring day it was roaring, and we didn't feel like getting our shoes wet.

So we hiked towards the cliffs and found a beautiful patch of Solomon's seal, a wetland-loving plant.

As we climbed higher, we got a nice view of the cottonwood-lined creek from the lichen-covered cliffs.

We could have gone farther, but we decided that was enough hiking, so we headed back down.

On the way we saw a gopher snake on the trail. These are awesome snakes, they eat a lot of rodents. I wouldn't mind a few more near our house!

I wanted to spend some more time with the flowers and I had my bike, so my husband and the kids went on in the truck, and I took a leisurely bike ride back down, stopping for photos.

When I came down the bench further and saw the majestic snow-covered Jeff Davis and Wheeler Peaks, I took a ton of photos. What a beautiful sight!

Johnson Canyon in Snow Canyon State Park

 I had an appointment in St. George recently, and along with doing a few errands (grocery shopping, bike tune-up, etc.), I wanted to make time for a little hike. I headed to Snow Canyon State Park and to the Johnson Canyon trail, which was described as being about two miles long and beautiful. It's also closed from March 15 to October 15, so that gave me a little extra impetus to get it done.

I drove past the parking area and to the fee booth at the south end of the park before I realized I had missed the parking area. (You can hike this trail for free, but it's nice to support the state park, too.) So I turned around and parked, then walked across the road to lots of orange sand. It wasn't long, though, until I saw the black lava contrasting with the landscape.

It was a warm day, so I thought I'd see lots of wildflowers. I just saw two though:

The drainages looked fascinating, with a twenty foot plunge over a lava lip to reach the sand below. A gauging station/weather station was off to the right above the drop.

 I ambled on and before I knew it there was a huge arch over on the side. This is Johnson Arch, with a span of 200+ feet. This is one of the main reasons to go on this hike.

Another big reason is that this is the only surface water in Snow Canyon (and that's why it's closed in the summer, to allow the wildlife to have free access to the water). There's not a lot of water, but even the small drainage leaves evidence of flash floods.

I saw a couple lizards.

I also noticed a swarm of small insects in the air. The water apparently supports some insect hatches.

The riparian ice was very pleasant. It ended in a bunch of rocks in the stream bed, but I could hike up to a big sandy area below some cliffs.

On my way back I enjoyed the arch again.

Then I found my own little arch, high up on the cliffs and only visible for a short while because it's so small. It made me happy to make this little discovery.

I also saw some signatures on the cliff wall that I had missed on the way in. Snow Canyon was named for Lorenzo and Erastus Snow, prominent Utah leaders. I'm not sure who F. Snow refers to or the other signatures.

As I was walking, ravens kept flying about and making quite a bit of noise. Then I noticed that there was a lighter colored bird that the raven was harassing. I thought at first it was a prairie falcon, but looking closer at the photo, I'm not so sure. (Any help?)

I had to take at least one photo of the creosote, a characteristic plant of the Mojave Desert. They weren't blooming yet, but they still looked and smelled beautiful.

I had most of the hike in to myself, but on the way back out I passed numerous groups and the parking lot was full. This is clearly a popular hike! If you'd like to try it, there are more details here.

Winter Ascent of Wheeler Peak - Day Two

 If you missed it, this story begins here.

Day Two. I slept off and on during the night, anticipating the next day's trip to the top of Wheeler Peak. The warm water bottle at my feet eventually cooled off. I tried opening a hand warmer to put in my sleeping bag, but it was too old and didn't work. So I tried thinking warm thoughts. Winter camping is definitely not my favorite, but it wasn't too bad. And then the wind started, making the trees rustle all around us. I tried not to groan. Wind meant that the hike to the top would be extra cold. We could face extreme wind chills. We could face icier slopes. Somehow the early wake up time didn't seem so bad, it meant that I'd be doing something and not just imagining worse-case scenarios.

Our plan was to get up at 3:30 a.m., but some others in our group were up earlier. After all, when you go to bed at 6 p.m., it's easy to wake up early. I wasn't exactly eager to get out of my sleeping bag because it would be cold, but soon enough it was time to get going. With lots of layers, we started snowshoeing towards Stella Lake, our headlamps on and illuminating just a tiny part of the landscape ahead of us. Soon we started up the gully above the lake, the skies gradually lightening. I had hoped for a beautiful sunrise, but it was just kind of gray.

Soon it brightened enough we could turn our headlamps off. The snow in the gully turned out to be wide enough I could switchback up it.

The wind continued, with gusts strong enough we would just stop and brace ourselves and wait for them to pass. The gully was long, but it wasn't that bad. The snow was fairly hard packed, so we weren't sinking in much.

When we got to the top the sun started coming out, making for marvelous landscapes. The lenticular clouds over the North Snake Range were a little alarming, but we weren't turning back.

Four of us took off our snow shoes. Our leader, Paul, continued towards the top with his on, while Jodie switched to crampons, and the rest of us chose to just wear our mountaineering boots. I had to do a quick patch on my heel, which was sore, but not blistered. (I've learned if you take care of hot spots soon enough, you can avoid the blisters.)

Then we were up and towards the peak. The summer trail is further to the west, so this was a new view of the peak for me. It didn't look that far away. We had already gained 2,000 feet and only had 1,200 to go.

The views were marvelous, and I stopped a lot to take photos. It looked like such a different place with snow on it. But I was a bit surprised by how much rock was visible, the winds had really blown a lot of snow away.

Paul, with his snowshoes, opted for the snowy part of the ridge, and the rest of us alternated between snow and rock, depending on what seemed easier at the time. I certainly learned during this trip that snow can have so many textures.

 As we climbed higher it got colder, and clouds covered the top of Mount Moriah to the north. I hoped we wouldn't be in a cloud bank at the top of Wheeler.

I thanked Tom for wearing such a bright jacket, as it turns out well in the photos!

We kept plugging along. You don't want to stop too long, it's too cold, so you just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I was in awe of the stunning views. The winter light certainly makes the landscape even more dramatic.

Finally I was at the top, catching up with Paul and Jodie.

We tried for a group shot, but Tom kind of got lost.

He really did make it to the top, as shown by him signing into the summit register. It was just barely accessible in the mailbox on the top.

Paul at the top. He had organized this trip, and we were all so grateful to be at the top. It was cold but gorgeous.

Soon the clouds started rolling in.

I couldn't leave until I walked the summit ridge, though, as some of the best views are at the end. The snow was hard packed and I stayed on top. On some other trips I've postholed my way to the end of the ridge, which isn't very pleasant.

The clouds actually made for really interesting scenery, especially with the sun on the landscape below them.

Jodie and Paul had already headed down. Tom was next, still in his boots, but with his ice axe out. Mike and I decided on crampons, and those turned out to be a great choice.

You can barely tell it's me, I had so many layers on! Three on my head, five on my torso, three on my lower body.

The clouds made for more dramatic scenery as we hiked down. The crampons allowed us to stay on the snow, which turned out to be a very easy descent, even easier than hiking in summer where you really have to watch your footing on the talus.

The steepness wasn't bad at all, and it was fun going anywhere on the mountain where we wanted and not being constricted by a trail.

When we got back to the chute, Tom decided to have some fun and started sliding down it with his ice axe ready to slow him down if he got going too fast.

The patterns in the snow were really cool.

And then I saw a pattern that made me do a double take. Was this an avalanche? It sure looked like it. I hadn't noticed it in the morning, but we had probably crossed right over it in the semi-darkness without giving it a second thought. On the top left of the photo you can see a crack in the snow, which might have been where it originated. It was in a spot that I never would have suspected for an avalanche, as it came from the side into the gully, and I thought an avalanche would just come straight down the gully.

As we continued down, I saw some movement on Stella Lake. Were those people? Sure enough, they were. Two skiers were ascending, hoping to find some better snow on the other side of Wheeler Peak.

We had started hiking from camp about 4:40 a.m. and made it to the summit in about five hours. We spent about 20-30 minutes at the top and then it took about two and a half hours to get back to camp.  I was ravenous and eagerly ate some ramen noodles I had brought along as extra food. We all packed up and made our way down to the trailhead, and I got there about 4:15 p.m. Almost 12 miles in 12 hours of hiking. The hard-packed snow certainly made travel much easier than it could have been.

Many thanks to Paul, who organized the trip; Greg, who invited me but then couldn't come; and new friends Mike, Jodie, and Tom. This was an amazing experience!

Paul at Stella Lake on the descent