Utah Adventure: Ibapah Peak

A good friend and I have been been making plans to climb Ibapah Peak, the highest peak in Juab County and 3rd tallest in Utah, for several years. The peak is in the Deep Creek Mountain Range that lies just east of the Utah-Nevada border. We finally set out to accomplish our goal.




This photo shows the Deep Creek Mountains in the background. The black spot in the dirt next to the driver door is my cell phone. When we got to camp I noticed that my cell phone was missing. In a weird twist of irony, the cell phone was intact and exactly where you see it in this photo when we were driving home the following day and unwittingly ran over it. I will be purchasing a new phone on Monday.

Here is more of the Deep Creek range.


The trail head to Ibapah Peak is in Granite Creek Canyon. It takes a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get there. The trail head is 94 miles (50 of that on dirt road) from the turnoff in Wendover, Nevada. One of the fascinating features of the canyon is the white granite formations. Erosion has created some very interesting caves, fissures, arches, and other things you usually find in national park settings.


The hike starts at an elevation of about 5800 feet. The summit of Ibapah is 12,080 feet.

The trail ascends gradually at first and then becomes a very strenuous as you climb to the top of a bowl. The trail takes you up 4,000 vertical feet in four miles to an alpine meadow.

The alpine meadow sits at about 10,000 feet...higher than any peak in Weber County. Breathing starts to become more difficult at this point. Considering that I was terribly out of shape, breathing became difficult well before getting to this meadow. Ibapah Peak is the prominent rock covered peak in the background...just 2,000 more vertical feet to go.


From the meadow, the trail fades into non-existence. We blazed our own trail up the hill knowing that we would eventually get to the summit if we headed in the right general direction. Most of this part of the "trail" entails scrambling over huge boulders.

As we approached the final ascent to the summit I took this shot looking back at Granite Creek Canyon. Its hard to believe we walked from the bottom of the canyon to this point.


Here we are close to the summit...drum roll please....

Here I am at the summit. Thunderstorms were brewing shortly after we summited so after a brief reprieve we quickly began our decent. It took us six hours to get to the top and four to return to the bottom. Certainly a worthwhile trip just a few hours from home.