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Grandview Peak, at 9410′, is the highest point in Salt Lake City. Even so, it’s a long way from anywhere and no trail goes to its summit. Over the course of four trips to Grandview I’ve yet to see another person within two miles of the top (not counting whoever I’m hiking with, of course).
One of the reasons I enjoy Grandview is that the route has great variety. You get peaceful hiking near an alpine stream, typical low-Wasatch walking through scrub oak, a nice climb in open pine forest, a long ridge-run with plenty of minor obstacles, and finally a serious two-mile brush thrash on exit.
According to Google Earth, my route was right at 10 miles and involved 4400′ of gain/loss. It took about 6.5 hours and 1.5 MPH felt plenty fast given the difficult terrain. I’d been hoping for pleasant temperatures; valley highs were around 90 and the average adiabatic lapse rate predicts that 5000 feet higher it should be 17 degrees cooler. Somehow this prediction was total crap and it was both hot and humid; I guess surface heating probably dwarfs adiabatic effects unless the air is moving around a lot, and transpiration defeats Utah’s natural low humidity. Anyway, three liters of water was not enough. My previous times on Grandview were a lot more pleasant, and had been in spring or fall. Here’s a description of a similar route I took a few years ago.
One response to “Grandview Peak”
I’ve been up Burro 3x this summer and Grandview once. I do like the trip from north fork–you can ride a bike to this trailhead. The north fork trail is a bit overgrown but easy to find. I could not find where the trail dropped back into the draw, so I stayed near the north part of the ridge. One trip down I went back into city creek about 200 yards past burro-would not recommend-quite the bushwack and some minor cliffs, but passed by the treasure box mine. One trip we continued to the head of city creek. Although you can faintly see where the trail breaks off of GWT, no real trail for about 1.5 miles down city creek, then continue to the rotary. Reasonably fresh bear poop between rudy’s and burro in late June.