Tushar Mountain Hikes - Skyline Trail to Blue Lake, Mt. Holly Peak, Mt. Delano Ridgeline Trail.

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Mileage: Between 12.5 and 14.5. Elevation Gain: 3,369 ft. Date hiked: Oct. 15, 2020

Last week, Leti and I decided to hike in the Tushar Mountains, which is near Beaver, Utah. As luck would have it, there is a ski resort not far from the trail heads. So, we packed our bags and prepared for another hiking vacation in nice accommodations at Eagle Point Resort. We stayed in two places at the resort because of a Wi-Fi mix up. Nice place to visit if you so desire. And, not a lot of people around. For the win!  

Our first hike started out on a low. The terrain was blah. The trail was ridiculously windy (I felt like I was walking in circles), and it was the last day of the hunt! A majority of the people we saw were hunters. We did not get shot, which is important. Nor did we see any deer. Because it started out in kind of a low spot, I gave this four trees out of five. After the first 3 or so miles, things got better. 

You will note that there are no pictures of the first three miles of the hike. There are reasons for this. It was kind of boring, dead terrain. No offense, Wilderness.  

This picture doesn't quite do it justice. The bowls were just amazing. The rock walls and color were reminiscent of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

To get to the lake, you have to hike a lot. Like 6 - 7 miles a lot. We crossed the same stream twice (the trail was windy), and we ran into downed timber. It appears that a wind storm knocked down a few large trees. But, we finally made it to the lake. As we arrived, a hiker was leaving on a different trail than we came in on. We had the lake to ourselves for a few short minutes, and then 3 horses, 3 people, and 2 dogs showed up. The lake was just lovely. Not entirely the most natural of lakes (there was an earthen dam on one side), but really blue. Hence the name, Blue Lake... 

Me at the lake, wondering why there are dead trees standing up in the lake. Leti later spotted the dam, and it all made sense.

Leti at Blue Lake.

Blue Lake through the trees. It really did look like that. 

One of the streams we crossed multiple times. This part is icy, mossy, and beautiful. 

As we hiked, we tried to decide if we should take a different route home. In the end, we stayed on the trail, which was a good decision. It was here that we encountered bovines. Of course, Leti sang them a song about a bovine revolution. The cows were unimpressed. They either ran away from us, or ran to their babies, or just stood there and stared at us. The staring cows were a little unnerving. And the hyperactive mother cow that ran to her baby and pawed the ground with her hoof was not exactly a calming presence. Luckily, she eventually understood that we were in fact harmless, and we could share the trail and all go peacefully on our merry way. 

We made it back to the car, and were so grateful to be back! It was a long hike. Another successful adventure in the books! 

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5.5 miles. 1,955 elevation gain. Date Hiked: October 17, 2020.

This hike started at the same trailhead as the Blue Lake hike. No cars at the trailhead. Just a random bed frame, amongst other strange items. Odd. We started in the morning, and it was a tad chilly. The reasons there are no trees for the rating of the hike is because there are no trees for a majority of this hike. We could see for miles. I gave it four out of five mountain tops because all of the grass and such was dead. It think this is very beautiful in July and August. But, with all of the deadness, I couldn't just give it five mountain tops. 

To start off, we did hike through a little forest. And then, you guessed it, we ran into more grazing cows! Once the cows saw us approach, they looked at us with a very suspicious eye, but did not move. We convinced them to stay where they were, and we would use the trail. It worked great. 

We only took one wrong turn on this hike, and that is because the trail vanishes right when you need to turn off of it. A neat feature of some hikes. We got back on track and viola! We hiked up. And then we hiked up more. And then, more. 

This hike was lovely because it was vast. Seeing for miles at the top of a mountain is not common for most of our hikes. In order to fully appreciate this hike, you have to get to the top, and look over the edge, which I admit was a little nerve racking. But, the view was worth it! 

Leti on the edge. There is a pretty serious drop off there. But, the view. This picture didn't capture it. The mountains are full of a variety of rock colors. And, you can see Capitol Reef from the top of this hike. 

So vast and deep. It is hard to get the depth of this picture without being there, but it was quite amazing.

And, I forgot to take my sunglasses off and smile. Neat. Luckily, the view is neat! 

We wanted to hike Mt. Delano. You would think that you could just walk across the range to Delano, but you can't. Otherwise, we would have done this. I thought I would like the view from Mt. Delano better, but of the two hikes, this was the view I liked the best. The vastness of the scenery was not expected. Really beautiful. We hiked ourselves down, had a little more cow trouble. The cows started following us up the trail. Happily, this did not last long. I no longer want bovine pets. So, it was a win that they stayed where they were. We made it back to the trailhead and drove up to our next trailhead! 

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3.8 miles. 984 ft. elevation gain. Date Hiked: October 16, 2020. 

I gave this peak four peaks out of five. It was a lovely trail. You could see where you were going for quite some time. And, the ground was purple. (Purple rock was new to me. Southern Utah is known for red rock, but this rock was literally purple.) Again, a lot of deadness. Everything had died by this point. And there was very few trees on the trail. So, four our of five. 

We started this hike in a bit of the wrong place. Whoops. That may have been my bad navigating. But, we were able to connect quickly with the real trail. And, then we were off. This trail really did follow the ridgeline. Hence the name. And, we did see a little patch of snow, which confused us. First, we were trying to decide if it was a piece of random wilderness equipment. Then, we wondered if the snow was mountain goats (same color). And then, we decided, that mountain goats don't reflect light. It must be snow. And, it was. Glad we were able to pin that down. 

This hike had fabulous high mountain views. It is the tallest peak around. We could see Belknap and Baldy, Capitol Reef National Park, and Mt. Holly. We observed the trail between the two peaks. Those are a little sketchy, so I was glad we didn't take that trail. 

View from Delano. It was lovely. The variety of colors in these mountains were so surprising. White, gray, purple, pink, yellow. It was impressive. 

That rock really is purple. There were lots of purple rocks around.

Leit on the way up to the peak. Belknap and Baldy in the background. 

That lovely peak is Mt. Holly, our morning hike. Just lovely! 

After we ate our snacks at the top, we headed back down the mountain. The beauty and ruggedness of the peaks was really impressive. The Tushars did not disappoint.