Grafton, NV (11990’) and Notch Peak (9664’), UT

pics by Harlan W.S.
June 23-24, 2010

These two mountains have been in the back of my “to-do” list for some time. Neither provided enough motivation, alone, for a trip; too far away.

I was going to Mount Ritter in CA, hoping to scope out the area for a more aggressive trip at summer’s end. But the leader of that trip got very ill… so I had to go somewhere. Other unfortunate events squeezed me into a narrow time frame. As I glanced through my GPS logs for possible trips, I found some hypothetical routes that I had drawn years ago; one file was labeled “Grafton-Notch.”

So Wednesday I found myself driving up rte 93 toward Great Basin. There was a severe accident near Alamo, so I had to backtrack and take a 44 mile detour on the Kane Springs Road (dirt), thence to tiny rte 317 for another 25 miles. Route 317 is presently under heavy construction, for reasons probably more related to available funds than need. I kept getting caught on 317, between construction vehicles whose drivers were not expecting anyone else to be on the road. At one point a big sign on the right proclaimed “ROAD CLOSED” with no obvious reason other than general chaos, and no alternative, so I kept going. But it was a good detour; I got to see the beautiful Rainbow Canyon S of Caliente, and some day hope to go back under better circumstances.

It was still a good trip, a necessary catharsis.

The road to Grafton starts off rte 93, perhaps 15 miles S of the 93 intersection with rte 6. The gravel road is very rough; there was a stream flowing down the middle and the stream had cut a deep gouge that I straddled with the Subaru wheels. I saw a huge doe elk run across the road as I drove in.	Both Grafton and Notch are in new wilderness areas created in 2006 under G.W. Bush. Because of the wilderness designation, many roads are now blocked; thus the trips are a bit longer. The end of the drivable North Creek Rd. is now at 6820’, so the ascent of Grafton (10990’) now requires a minimum of 4170’ of trailless gain.	View of Grafton from the wilderness closure area, where I camped. I noticed snow on the top, so I chose a direct approach from the E to avoid carrying crampons, as I was sure the N side would have a lot more snow. Hmmm, more on that later.
	The next morn I hit the trail at 5:05AM. I passed by this structure, apparently intended to keep the critters from nibbling some sensitive species.	View back E. the sun hasn’t yet risen over Wheeler Peak.
View W; the sun hits Grafton. At this point I thought Grafton would be a big hill; that was a misplaced condescension.	Lupine	Well, it turned out that this big hill was mainly composed of slick quartzite blocks interwoven with stands of thickly- growing young aspen, the result of a forest fire some decades ago.
Penstemon	Looking up at the jumbled quartzite terrain	Bluebells
Finally 500’ below the top, I welcomed the snow. I had non-sticky-rubber shoes with little support, and the snow was easier to traverse than was the quartzite.	View S.	Currant Mountain to the W.
Cave Valley to SW.
View S.	Lots of register pages; skip ahead unless you are a fan of obscurity.
	View NE as I start the descent. Now I intentionally stayed on snow as much as possible, losing 1000’ on the white stuff.
More bluebells!	Remnants of a forest fire.	View to Wheeler; I will descend down this valley.
Purple fringe (thanks to Judy PK for ID).		A natural elk trail.
Chokecherry	Forget-me-not	I hit the stream a little too high, and had to wade through many thorny and stinging plants, and jump the stream many times.
Golden pea	Scarlet columbine	Rushing stream
Onion	Penstemon	Globe mallows
Salsify?	Desert phlox	Water rushes across the road.
	Somewhere between a Sego and a Mariposa lily.	Ditto.
Still looking!	Back at the car. Wheeler Peak in back. Now the drive to Notch!	The road to Notch starts about 43 miles east of the NV-UT border on route 6/50.
I will go up a vague but pleasant trail in the south canyon, then come down over some iffy terrain to the north.	Notch as seen from the W, on the drive E via rte 6/50.	Abandoned cabin.
I parked at the 2006 wilderness area boundary, and tried to get as much shade as possible from this little Juniper.	Next morn, starting W.	Scarlet gilia; these flowers looked exceptionally healthy compared to our NV equivalents.
	Red penstemons.
A delphinium, presumably a larkspur.	Claret cup.	The canyon has some mild dryfalls; where they seem harsh, one can cut to the R around them.
A broader-petalled variety of phlox.	Finally the summit at 9664’! The views are amazing, but hard to grasp from the top of the cliff. So in a bit, I will cross to this lesser summit across the notch.
I hadn’t done the mountain jump since my ankle injury, so I was out-of-practice with the timing. It took me 20 jumps to get it right (this is the last) and by then I was so tired that I couldn’t get much elevation.	Another view across the gulf. The cliffs are 2700’ high; the 1^st 1400’ are dead vertical, and the next drop is only almost as steep.
Snake Range (Wheeler, etc.) to the W.	The Sevier salt lake/flats – a remnant of Lake Bonneville.	Looking back on Notch Peak from the lower northern summit. Out-of- order photo.
	Incredible folding seen in the limestone wall. The Sevier Orogeny did a job on these rocks.	View back at notch.
Looking down over 2000’. The gully is very shaded, and snow remains in the bottom on this warm June day.	Another striking view to SW, over Notch Peak, from the 9424’ peak.
	Cusick’s primrose Now I’m descending east from a peaklet near the 9424’’ peak. There was a nasty cliff band, and I thought the worst was over…	…then I entered a gully, and at 8800’ on this dry desert peak, hit hard snow at 30 to 45 degrees.
As if that were not enough, I then had to downclimb on the R side of this very nasty 40’ dryfall.	Camera is tilted 45 degrees.
Then I hit a flowing stream. The banks were made of extremely soft, water- saturated clay.	Shooting start.
	The pink flowers L of the stream are shooting stars.	Finally a nice dry wash.
Scarlet gilia.	Purple penstemons.	Red penstemons.
	Chamber twinpod.	Back to the start, now ready for the 370 mile drive home!