Belknap, Baldy, Blue Lake Loop in Tushars (UT)

pics by Harlan W.S.
July 16, 2011

I first saw Belknap and Baldy from Delano, 6 years ago.  The geology changes across the Blue Lake drainage, and the NW Tushars are more rugged and starker than the beautiful, green Delano. I decided then that, one day, I would make a loop of Belknap and Baldy, preferably when there was still a fair amount of snow, as these mountains are much prettier with partial snow cover.

There are two problems with such a loop. First, the normal approach to Belknap requires driving a fair ways up the forest road 123 (aka Marysvale or Beaver Creek Road).  This dirt road is often closed until July because of the snow, and even then the road may be gated at the first meadow of Big John Flats, near 9950’. When one starts from the 1^st gate, versus the traditional trailhead, there is an extra 1500’ accumulated gain (the ridge is a bit of a roller-coaster, and you typically go back over all these lumps), and an extra 13 miles round-trip.  Second, if one wishes to cut from Baldy directly back to the Beaver Creak Road, there is a deep canyon in between – the Blue Lake Creek drainage.

All told, accounting for grade, the round trip was 19 miles, with over 7000’ accumulated elevation gain.  Some of the elevation gain was from snow avoidance.  I finished in 11.5 hours.

The plan looked good on paper, but there were a few wrinkles. First, the wind was gusting to ~70 mph; second, the snow on the N side of Baldy was often treacherous; third, the talus decent to the creek (2700’ vertical) was rougher than I expected; and fourth, the climb up from Blue Lake was through a chaos of downed trees on very steep slopes.  All-in-all, a great day, but not an experience I would repeat soon!

I saw no one else on the “trail” all day, and previous sign-ins on the peaks were from last year. I carried a lot of emergency gear, including a Blizzard bivy bag (3-layer) and a SPOT satellite transmitter—else this was not a hike to do alone.  I took trekking poles, as I expected a lot of loose steep talus, and snow, and I wanted emergency crutches!

	Geology of Belnap area (from PD Rowley et al, USGS I–2645–A). This area represents a deeply eroded, massive volcano (caldera complex).  Belknap and Baldy are in resistant, intra-caldera rhyolites, and Delano is in resistant welded tuffs.  Between them are a variety of less-resistant flows, tuffs, and coeval conglomerates. If I'd known the rock type would change on the way down Baldy, I might have avoided the bad talus.
This is the 100k topo for the trip. Red marks this year’s trip; blue marks the 2005 venture.	The 24k closeup of the route.	This profile gives some idea of the “problem.” There are lots of ups-and-down, some not very subtle. The total mileage shows up ~18.3, but accounting for grade, it was over 19 miles.
I arrived at Big John Flat the night before. Lots of folks were car camping in the “dispersed” sites…	...but it was easy to find campsites amid the trees. There were some mosquitoes, but just a minor inconvenience (for those who grew up in the NE USA).	Next morn, at ~10300’ (well past the gate closure).  The road has been graded since 2005.
The graded road still had some rapidly-melting snowbanks.		As one got higher, the snow covered the road, often several feet deep. More significant, the road was muddy and eroded.
	First view of Baldy (L) and Belknap (R). From here, you can’t see the gorge.	Typical snow coverage on the road.
View SE; Delano is the high point.	View NW to Belknap; I opted to follow the old mine trail at R. The talus on Belknap is incredibly steep, but there is a switch-backed herdpath.	View E, ~11450’ on SE side Belknap.
View SSW to Baldy and Blue Lake drainage.	Manganese dendrites were everywhere.
View SW from summit, to i-15 valley.	Pano S to SW.	Pano S-SSE.
Pano ESE to SSE.	View E.	Summit log on Belknap.
It was far too windy for my normal pose.		View to Delano from summit cairn. There was an elaborate register container made of PVC plumbing.
Another pano S.	Polemonium (sky pilot).
Alpine Collomia?		I’m on the ridge betweem Balknap and Baldy, looking SE to Delano.
Baldy from ridge. The ridge is a bit of a roller-coaster,  and was quite scenic; unfortunately, it was fiercely windy, and my camera was under my anorak.	Now I’m looking up the NE side of Baldy, at a steep angle; this snow field is ~30-45 degrees.  I think one is supposed to travel up this route.	Instead, I opted to find the narrowest part of the snow chute, and cross over to the rocks, since I didn’t treasure an uncontrolled glissade with poor run-out.
Now I look back across the ridge to Belknap.	View E. The snow chute averaged Just about 40 degrees, but was more like 50 degrees in places, and consisted of a soft layer on hardpack.	On top!
	I’m not sure why they come here in helicopters.
Even though the wind was still fierce, I could do my pose in the lee of the summit.	View E from Baldy.	View NE.
		Next I decided to scree-ski down a gulley on the SE side of the summit. Regrettably, after 200’ of a 2700’ descent, the soft scree turned to nasty blocks of large, sharp talus. It’s hard to get a sense for the slope in this photo; I kept looking down at the creek, across snow and rock. and it never seemed to get any closer!
Finally I got down to the beautiful Blue Lake Creek, which was really Rushing.	I traveled upstream, often negotiating cliffs on the west bank.	Eventually I needed to get to the east side.
Bluebells.	Looking back up (steeply!) at the E face of Baldy. In my naïveté, I originally planned to come straight down the E face.  It looked good on the map, but was full of cliffs.	Finally at Blue Lake.  This lake has a flood control structure on the outlet, and is rimmed with a chaos of downed trees.
This also looked good on paper! I started up the steep slope on the E of Blue Lake, only to find a chaos of downed trees, piled like pick-up-sticks.	This chaos continued on the very steep hill for ~500’ vertical.	View W to Baldy and Blue Lake. Now I’m on soft talus so steep that I can barely get purchase.
I topped the first ridge… only to find more snow. In places, the road was deeply incised into the steep banks, and was drifted over, so the route back to the Beaver Creek Road (123) was fraught with snow avoidance.	Hallelujah!  I can see the real road! Actually, I’m on top (3’ above!) the road in this photo.	Finally!  Delano sure looks gentle at this time of day!
Here’s a feature that may make it difficult for vehicles to travel to the base of Belknap for a while. There is a deep rut  on the E side of the road, and this 5-6’-deep gash that cuts diagonally across the road.		Flox.
You say sheepherder, I say shepherd.	They are serious about closing the road until it “dries out.”	Hmmm, don’t think I’ll fill up the water bottles here.
This deer on the second meadow…	…looked a bit thin. Time to fatten up!