Clayton Peak 2.0

On Tuesday my friend Casey and I headed out again to nearly the same place. Two weeks ago we parked at Brighton and headed West up to Mount Millicent. This time we went East to the top of Clayton Peak (Mount Majestic) on the Lake Mary trail.

We carpooled up the canyon and got a pretty early start. We were hiking by about 5:30pm and made good time up the first mile to the Dog Lake junction. With it being late and both of us being a bit out of shape we didn't even look out over the overlook because we knew we'd need to hurry to get back to the car before dark.

The trail is moderately steep until the junction with the Dog Lake trail, but after turning off on the trail to Dog Lake, then almost immediately turning left on the Clayton Peak trail, we hiked on relatively flat ground for almost a mile. The wildflowers and wildlife were all on display. One of the benefits of hiking during the week is that there's nobody around to scare the deer away.

We made great time between Dog Lake and Snake Creek Pass. Casey had never hiked this trail and was very impressed with the views from on top of the pass. We were able to see most of the Heber Valley (which may just be the most beautiful valley in the state) including some of Deer Creek Reservoir.

The pass sits at 10,019 feet according to my GPS, even though the sign at the top says 10,200'. Looking up at the 10,700 foot peak from the pass made it painfully obvious that the GPS was right and we still had 700 vertical feet to climb. At least we didn't have to walk far for all that climbing. Most of it was done in less than 1/4 mile.

We had great views from the top, even being able to see the Easternmost tip of Jordanelle Reservoir to the East. We saw more lakes from the top of the peak than we saw people on the trail.

The hike back down was uneventful (except for my slight detour to check out the trail up from the other side of the pass). We hiked about 6.5 miles and climbed about 2000'.