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This breathtaking hike lived up to the fanfare and legend. It's now one of our favorites.  High over Utah: Mount Timpanogos summit with trail below and Timpanogos Saddle entry onto the ridge, North Timpanogos at end of ridge to the left. Trip Stats
Location: Central Utah - Uinta National Forest - Wasatch Range - Timpanogos Wilderness - Timpooneke Trail #053 Distance: 14.3 miles roundtrip. Elevation gain: 4,400'. Trailhead = 7,360'. Summit = 11,749'. Prominence: 5,270 feet - 47th most prominent mountain in the contiguous U.S. Date Hiked: July 22, 2024. Maps and Apps: National Geographic Trails Illustrated Wasatch Front North #709, AllTrails. See our GPS tracks/topo map at end of post. Considerations: The last 2 miles to the summit is exposed; check weather forecast and start early to get off of summit in case of thunderstorms. Mountain Weather Forecast. Forest Service Timpooneke Trail website. Parking permits are required on Fridays, Saturdays and Holidays between July 8 - October 15. Reservations: Recreation.gov. Geology: Mt. Timpanogos resides in Pennsylvanian (300 Ma) Oquirrh Formation - sandstone interbedded with cherty limestone. Chert is a fine-grained silica made of very small mineral particles. It forms as darker layers or nodules in usually lighter-colored limestone. This rock originated in tropical swamp-forests. Indigenous peoples: named after the hunter-gatherer Timpanogos Utes. tumpi = "rocks" and panogos = "water mouth." Quote: "The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir More Peaks over 11,000 feet in Nevada and Utah
Timpanogos Hike Summary - Timpooneke Trail
This awesome hike up the much-loved and revered rock tower known as Mount Timpanogos lived up to the lore and legend. Its final summit approach perches on its steep, rocky sides where you can gaze upon the cities like Provo that sprawl along Utah Lake's eastern shore on one side, and Robert Redford's posh Sundance Resort on the other. I love these small, ultra-high summits where, when I look down thousands of feet below to glaciers and meadows, I get a funny feeling in my stomach. Mountain goats are often seen: a fellow hiker pointed one out on the west side of the mountain below Timpanogos Saddle. Even before we finished this hike, I wanted to go back again. Lush blankets of wildflowers surrounded the trail, especially in Timpanogos Basin on the way up to the saddle between Mt. Timpanogos and Bomber Peak. I was blown away by the sheer numbers of lupine, bistort, columbine and paintbrush. So many bluebells! "Timp," as this mountain is affectionately called by Utahns, is the second-highest mountain in the Wasatch range. Mt. Nebo, 11,933 feet elevation, which we hiked two years ago, is the highest. Both peaks have a huge prominence, a measure of the vertical distance from summit to lowest contour line encircling that mountain with Nebo at 5,489' and Timpanogos at 5,269'.  Mount Timpanogos summit with Timpanogos Basin, Timpanogos glacier and Emerald Lake below.  Our GPS tracks from Timpooneke Trailhead (lower right), ascending up valley under the Giant Staircase (long ridge to the trail's left), climbing ledges up to the first view of Timpanogos summit and Timpanogos Basin, then up to Timpanogos Saddle, then along ridge to summit. Hike in a southward direction to the summit. Utah Lake and Utah Valley at top of image. Woolly Hole is the cirque directly below North Timpanogos and the upper, smaller cirque to the right of Forgotten Peak is Pika cirque. (Caltopo map of our tracks and elevation profile below) When we got to the trailhead parking lot in the dark, at 5 a.m., we saw a lot of vehicles parked and wondered if people were backpacking. It turned out that many students started the hike at 1:00 a.m. to witness the sunrise from the summit. We passed a lot of groups of them descending. Since this was a Monday, we didn't need a parking pass (see link above for recreation.gov permitting). Seems this is a perfect training mountain for the serious trail runner and cross-country athlete. We met a family at the top who run and hike this mountain every year. The fastest known time is 2 hours and 18 minutes round-trip for 14.3 miles and 5,000 cumulative feet of elevation gain! We were passed by a few runners. On the trail at 5 a.m. with headlamps, we hiked the 7 miles to the summit by 9:30, taking our time and having a "second" breakfast break. It was refreshing to be on an actual and well-traveled trail for a change, since we have been doing more scrambling and navigating to peaks. Aspen Grove Trail, another way up to the summit, intersects with Timpooneke Trail as you enter the basin. A metal building topped with a pyramid-shaped roof with hundreds of signatures scrawled on its walls crowns the summit. This summit hut has overlooked the spectacular scenery of snow, glaciers and lakes and mountain goats for almost 100 years. The Timpooneke Trail was completed in 1921. The pointed roof acts as a survey marker that can be seen with a telescope from the valley below. Next time I would drive a little further on Utah State Hwy. 92 to the Aspen Grove Trailhead and hike Timp from the east. There's a snowfield to hike through in Timpanogos Basin that looks really fun. There's more elevation gain with this approach. I have passed by and eyed this imposing peak many times on Interstate 15. Finally I can say we were on the top! I think we'll join the many hikers and runners to make this an annual pilgrimage.
Waterfall video!  Three miles into the hike up the Giant Staircase: the trail continues over these ledges toward left and into above valley.  View of Timpanogos after climbing the Giant Staircase and entering Timpanogos Basin. Rock "hills" in foreground possibly glacial moraines.  Looking across Timpanogos Basin to the Aspen Grove Trail which treks through the snowfield at the base of Timpanogos.  So many wildflowers! The trail from Aspen Grove trailhead approaches through the snow at the base of Timpanogos, left. Timpanogos Saddle is up ahead - the trail climbing it is visible from here.  Nearing the saddle where hikers are standing: trail runner descending. You can see the summit hut, a small point, on Timp's summit.  Once at the saddle, see a breathtaking view of Utah Valley and Utah Lake, continue on the west side of Mount Timpanogos.  The top of Timp, up ahead, left. Summit hut (point on right side) visible.   A little bit of fun scrambling....  Last set of switchbacks with the summit hut visible on the right.  Looking to the north at Timpanogos Basin and Saddle.  From the summit - we were just way down there! Good view of Emerald Lake.  At the summit!  Almost there!  American Bistort A little fun with Oil Paint Filter in Photoshop!   Caltopo Map of our tracks and Elevation Profile. Sources
Baker, A.A. and Crittendon, M.D. GEOLOGY OF THE TIMPANOGOS CAVE QUADRANGLE, Utah. Wright, R. 'Glass House' on Timpanogos. The Daily Herald, July 20, 2003.
4 Comments
8/15/2024 04:08:16 pm
I've been through that canyon dozens of times. Once I had time to stop and explore the caves, which was a lot of fun. It's a beautiful drive and I can see from your photos that it is a fabulous, if strenuous hike to the peak. Love the little tin structure at the top.
The structure on the top is really cool - it used to have glass but in my reading I heard that it was vandalized. It had a huge peak register in it and the family we met up there was searching through it for their former signatures - a lot of people go every year. 8/19/2024 04:12:26 pm
Impressive peakbagging, guys! That's beautiful!
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Sue and Fred
About this blogExploration documentaries – "explorumentaries" list trip stats and highlights of each hike or bike ride, often with some interesting history or geology. Years ago, I wrote these for friends and family to let them know what my husband, Fred and I were up to on weekends, and also to showcase the incredible land of the west.
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