Hike Sandy Peak, 9,537' in Dixie National Forest, Utah

Remote route-finding on Earth's largest landslide to a huge panorama of southern Utah.

Fred on top of Sandy Peak's volcanic rock - 9,537'

Trip Stats
Location/Overview:  So. Utah - Markagunt Plateau - Dixie National Forest - Cedar City Ranger District.   Starting at the historic Old Spanish National Historic Trail which connects Santa Fe to Los Angeles, hike into forested Ashton Creek to climb Sandy Peak's western ridges to an expansive southern Utah view on an enormous landslide of volcanic rock.
Distance/Elevation gain:  7.5 miles/2,300'.  Trailhead = 7,460'.  Summit = 9,537'.
Type:  Class 2 scrambling and bushwhacking.  Need experience with route-finding.
Coordinates:  Trailhead:  37.95164  -112.57965.
Prominence:  1,257'.
​Maps and Apps:  Cedar City Markagunt Plateau-Trails Illustrated #702.
​Other trip reports:  Stavislost Hike Sandy Peak,     Beyond My Couch
Date Hiked: June 15, 2024
​Geology:  The entire hike is in the Markagunt Megabreccia (a rock type that contains large angular rocks bound together by a mineral cement), age 20 million years ago.  It's the largest subaerial (formed in air) gravity slide on Earth.
Sandy Peak summit is reddish-brown volcanic mudflow breccia, volcaniclastic pebble to boulder conglomerate, and minor tuffaceous sandstone.
Hike crosses over the Upper Bear Valley Fault.
History:  The Old Spanish trail was made by Spanish explorers as early as the late 16th century.  One of the most arduous and rugged trails in the U.S., it's an old pack-train trade route linking northern New Mexico to Los Angeles.   It goes through everything from high mountains to deep canyons to arid deserts.  An interpretive sign is posted along the route to the trailhead via Bear Valley Road.

Old Spanish Trail info

Related

Ashdown Gorge near Cedar City

Holly-Delano Loop - Tushar Mountains

Shelly Baldy Peak - Tushars

Imagining a Natural Catastrophe
Still feeling energized after our Grand Canyon rim to rim hike, we decided to maintain our hiking fitness and get out of St. George's heat to hike a remote peak.  I often go to Stavislost website to get ideas.  Sandy Peak looked like a great opportunity for us to explore more of the forested Markagunt plateau near Cedar City, Utah.

The rocks on Sandy's summit are just a microcosm of Earth's largest landslide - covering at least 1,600 square miles of southwestern Utah's high plateaus.  It's called the Markagunt gravity slide, a catastrophic event that happened 20 million years ago when the surface of a huge volcanic field collapsed and slid southward for many miles, placing older rock on top of younger rock.

"Markagunt Megabreccia" is the name of this rock unit.  Breccia refers to jumbled angular rock fragments cemented together by a fine-grained matrix, with "mega' referring to fragments that are larger than one meter length.  Catastrophic events like volcanic explosions create breccias.

"Markagunt" is the Paiute word for "Highland of Trees".  It resides in the Colorado plateau province.  Cedar Breaks National Park rises from one of its highest points.

Our Route:  Avoiding the Steep Climb until it got Really Steep
We parked just off the Old Spanish National Historic Trail in Upper Bear Valley.  Locally, it is a nice graded road out of Paragonah that is also named Forest Road #077, Markagunt Plateau Trail and Bear Valley Road.  

0 - 1.3 miles - walk southeast over Bear Creek right after parking, then walk up road (not numbered) that leads around the knoll to the east and drop into Ashton Creek at when it turns to the right (south).
1.3 miles - 2.9 miles - walk up Ashton Creek.  
2.9 miles to summit - steep walk up Sandy's west slope, avoiding the top of the long ridge just to the north of the summit.
​
We couldn't see Sandy Peak from the road approach.  If I were to do this hike again, I would get out of Ashton Creek sooner and climb the first ridge on the left (east) I could see, which leads easterly to intersect with Sandy's north ridge.  In the creek, we saw what looked to be a hunter's path (found a camera on a tree and a salt lick nearby) that led through a nice forest of pines, aspen and meadows, although we had a bit too many mosquitos.  Getting on the ridge sooner out of Ashton Creek would have probably meant less bushwhacking.  

The steep walk to the top on Sandy's western flank was riddled with deadfall, rocks, and vegetation, adding to precarious footing at times.  Maneuvering around rough volcanic blocks at the summit was fun.  The view was huge.  To the north, we saw smoke from a fire just south of the incredible Tushar Mountain range, and to the southeast the orange rocks near Bryce Canyon.

This area of the Markagunt Plateau, squeezed up between Parowan Valley to the west, and the Panguitch Valley to the east has lots of trails, mountains, and mountain-bike friendly roads to explore.  Gotta get back there!

Visions of a Centro Woodfired Pizza got me through the last bit of route finding out of the creek.  Per tradition, after hikes in this area, we went to this restaurant in Cedar City.  Route-finding, wilderness, amazing view, pretty tough hike (at least for us), great pizza and great beer makes for the perfect day.  Life is good!

Caltopo Map and profile of our GPX tracks.  North at top of map.

Google Earth image of our tracks.

Figuring out our route from Ashton Draw southeastward to Sandy Peak.

Road leading southeastward from Old Spanish Trail (FR 077) toward Ashton Creek.  This could be driven by a 4 x 4.

Point where road turns right and we dropped down into Ashton Creek, 1.3 miles from where we parked.  Sandy Peak not visible, but the long, lighter-colored rise just north of Sandy is poking out between two cone-shaped rises to the right of Fred.

White columbine in Ashton Creek.

Following cow paths in Ashton Creek until we found a wider trail (hunters' ?) that began on the right side of the creek to cross over to the left.

Really nice hike up Ashton Creek, as long as you stay on the trail!

Sandy Peak finally comes into view, but we were on the wrong side of the creek, so we went down and crossed, then went up the steep slope to the saddle just to the left of the peak.

Looked like buck rub on these new aspens to us.

Monument plant growing on slope with Sandy Peak at the top.  The last time I saw Monument plant was on Mackay Peak in Idaho.

Yep, it's a steep and rock-filled slope!

Looks like layers of this volcanic mudflow breccia have separated or spalled from larger rock.

Sandy Peak summit looking northward toward the Tushar Mountain range and a fire south of it.

Descending into Ashton Creek, with lots of aspens.  We are parked in Upper Bear Valley, at top of photo.   Above this valley is Cottonwood Mountain to the west, where there are more trails.  The East Bear Valley Fault runs the length of Upper Bear Valley.

References
Biek, R.F., et al.  Geologic Map of the Panguitch 30' x 60' Quadrangle, Garfield, Iron and Kane Counties, Utah.  2015.  Map 270DM - The Utah Geological Society.

Hacker, D.B., et.al.  Catastrophic emplacement of the gigantic Markagunt gravity slide, southwest Utah (USA):  Implications for hazards associated with sector collapse of volcanic fields.  2014.  Geology vol. 42 #11.