Hilgard Mountain's summit looking toward the northeast, with San Rafael Swell area far right.
Fred on Hilgard Mountain's summit. Register at summit.
Trip Stats caltopo map Location: Utah - Fishlake National Forest Overview: Surprising variety, peace, solitude, and pristine aspen groves await you on this unique hike. Skip the standard route to Hilgard Mountain from the north. Instead, approach its magnificent summit from its south ridge via the Great Western Trail, scrambling through a large boulder field and a tangled forest replete with elk sign. Distance/Elevation gain: 7.5 miles out and back/2,100' Trailhead = 9,400', Summit = 11,533' Prominence: 2,090' Date Hiked: August 31, 2025 Trailhead: Coordinates: 38.68554, -111.57453 (see directions on button above). Road condition: graded forest roads with some small rocks. No high clearance needed, passenger car slow. Maps/Apps: USGS 7.5 min. Hilgard Mountain quad, Topo MapsUS (Apple iphone) shows Great Western Trail. Fishlake National Forest Map - USDA. Considerations: a good working knowledge of route-finding is required for this route; once you get off Great Western Trail, the route is not marked, nor is there a trail. We use a Garmin GPS and Topo MapsUS app (Apple iphone). Hunting Schedule: visit Utah Hunt Planner to be advised about hunting seasons. Mountain Weather Forecast for nearby Thousand Lake Mountain Geology: Mount Belknap Volcanics: enormous eruption of alkali rhyolite, including ash-flow tuffs, viscous lava flows, and volcanic breccias (sharp, angular rocks cemented together in a matrix of finer sediments) ~ 20 million years ago, in the Tushar Mountains to the southwest of Mount Hilgard. History: named after Julius Erasmus Hilgard, the fifth superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, the first scientific agency of the U.S. government and an organization that conducted early surveying in the US. His parents emigrated from Bavaria in 1835 and Julius was home-schooled. In the Civil War, he constructed maps and charts with surveys. A geodetic survey establishes highly accurate latitude and longitude and elevation data over large distances taking Earth's curvature into account, so that maps, boundaries, and large-scale engineering projects can be accurate. Interactive CalTopo map: click on "Open in CalTopo" at top left.
Hike Summary
|
Categories
Petroglyphs/Pictographs Southern Utah Hikes California Desert Hikes Nevada Hikes Arizona Hikes Idaho Hikes To Subscribe to Explorumentary adventure blog and receive new posts by email:
Sue and Fred
Exploration documentaries – "explorumentaries" list trip stats and highlights of each hike or bike ride, and add 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. |
To get out of St. George heat and add a couple more peaks to my Peakbagger My Ascents page, we spent three lovely nights in Torrey, Utah, amidst colorful Moenkopi Formation rocks. The cool nights and mornings were a good change, and the pleasant temperatures perfect on two peaks we summited - Fish Lake High Point and Hilgard Mountain.
I would rate this hike high on three scales: beauty, variety and summit views.
To get great peak ideas, I often go to stavislost.com. I like Stav's approach to Hilgard Mountain via the Great Western Trail. A remarkable feature is the incredibly beautiful and huge aspen groves. To see all of these aspens golden in a month from now would be stellar.
Also memorable was the large and steep stable boulder field we encountered. We became pretty skilled at stepping and hopping on rounded boulders made of volcanic rock initially ejected from a huge stratovolcano to the west.
The Great Western Trail system covers 4,455 miles from Canada to Mexico. It links diverse environments including desert, forest, alpine places, and has both non-motorized and motorized segments. Utah claims 1,600-miles of this trail, which officially became Utah's Centennial Trail in 1996. This portion we used as access to Hilgard Mountain had occasional sign posts with the GWT emblem, but the trail was not always easy to follow. We followed a double-track trail through a signless wooden fence to the east until it reached the first aspen grove, where it became a single-track most of the way to the saddle on Hilgard's south ridge.
I was able to follow the GWT on my TopoMapsUS app, designed for Apple iPads and iPhones. I highly recommend this app for navigating cross-country, off-trail because you can record your tracks and be able to see your return. You download the topo maps you will be using beforehand so they will be available when you get to the hike. I also bring my Garmin GPSMAP to record our tracks and trackback, so I have two navigation systems going at the same time.
We passed through a green metal gate, past a water trough, through some pretty aspens, some of them with trunk name carvings. Some of the most beautiful aspen groves I have ever seen!
We found our first GWT sign on a post at the beginning of a meadow, a little under one mile into the hike. It was sometimes easy to get off the trail as it headed southeast through expansive meadows. At about 1.75 miles, climb steeply along a run-off gulley to meet a forest and two GWT signs: one on a post in the meadow and one on a large tree trunk at the start of the forest.
The GWT steepens and continues through a nice forest leading to the saddle on Hilgard's south ridge, at 2.2 miles. I took a waypoint here on my GPS in case the way back to the saddle would be a little tricky to find. From here, you are on your own, as there is no trail through the forest , meadows and boulder fields, and no cairn or duck trail markers. From the saddle, hike up the ridge in a northeast direction.
It's not long before you encounter the steep ~ 0.3 mile boulder field. Once past this, an open grassy plateau, bordered by forest continues to the large-bouldered summit, with not a lot of places to sit comfortably. It does have a sturdy steel triangle structure and a mailbox with a large register inside, reminding me of the horseshoe-studded mailbox on Wheeler Peak's summit in Great Basin National Park, at 13,000 feet.
I was surprised at the spectacular view from Hilgard's summit - it did take my breath away because I wasn't expecting it. The large sky blue basin to the south is Fish Lake. To the northeast is the badlands of San Rafael Swell. The weather was perfect, but we have the luxury of summiting when the forecast for mountain tops is clear. Even so, we always plan on getting to a summit by noon.
We found two survey markers - appropriate since this mountain is named after Julius Erasmus Hilgard, the fifth superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, since named National Geodetic Survey, part of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). One of the markers is a triangulation station and the other is an arrow, a reference marker for the triangulation.
This hike is only a little over an hour's drive from Torrey. This hike and Fish Lake High Point, also Sevier County high point exceeded our expectations. We'll be back to this uncrowded area in central Utah.
I would rate this hike high on three scales: beauty, variety and summit views.
To get great peak ideas, I often go to stavislost.com. I like Stav's approach to Hilgard Mountain via the Great Western Trail. A remarkable feature is the incredibly beautiful and huge aspen groves. To see all of these aspens golden in a month from now would be stellar.
Also memorable was the large and steep stable boulder field we encountered. We became pretty skilled at stepping and hopping on rounded boulders made of volcanic rock initially ejected from a huge stratovolcano to the west.
The Great Western Trail system covers 4,455 miles from Canada to Mexico. It links diverse environments including desert, forest, alpine places, and has both non-motorized and motorized segments. Utah claims 1,600-miles of this trail, which officially became Utah's Centennial Trail in 1996. This portion we used as access to Hilgard Mountain had occasional sign posts with the GWT emblem, but the trail was not always easy to follow. We followed a double-track trail through a signless wooden fence to the east until it reached the first aspen grove, where it became a single-track most of the way to the saddle on Hilgard's south ridge.
I was able to follow the GWT on my TopoMapsUS app, designed for Apple iPads and iPhones. I highly recommend this app for navigating cross-country, off-trail because you can record your tracks and be able to see your return. You download the topo maps you will be using beforehand so they will be available when you get to the hike. I also bring my Garmin GPSMAP to record our tracks and trackback, so I have two navigation systems going at the same time.
We passed through a green metal gate, past a water trough, through some pretty aspens, some of them with trunk name carvings. Some of the most beautiful aspen groves I have ever seen!
We found our first GWT sign on a post at the beginning of a meadow, a little under one mile into the hike. It was sometimes easy to get off the trail as it headed southeast through expansive meadows. At about 1.75 miles, climb steeply along a run-off gulley to meet a forest and two GWT signs: one on a post in the meadow and one on a large tree trunk at the start of the forest.
The GWT steepens and continues through a nice forest leading to the saddle on Hilgard's south ridge, at 2.2 miles. I took a waypoint here on my GPS in case the way back to the saddle would be a little tricky to find. From here, you are on your own, as there is no trail through the forest , meadows and boulder fields, and no cairn or duck trail markers. From the saddle, hike up the ridge in a northeast direction.
It's not long before you encounter the steep ~ 0.3 mile boulder field. Once past this, an open grassy plateau, bordered by forest continues to the large-bouldered summit, with not a lot of places to sit comfortably. It does have a sturdy steel triangle structure and a mailbox with a large register inside, reminding me of the horseshoe-studded mailbox on Wheeler Peak's summit in Great Basin National Park, at 13,000 feet.
I was surprised at the spectacular view from Hilgard's summit - it did take my breath away because I wasn't expecting it. The large sky blue basin to the south is Fish Lake. To the northeast is the badlands of San Rafael Swell. The weather was perfect, but we have the luxury of summiting when the forecast for mountain tops is clear. Even so, we always plan on getting to a summit by noon.
We found two survey markers - appropriate since this mountain is named after Julius Erasmus Hilgard, the fifth superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, since named National Geodetic Survey, part of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). One of the markers is a triangulation station and the other is an arrow, a reference marker for the triangulation.
This hike is only a little over an hour's drive from Torrey. This hike and Fish Lake High Point, also Sevier County high point exceeded our expectations. We'll be back to this uncrowded area in central Utah.
Signless trailhead: walk east on Great Western Trail toward Hilgard, a double-track at the beginning.
Walk along aspen grove on a double-track which passes through a green metal gate.
Quickly reach a water trough, keep hiking through aspens to reach a meadow with a Great Western Trail marker. The trail continues as a single track.
The "newspaper rock" of aspens? The aspen groves were incredibly healthy and beautiful.
At ~ 1.75 miles and 10,200 foot elevation, reach a large sagebrush meadow where the trail steepens, heading southeast.
An old trail marker at steep part of trail as it comes out of the meadow, just before it goes into the forest (left).
A new trail marker just upslope at the edge of the forest (right).
A new trail marker just upslope at the edge of the forest (right).
The Great Western Trail can be seen through the forest, with occasional tree blazes to mark the trail. You reach the saddle on Hilgard Mountain's south ridge at 2.2 miles and 10,600' elevation (right). This is where you get off the Great Western Trail to head north/northeast up Hilgard's ridge. The GWT continues over the ridge, down to Willie's Flat and Willie's Flat Reservoir to the east.
Walking along Hilgard's south ridge; coming out of the forest to a large meadow. It's straight up the boulder field from here (right).
Stable but steep: Class 2 scrambling on volcanic rock boulder slope goes on for longer than you want!
Clockwise from upper left: finally ascending out of the boulder field into pretty meadows lined by forest; easier walking - making our way to the summit which is still out of sight; looking back at Fred and Fish Lake behind him (we were up on the plateau on the right the day before!); finally approaching Hilgard Mountain summit.
Hilgard Mountain's rocky summit. It's always fun to discover what's on top: steel triangular sign, mailbox register, and register entries.
The aspen inscription to me looks like Douglas engraved in 1974 and 1984.
The aspen inscription to me looks like Douglas engraved in 1974 and 1984.
Sue and Fred on Hilgard's summit on Fred's 64th birthday!
A steel tripod on Hilgard Mountain's summit that appears to read: 1989 - Achievement. The mailbox summit register, like the one on Nevada's Wheeler Peak, has horseshoes on it.
My entry into summit register: "Sue and Fred, August 31, 2025. Happy Birthday Fred! 64 years old. I'm the second one on this peak from Omaha, Nebraska (originally)."
Hilgard Mountain summit looking north.
Triangulation station (left) and reference marker (right) survey markers on Hilgard Mountain's summit.
Heading back down to the valley below; Fish Lake in the distance.
