August 31, 2021

By Tim Briese

8.2 miles, 2600’ elevation gain, 7:15 roundtrip time

Brian and I drove to the scenic Needle Creek Reservoir southeast of Doyleville on a good dirt road and parked at a small parking area at the southwest end of the reservoir.

needle creek reservoir

At 850 am we started hiking on a trail to the southwest from the reservoir. In about a half mile we came to a junction and turned left onto a trail designated as trail 493 on my TI map.

on the early part of the trail

going through a lush and scenic aspen grove

After gradually climbing for about two miles we went right on trail 494 and soon left the trail and made a rather steep 400 foot climb up a slope with considerable deadfall to the summit of UN 10536. We arrived there about 11 am. UN 10937 was visible directly across the drainage.

on the summit of un 10536.  un 10937 is visible at the upper right

a nice view from the summit of un 10536

We descended north off of 10536 on a gentler route and crossed the trail in the valley. 

un 10937

We commenced a sharp 700 foot climb through the woods up to the summit of 10937, where we arrived about 1230.

on the summit of un 10937

So far, so good. We had another peak or two in mind today, so we headed northeast down the ridge from 10937 toward the saddle below UN 10349. This thousand foot descent turned into a bushwhacking nightmare, with some very steep slopes, rocky ridge bumps, and abundant downfall.

some of the downfall on the tedious and time-consuming descent to the saddle

Upon eventually reaching the saddle we looked up at a very steep and rough slope to 10349, and in the interest of keeping this at least a marginally enjoyable day we decided to forget it. We headed down the drainage to the northeast, crawling over a horrendous amount of downfall, reached the trail and hiked back to the reservoir. Not as fun as yesterday but at least we climbed two nice peaks. All of the deadfall in this area makes for challenging bushwhacking.