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- Dec 23, 2013
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Yesterday, the Scat family found itself in the beautiful Cache Valley to attempt a summit of Logan Peak. I went to college in Logan (Utah State University) back in 1982 through 87 and I never hiked to the top of Logan Peak while I was there, so essentially this is making up for a wrong when I was young and stupid. Now I am just old and stupid. 
We drove up to Logan Friday night and stayed overnight so that we could get to the trailhead early enough so that I could get up and back down before dark. I had done some exploring to find the trailhead back in February when I was in town for a basketball game, and after we ate breakfast, we headed straight for the Dry Canyon Trailhead.
Dry Canyon turned out to be different than I expected with the first mile being your typical Utah dry canyon, but then the environment completely changed to a lush one with aspens, ninebark, thimbleberries, and cow parsnip. I really enjoyed the hike through this part of the canyon.
The wildflowers, particularly the larkspur, and the yellow violets up top were tremendous from start to finish.
So buckle up for a wild ride. I took over 800 pictures on this hike with three different cameras, plus there is a lot of Scatman tradition to be had within this report.
Review Image:
Overview Map - just over 12 miles roundtrip with a 4,650 feet of elevation gain
Logan Peak on our drive in to Logan on Friday night - taken from Highway 89
Another shot of Logan Peak from our motel parking lot with Dry Canyon on the far left side of the image
Breakfast on Saturday morning. I also had some Honey Nut Cheerios, two yogurts and a glass of orange juice. Gotta feed a
growing boy!
Arriving at the trailhead
Getting ready to go
A trail crew that left maybe 10 minutes before we took off. We would run into them later on up the trail.
You Are Here!
Potential wildlife along this trail
Spider Milkweed
View out of the mouth of Dry Canyon into Cache Valley, with Gunsight Peak in the distance
Multi-use trail
Showy Goldeneye
Hawksbeard
View up canyon
Northern Sweetvetch
Skyrocket
Rocky cliffs on the north side of the canyon
Spreading Dogbane
Look back down canyon with the northern end of the Wellsville Range and the West Hills in the distance
Common Yarrow
Snowbrush
Wild Rose
Mallow Ninebark
A rabbit
Thimbleberry
Ninebark was plentiful along the trail about a mile in
Hookedspur Violet
Wild pea
Solomon's Seal
Woodland Star
Starwort
Hitting the aspen now
Katie on the trail
Sheila on the trail
Me on the trail
Jacobs Ladder
Cow Parsnip
The sun finally catches up to us in a grove of aspen
Dandelion row
Larkspur
Horsemint
Bluebells
Not sure what this is
Chokecherry
Another view back down Dry Canyon
Starting to get some more open views at this point, looking up at a rock formation on the south side of Dry Canyon
And a view of the north side of the canyon
Caterpillars nest on some chokecherry
Yellows Salsify
Western Wallflower
My GPS unit
We took a break at an intersection in the trail at two hours into our hike
Who ate my porridge?
We are going to be switchbacking up this hill
Yet another view down canyon
Can see some snow on the northern slope up high as well as the top of the ridge
Still switchingback up the hill
Lupine
Ragwort
And still on the switchbacks
New trail courtesy of the trail crew
Skyrocket
Penstemon
Buckwheat
Still making our way up the switchbacks
Lewis Flax
A group of arrowleaf balsamroot is still blooming in June on the hillside
Intermountain Dandelion
Larkspur
Ballhead Waterleaf
Bob Stewart Peak and Wellsville Cone come into view as highpoints along the Wellsville Range on the west side of Cache Valley
Some snow in the small basin
Uh-ho - the trail crew left one of their mattock axes by the trail. Hatchet man on the loose!
First View down into Logan Canyon
The trail crew. I thanked them for their efforts.
Heading up to the ridge
Aargh! My legs were starting to get a little tired at this point
Glacier Lilies
At the head of Dry Canyon
Trail heads through some snow ahead.
The trail intersects with this service road. This view is towards the west and the Wellsvilles
This way to Logan Peak. This was a steep bugger.
When I got to the top of the road in the last image, I still had this to go. Definitely a
@Bob trail.
Fewseed Draba
Paintbrush
Logan Peak!
Looks like someone has the mind to run over the Scatman.
Canary Violet - these were all over near the summit
A mailbox perhaps? it was full of trash.
View to the north from the summit of Logan Peak towards the Mount Naomi Wilderness
View looking up Logan Canyon
View to the south
Communications tower on the summit
Butterfly (Fritillary)
The Wellsville Range across Cache Valley
Group shot on the summit
Fisheye fun
The backside of Mount Ogden in the far distance at the center of the image
And the snow topped mountains that you can just barely see at the center of the image is the central Wasatch on the east side of
Salt Lake City
Oh-no, not a Tony's Chocolonely Bar!
Don't let him eat it!
Then these type of things happen . . . . . . .
Double Bikini Pose @Rockskipper !
And of course, a little Kung Fu fighting! If only @TractorDoc were here with his Circus Peanuts!
Trip cameras
49 degrees up top, and the wind was blowing pretty good too. Needles to say, I froze my arse off while there.
Time to head back
Ran into these congregations of ladybugs next to the road. They were all over these particular plants (grasses)?
Sick of this view yet?
Dry Canyon
Logan Peak above
Back on the switchbacks
Logan Peak above
Western Valerian
Geranium
Sego Lily
Dragonfly
Back at the Sube
Historic Center Street in Logan
Hitting the White Owl for dinner. This bar was a favorite hangout of mine and my friends when I went to school at Utah State.
We would head up on the roof and have a pitcher of beer and an owl burger. I'd bring my Allman Brother's CD "Eat a Peach" with
me and the owner of the owl would put it on and I could sit back and watch the world go by listening to "Melissa" and "Mountain
Jam." Those were the days with lots of fond memories!
Unfortunately, the roof (deck) was under construction and would not be open again until July.
So we ate our dinner down
below - an owl burger with bacon, and fries, and a Uinta Cutthroat to wash it down.
And one last parting shot of a portion on Mount Logan viewed from Center Street in Logan
The End.
We drove up to Logan Friday night and stayed overnight so that we could get to the trailhead early enough so that I could get up and back down before dark. I had done some exploring to find the trailhead back in February when I was in town for a basketball game, and after we ate breakfast, we headed straight for the Dry Canyon Trailhead.
Dry Canyon turned out to be different than I expected with the first mile being your typical Utah dry canyon, but then the environment completely changed to a lush one with aspens, ninebark, thimbleberries, and cow parsnip. I really enjoyed the hike through this part of the canyon.
The wildflowers, particularly the larkspur, and the yellow violets up top were tremendous from start to finish.
So buckle up for a wild ride. I took over 800 pictures on this hike with three different cameras, plus there is a lot of Scatman tradition to be had within this report.
Review Image:
Overview Map - just over 12 miles roundtrip with a 4,650 feet of elevation gain
Logan Peak on our drive in to Logan on Friday night - taken from Highway 89
Another shot of Logan Peak from our motel parking lot with Dry Canyon on the far left side of the image
Breakfast on Saturday morning. I also had some Honey Nut Cheerios, two yogurts and a glass of orange juice. Gotta feed a
growing boy!
Arriving at the trailhead
Getting ready to go
A trail crew that left maybe 10 minutes before we took off. We would run into them later on up the trail.
You Are Here!
Potential wildlife along this trail
Spider Milkweed
View out of the mouth of Dry Canyon into Cache Valley, with Gunsight Peak in the distance
Multi-use trail
Showy Goldeneye
Hawksbeard
View up canyon
Northern Sweetvetch
Skyrocket
Rocky cliffs on the north side of the canyon
Spreading Dogbane
Look back down canyon with the northern end of the Wellsville Range and the West Hills in the distance
Common Yarrow
Snowbrush
Wild Rose
Mallow Ninebark
A rabbit
Thimbleberry
Ninebark was plentiful along the trail about a mile in
Hookedspur Violet
Wild pea
Solomon's Seal
Woodland Star
Starwort
Hitting the aspen now
Katie on the trail
Sheila on the trail
Me on the trail
Jacobs Ladder
Cow Parsnip
The sun finally catches up to us in a grove of aspen
Dandelion row
Larkspur
Horsemint
Bluebells
Not sure what this is
Chokecherry
Another view back down Dry Canyon
Starting to get some more open views at this point, looking up at a rock formation on the south side of Dry Canyon
And a view of the north side of the canyon
Caterpillars nest on some chokecherry
Yellows Salsify
Western Wallflower
My GPS unit
We took a break at an intersection in the trail at two hours into our hike
Who ate my porridge?
We are going to be switchbacking up this hill
Yet another view down canyon
Can see some snow on the northern slope up high as well as the top of the ridge
Still switchingback up the hill
Lupine
Ragwort
And still on the switchbacks
New trail courtesy of the trail crew
Skyrocket
Penstemon
Buckwheat
Still making our way up the switchbacks
Lewis Flax
A group of arrowleaf balsamroot is still blooming in June on the hillside
Intermountain Dandelion
Larkspur
Ballhead Waterleaf
Bob Stewart Peak and Wellsville Cone come into view as highpoints along the Wellsville Range on the west side of Cache Valley
Some snow in the small basin
Uh-ho - the trail crew left one of their mattock axes by the trail. Hatchet man on the loose!
First View down into Logan Canyon
The trail crew. I thanked them for their efforts.
Heading up to the ridge
Aargh! My legs were starting to get a little tired at this point
Glacier Lilies
At the head of Dry Canyon
Trail heads through some snow ahead.
The trail intersects with this service road. This view is towards the west and the Wellsvilles
This way to Logan Peak. This was a steep bugger.
When I got to the top of the road in the last image, I still had this to go. Definitely a
@Bob trail.
Fewseed Draba
Paintbrush
Logan Peak!
Looks like someone has the mind to run over the Scatman.
Canary Violet - these were all over near the summit
A mailbox perhaps? it was full of trash.
View to the north from the summit of Logan Peak towards the Mount Naomi Wilderness
View looking up Logan Canyon
View to the south
Communications tower on the summit
Butterfly (Fritillary)
The Wellsville Range across Cache Valley
Group shot on the summit
Fisheye fun
The backside of Mount Ogden in the far distance at the center of the image
And the snow topped mountains that you can just barely see at the center of the image is the central Wasatch on the east side of
Salt Lake City
Oh-no, not a Tony's Chocolonely Bar!
Don't let him eat it!
Then these type of things happen . . . . . . .
Double Bikini Pose @Rockskipper !
And of course, a little Kung Fu fighting! If only @TractorDoc were here with his Circus Peanuts!
Trip cameras
49 degrees up top, and the wind was blowing pretty good too. Needles to say, I froze my arse off while there.
Time to head back
Ran into these congregations of ladybugs next to the road. They were all over these particular plants (grasses)?
Sick of this view yet?
Dry CanyonLogan Peak above
Back on the switchbacks
Logan Peak above
Western Valerian
Geranium
Sego Lily
Dragonfly
Back at the Sube
Historic Center Street in Logan
Hitting the White Owl for dinner. This bar was a favorite hangout of mine and my friends when I went to school at Utah State.
We would head up on the roof and have a pitcher of beer and an owl burger. I'd bring my Allman Brother's CD "Eat a Peach" with
me and the owner of the owl would put it on and I could sit back and watch the world go by listening to "Melissa" and "Mountain
Jam." Those were the days with lots of fond memories!
Unfortunately, the roof (deck) was under construction and would not be open again until July.
So we ate our dinner downbelow - an owl burger with bacon, and fries, and a Uinta Cutthroat to wash it down.
And one last parting shot of a portion on Mount Logan viewed from Center Street in Logan
The End.
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