Logan Peak - June 13, 2026

[scatman]

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.

 

[TractorDoc]

Ah, the good old days!

I sense the nostalgia was quite motivating for you. . . in all your pictures you are leading Shelia and Katie up and down the trail!

Cool ladybug pictures.

And of course, a little Kung Fu fighting! If only @TractorDoc were here with his Circus Peanuts!

What form! I hear a Circus Peanut is the reward when you achieve the level of Orange Belt.

 

[Bob]

Not the Logan I knew.... I left in 1979

 

[Rockskipper]

Dang, what a wildflower journey! Is the Crepery still there on Center St? It used to be out towards the Triangle next to an espresso drive-thru called Jitters. I frequented both places when I went to school there. I need to go back for a visit. Your post brought back some memories (especially of bitter cold and inversions). My friends and I used to go have lunch on Sundays at Angie's and watch everyone come eat in their Sunday best. We were dirtbags and loved it, reminded us of home when we were kids and our parents made us go to church. (Didn't work, we still turned into heathens.)

Have you considered sending the Tony's Chocolonely people pictures? Maybe they'd send you some samples in exchange for not advertising its transformative powers.

 

[wsp_scott]

Wow, you got all the flowers on this one.

Did you see many people on this beautiful day?

As a side note, I don't know how you are still married with your mattock/kung fu/BCP poses. Your wife must be a very tolerant woman

 

[scatman]

Ah, the good old days!

I sense the nostalgia was quite motivating for you. . . in all your pictures you are leading Shelia and Katie up and down the trail!

Cool ladybug pictures.


What form! I hear a Circus Peanut is the reward when you achieve the level of Orange Belt.

Yes, I'm afraid that I am getting more nostalgic the older I get.

I'm not sure why they can't keep up with a guy with bad knees and plantar fasciitis on his left heel.

What belt level am I? White belt? Are you ready for some Kung Fu action on Cache Creek?

 

[scatman]

Not the Logan I knew.... I left in 1979

Yeah, it's all grown up now. If that is what it is called. I prefer the old quaint Logan.

 

[scatman]

Dang, what a wildflower journey! Is the Crepery still there on Center St? It used to be out towards the Triangle next to an espresso drive-thru called Jitters. I frequented both places when I went to school there. I need to go back for a visit. Your post brought back some memories (especially of bitter cold and inversions). My friends and I used to go have lunch on Sundays at Angie's and watch everyone come eat in their Sunday best. We were dirtbags and loved it, reminded us of home when we were kids and our parents made us go to church. (Didn't work, we still turned into heathens.)

Have you considered sending the Tony's Chocolonely people pictures? Maybe they'd send you some samples in exchange for not advertising its transformative powers.

Yeah, the wildflowers were rocking, especially the larkspur, and the violets up top.

I think the Crepery is still there, but not sure about Jitters. That's a great name for a coffee place by the way.

The cold and inversions were definitely not for the weak at heart.

I used to hit Angie's every now and then. When I was going to school, there was a JB's and I'd alternate between the two.

Do you remember the Cactus Club? I used to go see some bands play there on occasion. I can't remember when it shut down. And I still frequent the Factory Pizzeria when I'm in town. They have great sourdough crust on their pizzas.

We need to head north and open a brewery in Logan. Skipper and Scat's Brewery has a nice ring to it. Of course, we can only serve stouts, porters and Scotch ales. Maybe an occasional brown ale like Moose Drool. We could name our beers after wildlife - Scatman's Grizzly Stout, Rockskipper's Wolverine Porter, etc..

 

[scatman]

Wow, you got all the flowers on this one.

Did you see many people on this beautiful day?

As a side note, I don't know how you are still married with your mattock/kung fu/BCP poses. Your wife must be a very tolerant woman

I was pleasantly surprised at the wildflowers on this one. On all my other hikes this spring, the wildflowers have been rather dismal, due to the warm winter we had I'm guessing.

We had a couple pass us about an hour into our hike and a trail runner passed us on our break at the two hour mark. Of course, we ran into the trail crew folks at the head of Dry Canyon, and then there were numerous people on the peak who had driven dirt bikes, ATVs, and side-by-sides up from the other direction. I gave the guys (father and son) on the ATVs some of my Chocolonely bar.



Sheila is very tolerant. She is used to my antics.

 

[Rockskipper]

I was up in British Columbia one summer and came upon a drive-through espresso called Jitters. Kind of did a double take. And of course I stopped.