Pencil Point - March 11, 2023

scatman

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It's been a cold March thus far in SLC, but today the sun came out, and I think the high was 44 in the valley, and almost no wind to speak of. I'll take it. :)

This weekend's hike was to Pencil Point, which is a subpeak of Parley's Ridge. I haven't done this hike in ten years, and the first part of the route has changed. The put in a gated community where the old trailhead used to be, so they constructed a new segment of the Shoreline Trail to compensate. This added quite a bit of distance to the hike, but made it much more gradual, until you run into the intersection with the old trail, and that is when it gets steep. We ended up with quite a surprise once we got to the top. Here are some shots of our hike.

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Up above the Subaru on the new section of the Bonneville Shoreline trail

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The nasty spurge along the trail

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The north slopes still have plenty of snow on them

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Making our way along the shoreline trail

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Switchback on a south slope

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Killing the orange, with Jack's Mountain in the distance

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Parley's Ridge above

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Shot up an unnamed canyon, and Parley's Ridge

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Pencil Point above

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Me and Pencil Point

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I'm guessing my shins aren't going to like the next segment

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I might be cussing at this stage, but at least it will get me ready for @Bob's next horse trail. :)

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Running into quite a bit of elk scat

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Olympus to the south

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This section is steep

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Mountain Mahogany on the ridgeline

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Grandeur Peak to the southwest

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Looks like some folks are on the summit of Grandeur

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Almost there

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View from the summit looking east towards Pencil Peak #2 and Parley's Ridge

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Go Aggies!

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Getting ready to take some pictures of something from the summit.

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The Parley's Ridge elk herd is down below. Sweet!

Some shots of the elk. I counted approximately 45 in the herd.
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A look to the north at Jack's Mountain and beyond to Mount Wire, with Carrington Canyon below

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Sheila, taking a picture of some moss on our way back down

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Star moss

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Pencil Peak and Jack's Mountain (R-L)

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Back at the Sube

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Four parasailers coming off Grandeur Peak after our visit to REI after our hike

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On of the out of focus parasailers

We stopped by a grocery store on our way to get pizza. My wife had sent both our kids a shot of me during our hike, and they both responded, without communicating with one another that I looked like a traffic cone. So while in the store, I found the closet thing I could find to a traffic cone. :) Twinners @Rockskipper?
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Shot of Olympus from the store parking lot

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Shot of Pencil Point from the pizza joint

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We ended up getting a double bacon pizza with cheddar cheese. I loaded up my half with veggies as usual.

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And to celebrate the elk herd sighting, I had a Big Bad Baptist Breakfast Baptist, which was quite good. I'll be bringing one of these up for @TractorDoc for our August trip in Jellystone and the Teton Wilderness.

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Poured to perfection! :)


The End.
 
Last edited:
I looked like a traffic cone.
A traffic cone? :thinking:

The orange reminded me of something else entirely. :)

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At the risk of firing a debate amongst the locals, any recs on pizza in SLC? We sometimes grab one on our way through on desert trips, so not too far off the 15.
 
Easy to understand how Pencil Point got its name. Love the elk!

Fun outfit. You must have gotten a lot of looks in the grocery store. :)
 
Too bad the hummingbirds aren't out yet - they would've been all over that outfit. And yes, if the cone had yellow socks, pretty similar. :)

Did you notice that the socks had orange thread circulating throughout the entire sock? I think the elk were impressed. :)

Some more entertainment for you.

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Notice the perfect alignment of the socks and shoes towards Grandeur Peak? It's almost like the sun tunnels in the west dessert. :)
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At the risk of firing a debate amongst the locals, any recs on pizza in SLC? We sometimes grab one on our way through on desert trips, so not too far off the 15.

My favorite, not that you should listen to me, is the Pie. I believe there are four locations throughout the valley now. One is up by the University of Utah, There is another on 3300 South and 200 East, which is probably the easiest to get to off of I-15, just take the 3300 South exit and head east a bit. The one up by the U of U has the best character though.
 
My favorite, not that you should listen to me, is the Pie. I believe there are four locations throughout the valley now. One is up by the University of Utah, There is another on 3300 South and 200 East, which is probably the easiest to get to off of I-15, just take the 3300 South exit and head east a bit. The one up by the U of U has the best character though.
We've ordered and enjoyed pizza from the Pie up by the U of U a couple of times, when Jo had a bit of "retail therapy" not too far away at the now closed Title Nine store. We found The Pie after Jo (who has celiac disease) googled "gluten free pizza in SLC". So I'll take the word of BCP's resident gourmand and we shall search no more!
Good to know about the 3300 south location- it's not far from REI which is another of Jo's "must do's" while in the area, although we usually use 80 and the 215 to get there.
 
Yes do have to agree, maybe more like a circus peanut then a traffic cone. But love your trip reports. Best to you Scat!
 
Nice bright pics. With the current theme, you are missing orange on your pizza. Thanks to the snow this year, those elk have crossed enough roads to know what a traffic cone is, so you probably had them confused. I-80 was scheduled to be closed one hour this morning in order to move a herd across the freeway safely and back to their territory.
Never knew about Pencil Peak though I live on the east side of Parleys Summit. Thanks for the TR !
 
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