Tabby's Peak, Cedar Mountains - November 19, 2019

scatman

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I took the day off from work to head out to the Cedar Mountains in the west desert to hike up Tabby's Peak before the weather turned south here in Utah. Tabby's Peak is located in the southern portion of the Cedars, and the easiest access point is from Rydalch Canyon. It took us a couple of hours to drive to the canyon, and along our drive south along the west side of the Cedars we saw 17 antelope. We parked my Jeep at a point where a drainage intersected with the dirt road, and then we made our way up the drainage to a saddle located between Tabby's Peak and unnamed peak 5485. After a short break, we proceeded to make our way up the northwest line to the summit ridge of Tabby's Peak. Once on the ridge, we then had a short scramble to the northeast and the summit. After taking a long lunch up top, we headed back down (southwest direction this time) to the Jeep and headed back home by driving over Rydalch Pass and down into Skull Valley and back to Salt Lake.

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Heading south on the west side of the Cedar Mountains

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Just entered Rydalch Canyon with Tabby's Peak ahead.

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Tabby's Peak - viewed from the south

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Making our way up the drainage

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First view of Skull Valley, the southern tip of the Stansbury Range and the Onaqui Mountains to the southeast

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View of the top from the saddle

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A lot of dead Junipers to take pictures of along the way

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Danny digging in

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We were aiming for these rocks with lichen on them along the summit ridge

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Looking northeast along the summit ridge at the summit

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Approaching the high point

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Looking north along the Cedar Mountains. The high point of the range can be seen in the middle of the image.

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Looking east towards the Stansbury Range and Deseret Peak

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Looking west towards Wildcat Mountain and Nevada

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Deseret Peak across Skull Valley

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Looking southeast across Skull Valley towards the Onaqui Mountains

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Looking southwest towards the Dugway Range

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Looking south

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Kite flying time

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Looking down below for wild horses

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Our summit shot

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Heading back down

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Horse bones ?

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Wild horse scat

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Small spring we ran into on our way back to the Jeep.

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The Jeep eagerly awaits our arrival. :)

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Tabby's Peak from the Skull Valley side of the Cedars.
 
wow, love it! so fun to get to that part of the world when the big mountains get unpleasant
 
wow, love it! so fun to get to that part of the world when the big mountains get unpleasant

Yes, a nice change of pace from the Wasatch. I'm 0 for 2 though when it comes to seeing any of the wild horses that are supposed to inhabit the range.
 
I believe they call it an Andesitic Volcanic Neck. You'll have to translate that for me. ;)

Hard to tell just looking at images if it is andesite or not.
Andesitic refers to andesite, it's a type of light-colored lava of intermediate composition. So literally between basalt and rhyolite. You'll see that on explosive volcanoes like Mt. St. Helens.
I have to research your area a bit more if there was some explosive volcanism in the past that would explain it or just an andesitic intrusion in the form of a dike.
Anyway, your trip report made me curious to see the area myself in the future and collect some samples.

But there is definitely some really cool columnar jointing with the lava up there.
 
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