Hike Mount Mellenthin Manti-La Sal National Forest, UT

Aug 02, 2020 — My first peak on a three-week summer trip, Mount Mellenthin was a leftover from a couple of years ago when I did Mount Tukuhnikivatz and Mount Peale that I really wanted to hike. This route heads up the mountain's northern ridge, avoiding the scree traverse to the peak's south. I liked this short route, but I should note that I don't know if it's legal.

Starting from the Geyser Pass Trailhead, I headed south onto a dirt road that ended shortly after it started. I entered the somewhat thick forest, avoiding downed trees and just heading generally south. The 'shwhack wasn't bad by any means. I just didn't want to deal with it as my start to a trip, and was happy to stumble onto a fairly obvious trail a few minutes into the forest. I considered following it back the way I came to see where it would lead me, but decided I'd do that at the end of the hike. The trail wound back and fourth and was sometimes obscured by downed trees, and it continued for about a mile before it veered west and away from Mount Mellenthin. I left the trail at this point and headed out of treeline and up to the bright white talus that would be my approach to Mount Mellenthin. The peak's north ridge is scenic and photogenic, but I wasn't too excited about the somewhat loose and maybe even a little bit tediously long ascent. It wasn't too bad, but was slower moving than I expected it to be. The ascent was easy Class 2, a couple of steep sections on loose talus really the only obstacle. There were even a few sections where it was clear that humans had carved a social trail through the talus. A few hundred feet from the summit, the ridge curved southeast and became very steep, so I kept just to the right of the ridge, wrapping around the slightly more sketchy section and making my way back to the ridge more safely. The last bit to the sumit was a narrower section of ridge with delightfully scenic views on either side. I rushed off the summit to avoid a thunderstorm.

Back along the trail in the forest, I was dedicated to trying to find its head, but lost it toward the end due to lots of downed trees. I eventually made it to an old building and a small National Forest sign reading that the trail was closed, neither of which I saw when starting since I began my hike as a bushwhack. I wouldn't recommend following this trail, and I would think twice about doing this route. I don't know why the trail was closed, and I couldn't find any info during some cursory research. Instead, the standard way to do Mount Mellenthin seems to be to include it when doing Mount Tuk and Mount Peale, coming from the south rather than the north.