Hike Partridge Mountain and Central Canyon Mountains Fishlake National Forest, UT

Sep 25, 2024 — The Canyon Mountains are probably best known to recreational visitors for its ATV trails coming in from Oak City, but also by peakbaggers for its high point, Fool Creek Peak. Today, I was tackling a few of the minor summits in the heart of the range — rarely-visited peaks, only one of which has an official name: Partridge Peak. Like most things I’ve learned in life, I had forgotten that much of the Canyon Range had burned. Normally, I wouldn’t mind hiking through a burn scar, but doing so during peak foliage in Central Utah made me feel a bit like I was missing out. Even though it’s been 14 years since the fire in 2012, the range hasn’t made much visual progress in terms of recovery.

Both my ascent and descent used ATV trails, their abundance unsurprising since in Central Utah most people seem to prefer navigating the mountains with their vehicles rather than on foot. This made it easier for me to cover the beginning and ending miles of this loop, leaving the real challenge to the miles linking the peaks along the ridge crest, where there were no trails. Naturally, I encountered numerous wandering cows all the way up to the crest. ATVs and cows. Ah, idyllic rural Utah.

I parked at a clearing before locating the start of a narrow ATV trail marked with a sign that read “vehicles 50 inches or less.” This dirt trail took me up the forested South Walker Canyon, where the thick foliage provided a vastly different experience compared to the nearly barren slopes on either side. This section would turn out to be nearly the only fall foliage I’d see today. The trail gained elevation moderately until the final switchbacks to the saddle above, where it steepened. There were three abandoned ATVs at the saddle, which I assume belonged to hunters, which made me a bit uneasy about my choice to wear dark clothes.

I started up to Partridge Mountain first, a steep slope with some embedded rocks. The final few hundred feet had some fun Class 2 scrambling and the views from the top where quite nice. I could see Fool Creek Peak to the north, as well as my traverse to come. Next up was unnamed Peak 8919, the ascent featuring terrain that was slightly more brushy than Partridge Mountain, though it wasn't particularly annoying. The summit of Peak 8919 sat a bit farther to the east, separated by a couple of rock outcroppings that briefly made me wonder if I should bypass them. Ultimately, the ridge itself was manageable and didn’t exceed Class 2+, allowing me to avoid sidehilling on the brushy slopes.

I was surprised by some potentially challenging terrain past Peak 8919. I considered dropping down to avoid it, but I’m glad I stayed on the crest, as it didn’t exceed Class 2 and added some enjoyable rocky fun to the otherwise slope-dominated traverse. When the ridge began to dip to the saddle with the next peak, it fell away sharply. Rather than risk navigating potentially dangerous cliffs, I veered right off the crest and descended a wide Class 2 talus gully. After a few hundred feet, I exited the gully to the left when the cliffs became passable and returned to the crest below the tricky section.

Next was Peak 8224, which involved more slope hiking, a couple of short scramble obstacles, and a few rocky lumps adding vertical gain. I sidehilled around two small lumps before reaching the summit, where I found a faint animal trail. I noticed an official-looking trail snaking up the slope to the north, and later discovered this was the Lyman Canyon Trail. This might have been an easier route to Peak 8224 had I not chosen to do the traverse, though I'm not sure of its condition lower down post-fire.

To the south, I could see Williams Peak, which I initially planned to tackle later in the day. However, my enthusiasm for the traverse derailed those plans. The west face of the Canyon Range features impressive cliffs, though less dramatic than they appear on a topo map or from I-15. The route to Peak 9152 involved some brush and downed trees, with the final few hundred feet being rockier.

I could see the low humped form of my last summit for the day, the lower and insignificant Peak 8526. There was a steep and brushy drop initially that turned into a more pleasant wide slope to reach the saddle. I enjoyed this section, with grasses in the foreground and sweeping views toward Fool Creek Peak, combined with the drop-off on the range’s east side. From the saddle, I found a significant social trail that led most of the way up, with the last couple of hundred feet involving light Class 2 scrambling.

I could have just dropped to the west and attempted to take the Lyman Canyon Trail to cut off some distance, but I was tempted by what appeared to be an ATV trail that would lead me all the way down without any bushwhacking. I quickly located a singletrack trail off Peak 8526 that led down to the end of the ATV road. I suppose if you have two ATVs, you could set this hike up as an easier traverse by parking one at each end, at the spots where I saw the abandoned ATVs. The ATV trail descended to a saddle and continued west. Just under two miles before reaching the trailhead, the trail transitioned to Oak Creek Road, which I had driven in on. I was surprised to find a lone intact pine grove at the Plantation Flat Campground, the only real cluster of trees that hadn’t been destroyed by the fire.