Hike Temple Mountain Overlook Peak via Temple Wash San Rafael Swell BLM, UT

Feb 20, 2021 — Temple Mountain Overlook Peak (Peak 6100) is a nice overlook along the rim of the San Rafael Reef. There are at least two ways to get to the high point. The more standard route follows likely would mean coming from the southeast through Temple Wash. This sandy wash leads through some gentle wannabe-narrows before an old ATV/mining trail leads the way farther up Temple Wash. We reached a junction, where heading right leads to a small arch known as Arrowhead Arch. This was a feature we learned of from the website gjhikes.com and we included it in our route since it was so close, but in my opinion it's probably not even worth the visit.

We continued along Temple Wash until the ATV trail led out of the canyon and onto Temple Wash's south rim. The old road continued to just a few hundred feet from the summit, where Class 2 brought us up from there. The obstacles were minimal until the Class 2 summit block. We had nice views toward the impressive Temple Mountain to the north.

If you'd rather shorten the hike and exlude Arrowhead Arch, you can use this alternate trailhead (38.66052, -110.67067). The slope is Class 2 and meets up with an ATV road not long after reaching the top of the slope. This route would make the hike 2.1 miles and 800 vertical gain.

I should also note that the imagery is incorrect on my attached map; a rather major-looking bench circles the south side of the peak, but this bench doesn't actually exist in real life. I indicated this false feature on the map.