Maple Mountain

It is getting cold here in Provo. Snow has already fallen in the mountains to the east a few times and I decided I had to get up there before winter really set in.

I decided to go after Maple Mountain. It is just over 9000' and stands directly to the east. One big challenge with this particular choice was there are no trails to the summit..... and I underestimated how much snow was still on the ground.


Originally I was going to hike by my lonesome but decided late to post a general invitation to people in the MBA program to join me if they wanted to. Dustin Cook decided to join in. We headed out from my place at 6:00am, climbed up to the Y and continued up through Slide Canyon to Bear Flats. Starting at Bear Flats the ground was entirely covered with 6-12" of snow and we were hiking on terrain neither of us had ever hiked. We were able to follow animal tracks and occasional footprints up to Apache Flats but from this point on there was no trail and no foot traffic to follow. We bushwhacked up to the ridge running northeast from the peak and stomped through the snow making it to the peak just after 10:00am.

The peak of Maple Mountain.

The views made the tough climb more than worth it. This was my first real view of all the mountains to the east of Provo that Y Mountain and Squaw Peak hide. I could also see Provo Peak, Freedom Peak, Cascade Mountain and a number of the big peaks to the north and south including Timp, Lone Peak, Nebo, and Spanish Fork Peak.

View of Provo Peak (left) from Maple Mountain

View of Cascade Mountain from Maple Mountain

As you probably guessed, the whole experienced whetted my appetite for more. My guess is that I won't get a lot more in this winter but I may be able to go after a couple of smaller ones (i.e. Squaw Peak) on snowshoes.