Joe Lott Creek (West Fork)

May 11, 2018 - HIKE

You never know what the day may bring if you have a sense of adventure and a drive to explore.  I can’t believe that while driving to this hike I stopped to see if a gold panner in Mill Creek had swirled up a Nug.  He hadn’t, but his connection to the hills above us was as valuable to me as the gold he sought. He actually knew the guy whose family started the Red Cliffs Mine,  which is right where I want you to park for this week’s hike! He gave me Roger Lister’s phone number who I called right after my hike and he was the sweetest old man.  Roger strained his memory to recall the name of his father’s partner in the clay mining business right around 1950. It was Merlin Morrill who teamed up with Elwin Lister to scratch the bright orange clay deposits from the mouth of Mill Creek Canyon near today’s I-70 m.m. 14.  I learned from Roger that the clay was hauled up to Lehi where it was wetted, tempered, molded, and then fired into bricks. Pretty cool. If you’re ready to go make your own discoveries about our physical world, and possibly meet interesting people out on the trail, then get out there and explore the Tushar Mountains with me!  The alternative is to sit there and read on your phone what other explorers are out here enjoying. Don’t be jelly, join them. Go, Go, Go!

The drive up Mill Creek towards the Kimberly historic mining district is fabulous all in itself,  but if you want to hike the West Fork of Joe Lott Creek(F.Tr. 209), reset your odometer when you get off I-70 at exit 17.  This is near Fremont Indian St. Park, but instead of turning North towards Clear Creek, Turn South onto Forest Road 113. It is really washboardy, but hang in there and travel 5.2 miles, climbing up away from the creek, and look for a left turn onto F.R. 1030.  If you’re careful you can drive most cars another 1\2 mile, but only a Monster Truck could straddle the 5 foot deep rut in F.R. 609, which leads to Oak Flat and the start of hiking trail 209. Park near the orange clay tailings piles and warm your legs up with the 30 minute steep walk up F.R. 609 to Oak Flat.  The stiff, cool breeze atop this saddle is nice and refreshing as you gaze Northeast and spot Molly’s Nipple-the white banded cliff peak above Salina,Ut. Straight east off of Oak Flat, just to the right of a Bonsai-shaped mountain mahogany, you’ll pick up the trail and begin the descent into Maple Spring Hollow. The trail quickly levels off in a pleasant corridor of shady Firs.  At the base of an oak covered hill, the trail curves south, switchbacks north, and gains the saddle into W. Fk. Joe Lott. I was ecstatic when the trails crew and I, in 2013, rediscovered this last section of trail that goes steeply down a sandy hillside and lands in a gorgeous, but tiny meadow of sagebrush and aspen. Usually this drainage(W.Fk. Joe Lott) is swampy, lush, and green,  but with such poor snowpack, I am concerned the wildlife must go elsewhere. The main stem of Joe Lott Trail(F.Tr. 051) is only ¼ mile down canyon to the east. If you tie into it, well, I’m not going to say. I want you to go Into the Tushar’s and Discover it for yourself!