After a successful hike up Grays Peak in Colorado, I drove almost 400 miles across Colorado into Utah toward my next objective, Mount Ellen in the Henry Mountains of southeastern Utah. What started out as a crystal-clear day slowly turned cloudy and gloomier as the day wore on; a cold front was coming in from the north. I left Interstate-70 west of Green River and took UT-24 south to Hanksville, then UT-95 south another 10 miles to the Sawmill Basin Road on my right, a little over 9 miles from the UT-24/95 junction. The road isn't marked very well from the main highway, but it's a good dirt road. The BLM has an old sign about 20 feet in. Not real useful.

I drove in west on this road, which was pretty good, although I had to go slow as the road went in and out of a few creekbeds. After 6 miles, I came to a junction and took another dirt road south into the Henrys. The road was good for the first few miles, then got progressivley rockier, bumpier and steeper, so I put my truck into 4wd for better handling. I followed this road 9 miles to the Lonesome Beaver Campsite, which was closed for repairs. So I decided to just drive the extra 2 miles or so up the mountainside to Wickiup Pass, then right about a quarter mile to a flat open area which made a wonderful campsite at elevation 9,340 feet. Mount Ellen's ridge line was visible about a mile away as the crow flies, so to speak. It was about 5 p.m. I debated whether I should just make a go for it before darkness fell, but ultimately decided to force myself to relax and enjoy the cool campsite, which I had all to myself.

During the night as I was asleep in the back of my truck, I could hear soft pattering sounds on my truck's shell. Too soft to be rain, I thought. I opened the door... it was snow! Very light, and not sticking, but still snow nonetheless! While I thought it was pretty neat, I also got concerned that it may snow heavier and make the roads treacherous. I decided to just wait and see. It snowed most of the night but when I woke about 5 a.m. the next morning, just the barest traces of snow was visible on the ground. I got dressed and decided to go for the hike right away, in part to get it over with and get down in case it did eventually snow heavier. It was still mostly dark, the sun barely rising making the eastern sky a deep purple.

As I drove up the remaining 2 miles of road, I made a turn and in the (mostly) darkness, saw a large animal right on the road, about 100 feet ahead of me. I couldn't make out fine detail. I thought it was a bear at first, then I saw its huge head and eyes reflect in my headlights: it was a bison! The Henrys have one of the few free-roaming bison herds in the United States and I was face-to-truck with one of them, a big male. I slowly inched forward but he just stood there. Then he snorted. Then he took a few steps toward me. I honked. I didn't want to drive right by him; the road was narrow and I was afraid he might head-butt my truck! Then he took a dump in the road, stood there a few more minutes and finally ran up the steep mountainside. I thought that was pretty cool! I was also happy I saw him in the protection of my truck, and not while hiking. All that just to get to the trailhead.

The trail starts at Bull Creek Pass, elevation 10,485 feet. I found a good trail that headed north toward the lower peaks of the range, alternately passing through scrub and talus. After a few minutes a small squall came in and started to drop sleet, then snow. As I was so high up on the ridge, the winds blew the snow horizontally at about 15 knots- not too heavy. Nevertheless, I hiked quickly. The trail ends about 2/3 of the way to the summit. From the trail's end, it's easy cross-country on the rocky ridge to Mount Ellen's summit. There were a couple of false summits, and I had about 50 feet of visibility in the tiny blizzard. As long as I was on the ridge, it was pretty intense. If I hiked down about 20 feet on the lee side, the wind completely abated and the snow fell as gently as, well, gently falling snow. I surmounted one hump I thought was the summit, with rock shelters, only to see the true top another hundred yards away. In short order I made the true summit, signed in and started down. The actual highest summit is just a bland hump of talus. A little to the north is a distinctive conical summit called Mt. Ellen Peak. This is more noticeable from the desert floor, but in fact is about 15 feet lower than the true summit.

I was back to my truck pretty quickly, the round trip of 4 miles and 1,100 feet of gain taking about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The snow let up and the clouds lifted, granting me awesome views of the range and the valleys below. I took plenty of photos... then tragedy: my camera dropped, opened up and exposed the film. I lost most of my Mt. Ellen photos as a result. What you see here is basically what survived. The drive down went well and ultimately the snow wasn't a factor. I drove out of the Henrys and had a breakfast in Hanksville. From here I drove the rest of UT-24 west through Torrey, Bicknell and Loa. The weather all around was pretty nasty. I eventually made a successful bid at Mine Camp Peak, the Millard County Highpoint, then drove the 300 miles back to my folks' place in Henderson, Nevada, the culmination of a very successful 10-day, 4,500-mile trip.