First Visit, September 2001: This is by far the easiest county highpoint in Utah. A good gravel road snakes up to the broad, flat summit and is very popular with tourists. Brian Head Peak is located above (where else?) the Brian Head town and ski resort in the mountains east of Cedar City and Parowan, and about 15 minutes' drive north of Cedar Breaks National Monument. I visited late in the day after poking around in Kane county, about a half-hour south.

There are numerous ways to Brian Head. From Interstate-15 one can drive up from Parowan (some parts of the highway are 10-13% grade) or up from Cedar City via Cedar Breaks, then briefly north into Brian Head. I stopped at Cedar Breaks for a brief visit, and even took a photograph of Brian Head Peak sticking up in the background behind the Cedar Breaks cliffs. From Cedar Breaks I followed the main highway north a little bit to the Brian Head Vista Road, a 3-mile road to the top. I drove in about 2 miles and parked at a small pullout area and figured I'd at least make a little hike out of this peak. I followed the Brian Head Trail a short bit until I discovered it doesn't go to the top. So I just went cross-country up a drainage to the ridge top, and hiked the vehicle road to the top. Objective hazards included 4,000-lb vehicles, inattentive drivers, and dust. Shortly, I was at the top, where about 4 cars were parked and about 15-20 people, including small kids, were milling about. There is a small shelter at or near the highpoint, but the top is flat enough the true highpoint could be any of a small set of bumps. I walked the 300 feet or so to hit them all, all the while looking down into the town and ski area. The views were very nice. Cedar Breaks is visible to the south. Some storms were kicking up to the east. I stayed about 15 minutes then hiked the road back to my truck... an overall 2 mile, 200-foot gain hike. In retrospect, I should have just driven the darn thing!

I drove into Brian Head then out to Parowan and up to Beaver, where I stayed in preparation for my next day's hike up Delano Peak.

Second Visit, July 2007: Back in the area for the first time in six years, I wanted to take my wife to Cedar Breaks National Monument, then drive up Brian Head for some better photos and so she could count it on her county highpoint list. All that, and for the lovely views yadda yadda.

Before leaving I checked in on surgent.net to see what ol' Surgent did back in 2001, and he suggested to 'drive the darn thing', which is what we did. We drove to the small parking area just short of the hut, got out and walked around. Some kids - about age 15 or so - were apparently seeking out geocaches on top, plus scampering down the sides of the steep cliffs until their dad put an end to that tomfoolery. The weather was nice up top, and very cool.

Afterwards we drove down into Brian Head town, then down toward Parowan. On a part of the sustained 13% downgrade my brakes felt a bit mushy. I turned off onto a pullout, taking a lot longer than usual to stop. When I did, smoke rose from the disks and pads! Yikes... Almost lost our brakes on the downhill! We sat for about an hour to let them cool. They are brand new so I hoped all I did was glaze them a bit. When it felt right, we got back in and I put the truck into 4-wheel drive to let it engine-brake the whole way down into Parowan. Down on the safetly of flat land I retested the brakes, and they seemed to be fine. The next day (monday) I took the truck into a Big-O for an inspection. The guy said I did glaze them a bit, but they're fine and I shouldn't be worried. That was good news. All in the name of a little terror!