Scrub Peak is the highest point of the southern half of the Beaver Dam Mountains in extreme southwestern Utah. The range sits at the transition between the lower Mojave Desert to the south and west, and the higher, cliff-and-mesa country of St. George and points east and north. The highest point in the Beaver Dam Mountains is West Mountain Peak, which I hiked back in 2007 while my wife and I were passing through St. George. It’s rare for one fairly small range to have two highly prominent summits, but this is the case with the Beaver Dams. Unfortunately, Scrub Peak registers barely as a blip on most maps. From St. George, the summit is not visible, and even from closer vantage points, the summit would not be obvious at all were it not for some towers sitting atop the peak, and you have to look hard even to see them. Most maps identify Jarvis Peak as the main summit for the southern Beaver Dams. Scrub Peak has higher elevation, but only detailed attention to a topographical map will show this. Thus, poor Scrub Peak stands there in plain sight, in nearly total anonymity.

I was on a three-day swing through southeastern Nevada and southwestern Utah, knocking out a handful of easy prominent peaks in between visits with my folks in Henderson, Nevada. I had driven up to the Pioche area of Lincoln County, Nevada, two days earlier and had success with both Mount Wilson and Highland Peak, both on the same day. Yesterday was a rest day, a chance to sleep in and make a leisurely drive from Pioche to St. George, only about 100 miles. I camped at Cathedral Gorge State Park and did some short hikes and drives in the park, then driving into Utah, made a side trip to log a latitude-longitude confluence at North 38, West 114, north of Modena in the remote Hamlin Valley. I came into St. George via the towns of Enterprise and Veyo, also making another side trip to the Mountain Meadows Memorial site, where Mormon settlers and Indian mercenaries attacked and killed over 100 members of a wagon train of emigrants from Arkansas back in 1857. Even with a slow drive and these side trips, I still arrived in St. George in the early afternoon, so I killed time at a bookstore, then got a cheap but nice hotel room in town to shower and relax.

From St. George, the Beaver Dams are visible as the distant range off to the southwest. The topography is very severe here: The lands drop in elevation from the northeast to the southwest, but then the lands gain again at the Beaver Dams and farther south, the Virgin Mountains. Both ranges have steep, dramatic cliffs to the southwest, dropping dramatically to the Mojave Desert; the transition is very fast and very impressive. The north half of the range has much more forest cover on it, while the southern half is bare, with low grasses and cactus dominating. Scrub is also lower than West Mountain Peak by about 800 feet, and given the heat I encountered on West Mountain back in 2007 (about the same time of year, too), I knew it would probably be very hot on Scrub, and nothing on it to shield me from the sun. As such, I opted to get a pre-dawn start from St. George with the intent of being parked and possibly hiking before sun-up.

There was a full moon tonight, and it was still high enough to offer good light as I made the drive from St. George via Santa Clara, Ivins, and the Shivwits Reservation down old US-91 to the dirt-road turn-off toward Scrub Peak, about 30 miles total. Having done this drive once already helped me, and I made good time. I found the dirt road (Marked as the Woodbury Study Area) and turned onto it, heading east and northeast, generally along the southern perimeter of the range. In the dark I couldn’t see much in grand detail, but the full moon helped when I had to stop and get out a couple times. From US-91, I followed this Woodbury Road for 6.3 miles heading toward Bulldog Pass, then turned left onto a two-track that leads to the summit, a rough service road for the occasional visitors to the towers. I managed to drive in about 1.8 more miles up this marginal 4-wheel drive road. I parked at a little pull-out at 5,100 feet elevation, per Dean Molen’s suggestion via his Summitpost page. I was pleased to get this far, leaving me just over two miles from the summit with about 1,800 feet of gain. The main road is in fine overall shape, but the little service road definitely is a notch rougher, although stock 4-wheel drive should be adequate to get where I got to. (Update, 2011: this side road has been washed out. Hikers will have to park along the main road now.)

I started hiking at 5:15 a.m., just as the sun was barely breaching the eastern horizon. It was mostly dark and I was in a canyon for much of the first portion of the hike. Still, I had plenty of light to navigate by, and all I had to do was follow the road. Even at this early start, the air was warm, probably only in the mid-70s, suggesting another hot day once the sun got high in the sky. The road looked fine for the first few hundred yards, then it got ridiculously steep, probably pushing a 35 degree slope. On the upside, I was going up and making fast progress in this direction. This road certainly doesn’t waste its time. The steep portion of the road moderated a little and came to a locked gate, roughly elevation 5,900 feet and about a half-mile from where I had parked. If you’re gutsy enough to drive to this point, you’ll have to stop here no matter what. There is enough room at the gate to park and turn around.

Past the gate the road continues on its upward journey, traversing on some west-facing slopes covered in burnt tree snags, evidence of a fire from long ago. The fire looked to be pretty bad, as not one tree seemed to survive, and I saw no evidence of any saplings growing in their places. The road’s grade would alter between fairly steep to very steep, but I pushed forward, trying to make good time up to the top and take advantage of the shade afforded by the hillsides. For reference, a peak marked as 6,290 feet and topped in a dark-colored plug of rock stood to the west and served as a good gauge of my relative elevation. The road switchbacks a couple times and finally emerges onto the main spine of the ridge. I took my first and only break here, getting out my sunglasses and checking out my map. I was moving fairly quickly thereafter. The road works up another knob, then there it is, the summit and its towers, not far ahead. The road stays low on the west side of the slopes again before coming up to the top from the north. A small shed sits at a saddle, while the summit is dominated by a communications tower; signs back at the gate indicate this is used by the Mohave County (AZ) Sheriff’s Office. It was barely 6:45 a.m. when I made the top. The air was still but nice, and I had wonderful views in all directions with nice lighting effects from the low-angled sun. A ridge point about ½ mile north is shown as 2 feet lower than Scrub’s summit, but from the summit, it appeared obviously lower, and even sighting it via water bottle level showed it to be obviously lower. I opted not to hike over to it, happy and satisfied I was at the actual summit. I spent about 15 minutes here to relax, change my shirt, get some drinks and shoot some photos.

The hike down took an hour, and I had to go slow and be extra careful with my left ankle, still sensitive from twisting it a month ago on another hike. The steep slopes and sometimes rubbly road surface meant I had to really watch myself, and more than once I slipped a little here and there but never actually fell. Under normal circumstances this would not have been an issue at all. The gate seemed to come quicker than expected, then came the really steep bit of road below the gate. Okay, here I had trouble, and my ankle was just itching to roll on itself, so I simply told it no, don’t you dare. I did take a break at the base of this steep stretch in some shade, noting that yes, it was rather warm already! I was back to my truck by 8 a.m., all in one piece and pleased to be down safely. The early start was a good call as the warmth was really kicking in. Vegas was in the 106 range in recent days, so I figured up here might see 95 at the hottest part of the day. That’s what I had on West Mountain Peak two years ago and it kicked my butt. This time, everything worked well.

I changed into dry clothes and made the slow rumble down this service road back onto the major dirt road, eventually leading back out to old US-91. I was surprised to see another truck on this road! I came down onto the main road about a quarter-mile behind him, but he was going very slowly and while I tried not to gain on him too quickly, I eventually did when he simply stopped in mid road, not aware I was behind him. He got out, saw me, got back in, pulled aside, and I slowly inched past him, thanking him. No response, stood there like a statue. Whatever. I rolled out to US-91, took some photos, then drove into Mesquite for some cholesterol at McDonalds. The drive back to my folks’ place in Henderson took about 90 minutes, and I had a nice day visiting with my parents and my brother and his family, who came up unexpectedly to show off their new motorboat.

My little trip had gone well with three successful summits and a good test for my ankle. I was pleased to get Scrub’s summit, since I probably would not have bothered otherwise had my original plans come through (i.e. I had not twisted my ankle causing me to trade my grander peak hikes in for simpler road hikes). Scrub is a bit far for me to drive (over 400 miles) to justify it on its own, so it was nice to include it in with this little journey. As is often the case, it turned out to be a real treat of a hike and a neat summit, definitely worthy of a visit. The scenery is quite nice, and I would vote that it’s much prettier overall than West Mountain Peak. It’s certainly much less visited, probably seeing just a handful of hikers in a typical year. Another hidden jewel of the desert.