I planned a four-day trip into Utah to bag some peaks up there. This was between a trip to Hawaii earlier in the month, and our planned trip to Beth's family back east in a couple weeks. In the interim, I took advantage of the free time to head up into Utah and escape the awful desert heat. In recent days we had been reaching up to 116 and 118 degrees, with lows in the mid-90s.

I left home at 4 a.m., with the temperature at 98 F, according to our thermometer which is usually very accurate. Ugh. I drove up Interstate-17 through Flagstaff, then US-89 through Page, then into Kanab, Utah, then some more through Panguitch, Circleville and Koosharem, finally rolling into the lovely little burg of Loa around 1 p.m., in pleasant weather. Wayne County has more scenery per square yard than most places in the world, with Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks within its boundaries, and endless gorgeous high-desert sandstone bluffs and forest everywhere else. Even the ugly parts of Wayne County are something else. Loa is the county seat.

The highpoint of Wayne County is on top of Boulder Top Mountain, which is really a gigantic plateau whose top is over 11,000 feet elevation. On top this broad plateau is a little hill called Bluebell Knoll, the actual highpoint. The weather was behaving and so I continued on my journey.

I followed the directions in High In Utah and drove south out of Loa into the community of Bicknell, then following a series of local paved and BLM dirt roads before meeting up with the Dixie National Forest Road. The roads were gravel and pretty good, except for some annoying washboarding. About 20 total miles later, the road makes a final steep push up to the plateau’s top, then bumps and grinds its way another three miles to Bluebell Knoll. I parked at a junction to the southeast of the knoll.

The hike went very quickly and easily: I didn’t even change out of my Teva sandals. In about 10 minutes I had walked the quarter-mile and 150 feet of gain to the broad top, where I found a cairn, post and big rock nearby, plus a register. The views were very nice, including a nice view of Raft Lake to the northeast. I spent a few minutes on top, then walked back to my truck, where I brought out the camp chair and had a nice lunch. I was in no hurry. Soon, though, I got moving.

The drive down went well, and I decided to follow a different road out, directly back to Loa and avoiding Bicknell and some road construction along the way. In Loa I stopped at the food mart, where my cell phone pooped out on me, and the pay phone was not working either (I wanted to call my wife), so the nice ladies in the market let use the store’s phone. That was sweet! So, in return, I’ll put in a good word for the Loa Food Mart. Stop in, say hi, and get your supplies there.

The Sevier County highpoint, Fishlake Hightop, is just a few miles up the road, northwest out of Loa. I drove some good gravel roads and found a nice camp space, setting myself up for a hike of that peak the next morning.