Peak 10,420

 Need an easy peak to climb this summer?  Up where the air is cooler?  An easy, peasy peak?  Try Peak 10,420.  This peak doesn't actually have an official name, but the "Wasatch Core 77 Peak List" calls it the "South Guardsman Pass Peak".  The trail begins on the right hand side of the parking area at the top of Guardsman Pass climbing up one half mile to the summit with an elevation gain of 930 feet.  It took us less than an hour to climb to the summit.

You are rewarded at the top of 10,420 with a really cool cairn.  A cairn /'karn/n: is a heap of stones piled up as a landmark or as a memorial.  Very photo worthy!

Also from the summit of 10,420 you have excellent views of Heber Valley to the east and Brighton resort to the west looking down on Lake Mary and Twin Lakes.

As an added bonus and because we weren't finished hiking we continued on to Lake Lackawaxen.  I love this lake!  It is secluded and very pristine.  Hope it can stay this way!

While walking around the lake we saw many of these swimming around the logs.  It is a tiger salamander!  A young one or eft/newt.  Utah is home to only one species of salamander and there it is!  They must have access to fresh water and usually stay hidden from view under logs, rocks and leaves.  Salamanders can not survive in a polluted environment.  I was lucky to get such as good picture of this one!

We also came upon this fallen tree which had to have been a 100 feet long.

And the Skunk Cabbage was in full bloom!

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"For myself I hold no preferences

among flowers so long as they are

wild, free, spontaneous!" Ed Abbey 

 Wildflower of the Week

These are the blossoms from the skunk cabbage plant.  Skunk Cabbage grow in large patches in subalpine meadows.  The leaves of this plant are really large, easy to recognize and will grow right through a snow bank in spring.  The flowers are lily-like and tower over all other plants.

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Peaks Bagged

1.  Grandeur Peak ♦♦ 8299 

2.  Reynolds Peak ♦♦ 9422

3.  South Guardsman Pass Peak ♦♦ 10,420

******Miles hiked tally     

beginning March 22, 2013

84.6