Hilgard Mountain P2K
Monroe Peak P2K

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It was time to head home after almost three weeks in Colorado. My return took me along Interstate 70 west through Utah, and I stopped to stretch my legs and tag a few P2Ks on the way. No serious hiking on either of these, just mostly drive-ups. Both are located in the Fishlake National Forest south of the Interstate, and both were over 11,000ft.

Hilgard Mountain

I followed Dean's PB track for Forest Road 015 on the way up. The last several miles of this route are pretty rough, high-clearance needed. There is a trail of sorts that can be used to reach the summit from the road in about a mile and a half. It's pretty crappy, mostly used by the cattle that roam the hills here. I lost the trail at one of several clearings and simply followed a more direct path up talus/boulders/grass slopes on the north/northwest side. In addition to a cow skull left along the trail, I came across a decomposing carcass that was mostly picked over by the mountain animals. The summit is open, rocky, and rounded. There is a post with a calf's bleached skull & spine attached. A battered mailbox serves to hold several registers. In addition to Dean's recent entry, I was surprised to find one from Guy Dahms, a prolific peakbagger with no online presence that I know of. I did a better job of following the trail on the way back, but I don't think it was any faster or easier. Lots of downed trees are doing their best to obscure the trail. For the drive out, I took the Red Creek route (Forest Rd 141) to the north, which was faster for getting me back to the Interstate. It's a longer dirt road than 015, but it doesn't have those two miles of extra rough road.

Monroe Peak

This one is pretty much a drive-up, about 12mi of dirt road from the town of Monroe (presumeably for which the peak is named) on the northwest side. The road is in decent shape that I could average about 20mph with the jeep. Most of the road is pretty good (though bumpy, as Dean points out), a bit rougher near the top where there is a signed fork going to the top. There are a number of telecom installations about the broad summit and sub-summits. I parked as close as I could to the highpoint and walked the last 50ft or so. If there was a register, it wasn't obvious and I didn't really spend any time looking around for one. Drove back down the same way, about 2hrs roundtrip from the interstate.

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