Click to enlarge panoramic view
Little Black mountain is located Northwest of Downtown Salt Lake City and is easily accessed from the Salt Lake Avenues. There are many trail-heads that will lead you to the mountain (as long as you are headed in the right direction). The trail-head we chose is located on Richland Dr. just off of North Bonneville Dr. located in the Salt Lake Avenues. For Directions to Richland Dr. click here.
The first part of the trail starts out up a well traveled hill very popular with mountain bikers. After descending the first hill there is an intersection of trails, continue heading East up a small ridge and then turn to the left and follow the ridge to the top of the hill. This is the first "Hill" along the ridge that heads to Little Black. After each hill the trail descends slightly and then climbs up higher with then next one. The second hill top also leads to the Avenues Twin Peaks. To summit Twin Peaks continue heading south up to the top of the first Twin Peak. Twin Peaks has some nice views of the Salt Lake Valley but not nearly as breathtaking as Little Black.
Looking towards Little Black Mountain
View from one of the Avenues Twin Peaks
Head back to the Northeast and continue along the ridge toward the final destination. There are a few more small climbs till you get to the final climb up to the top. The last mile or so is quite difficult as you make your way to the summit. Once to the top take a look around the view extends North from Ogden and Ben Lomond Peak all the way South to Utah Lake and Mount Timpanogos, From the Uinta Mountains to the East with Deseret Peak and the Great Salt Lake to the West.
Snowy final stretch
Joeh on his way up the last bit of steep terrain
It took us a while to catch our breath before heading back down. Don't forget to sign the register at the top. If you want more of a hike the ridge continues on to Lookout Peak, we decided to turn around. On the way back there are several branches in the trail that head back to various trail-heads. We missed the trail that brought us up the mountain and ended up heading down "The Bobsled" which is a popular mountain bike trail. The Bobsled trail was more step with many curves, fun for bikers, it made us glad we were going down the trail as it would have been a difficult climb up. The total trip took us just under 4 1/2 hours and we hiked for about 9 miles round trip.
Geological Benchmark (no elevation engraving)
Geocache register
View Little Black Mountain 5-25-11 in a larger map
Total Distance: 15.56 km (9.7 mi)
Total Time: 4:25:56
Moving Time: 3:21:21
Average Speed: 3.51 km/h (2.2 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 4.64 km/h (2.9 mi/h)
Max Speed: 11.91 km/h (7.4 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 1564 m (5132 ft)
Max Elevation: 2376 m (7794 ft)
Elevation Gain: 1167 m (3830 ft)
Max Grade: 1 %
Min Grade: -2 %
Recorded: Wed May 25 06:46:23 MDT 2011
This one looks so hard. I don't know if I could do it. Good job guys!!
ReplyDelete