Today I had a newly charged GPS and intended to reach Signal Peak. I started 10:24 am from the Forsyth trailhead in Pine Valley, Utah. Since I had walked the trail 3 times already I continued up to where the trail is at elevation 10160 feet. This is where the trail to Burger Peak takes off to the left. The trail soon disappears, but it is easy to find the top, just to walk up and up.
But today I continued straight ahead to reach Signal Peak. I could see that one had to descend somewhat before heading towards Signal Peak. At elevation 10015 feet I found a lot of rock stables and this might have been put there to tell you this is the place to leave the trail. So I did, but from there on it was no tracks, you just had to look at your GPS and look at the terrain where to head. I picked a route that ascended slowly upwards, I had to jump over or walk around some fallen trees, but it was not too bad. But you walk in a thick forest and you can not see the top, but you know you are close when the grade flattens out.
The top has a lot of stony areas and it is hard to find out what is the highest point. I walked around for a while and suddenly I spotted a plastic jar, containing a book and a pen for you to write in, so I did. From that point you can not see much, I did not try to walk downwards south to see if it was a better view somewhere.
So if you know the route, have a GPS or a good map it is easy to reach the peak. It took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to reach the top. It was a 13 mile hike back and forth.
The waypoint 003 is where a trail takes off to the left that goes to Burger Peak. That trail soon disappears, but it is easy to just go upwards and you will find the peak.
The graph shows the grade and elevation of the hike.
This is the place where the trail flattens out at a little over 1100 feet.
Here you can see the tiny trail that takes off to the left to reach Burger Peak. If you want to do Signal Peak also, dont try to go down another way, retreat to this same spot and continue on the original trail.
Watch where you are walking it is easy to loose the trail.
Here is a photo of the right side of Signal Peak. Dont head for it, it is a dip there before you can ascend. So continue the trail forwards and downwards.
When you have descended to elevation 10015 feet, you will see these tables of stones. This a convenient place to take off to the right to head for Signal Peak.
After a while and a climb of 350 feet, the upward grade flattens out. On your way you will probably not see any trail and you might have to do som zig zag to pass fallen trees. But when you reach the top it looks like this, a lot of stones. But you are still surrounded by the trees.
It is hardly anything to see from the top, and you might wonder where the highest point is, it is pretty flat.
I guess this plastic jar is at the top. Inside is a thick book and a ball pen so you can write about your hike to here.
A nice picture?
People are horsback riding up the trail, but they do not ride to the peaks, just follows the trail and camp overnight on the trails campgrounds. This is about elevation 1100 feet.
When you walk back down the trail you will have many nice views to west and north.
The descent is many places steep, so the time to go down is only a little quicker than going up.
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