18) Bullberry Canyon (map disabled)

Please read the Introduction

A GREAT canyon to experience and enjoy though a tiring hike. The canyon winds through the Carmel and Navajo Formations offering varied interesting canyon shapes and rock types. The vegetation changes dramatically though gradually. The hike starts in Pinyon/Juniper, drops to the grazed, dry, open, South Desert, then slowly climbs 3700 feet through Ponderosa and Douglas Fir forests to the Bristlecone Pine area and on to the high Aspen groves.

The name comes from berries that settlers harvested and made into a meat sauce.

TIME:8-10 Hours.
ELEVATION GAIN:3,700 feet.
DIFFICULTY:Moderate hiking. Difficult route finding.
MAPS: Cathedral Mountain, Flat Top
GEOLOGY:Dikes and the birth of the Waterpocket Fold.
PLANTS:Includes some Bristle Cone Pine trees.
CIRCLE TRIP:No. This is a through trip requiring a vehicle at each end.
ACCESS:The following instructions include those for parking the second vehicle. I have been asked why I don't write this hike in reverse. I have been advised to write this hike in reverse. While walking between Billings Pass and Tub Flat (T) I have asked myself, why not write this in reverse? I insist it is a nicer hike the way it is written. Do as you choose.
From the visitor Center drive 29 miles west on Utah Highway 24 to the town of Lyman. As the road leaves Lyman it bends almost 90 degrees and heads west. A sign to Fremont is 1.6 miles beyond that turn. Go right (north) toward Fremont. You intersect Utah Highway 72 at the first stop sign. Go straight and follow 72 north to mile 11.5. Turn right at the sign to Elkhorn Campground. Go right at the first two junctions and after five miles you get to the signed Polk Creek Road junction. Continue straight 2.7 to the signed Elkhorn junction. Turn left and drive 1.3 miles to Tub Flat. Use patterns change and dirt roads appear or dim with time. There has been an unmarked junction between Elkhorn junction and Tub Flat. Go left at that junction.
Park a vehicle at Tub Flat and return 4.0 miles to the signed Polk Creek junction. Turn right on the Polk Creek road and drive 5.8 miles down to the signed Park boundary on a rocky road. Continue past the Park boundary 1.1 miles to the signed Cathedral Junction. Go straight 0.6 miles to the signed Upper South Desert Overlook. Turn right (west) and go 0.1 miles to the parking area.

Park at Upper South Desert Overlook. Walk west (B) along the canyon rim about one eighth mile to the point where an old road goes down into the canyon. (Do not take the first "path" down off the rim. It only goes to a spring.) Follow the road down into South Desert and continue following it for half a mile or more after the end of the steep drop. Turn right and leave the road at a southwest angle. There are three drainages between the road and the junction of Polk and Bullberry Creeks which require some up and down walking. The best route goes just north and west of the flat topped hill marked 6318 on the Cathedral Mtn. map.

At the junction of Polk (D) and Bullberry drainages Polk creek is a perennial stream. A local person, Colleen Jefferies, says she was always told the creek was named for President James Polk.

There is a huge pour-over about 3/4 of a mile up Bullberry that is very hard to get around. The pour-over can be avoided by going up Polk Creek, the right (north) fork of the junction.

Cross Polk Creek and go up it, hugging the base of the slope on the left (south) side of the creek. Notice the rocks on the other (North) side of the creek. Most of the wall is composed of light gray/green layers with some squishy red/brown layers interspersed. The erosional pattern leaves the hills looking like layer cakes.

Missing picture

About 1/3 of a mile up stream the creek pushes south leaving only a narrow walkway between it and the slope. Just beyond that, a ridge of the light gray/green rock protrudes from the southwest. Walk around the ridge and as you continue notice that ahead, on the left (south), the gray/green ends at a gray slope dotted with trees. With your eye, follow the line between the gray/green and the gray all the way to the top of the ridge to the left (south). Notice some cattle trails near that line.

Leave the creek level (E) and walk up the slope to the left (southwest) generally following the line between the gray/green and gray rocks but stay mostly on the gray slope. (The rock actually isn't gray; it is pure white gypsum that has been weathered and covered with dust and sand.)

Continue up to the skyline and pass just to the right (west) of the western most extension of the gray/green rock. On the ridge top there is a vertical cliff forming the north (locally, east) rim of Bullberry wash. Turn left (east) and walk down along the top of that cliff until you walk right into Bullberry wash. To see the pour-over that had to be circumvented, walk just a short distance (100 yds) downstream.

Once in Bullberry wash head upstream and notice that the only trees in view are Pinyon and Juniper. About five minutes up the wash a dike crosses. The dike was intruded 3-5 million years ago. It is best seen on the left (south) side of the wash where it forms a sizeable wall.

Twelve minutes up the wash there is an inviting looking little cave on the right (north) side. After twenty-five minutes the wash heads straight into a wall of white rock, some of which has been stained a tan color. The white is, again, a thick bed of gypsum. All the different rock layers experienced since the junction of Polk and Bullberry creeks have been in the Carmel Formation, including the gypsum.

Forty-five minutes up the wash there is a mass of black lava boulders to walk through. One hour up, the Carmel Formation ends and the Navajo starts. At that point the canyon narrows a bit and the rock changes from being angular and platey to massive and more smooth. About one minute into the Navajo the wash is on the right (north) edge of the canyon and a section of the wall is black. This dike doesn't cross the wash; it just shows up in the wall. The Silvery/green leaved plants hanging over the dike are Silverleaf Buffaloberry.

The canyon narrows and there is a ten foot high pour-over that is not too hard to climb. Next, the wash will again be filled with black lava boulders. These are a bit more difficult to get through. At the top of the boulders look upstream. There is a tall tree on the left (south) side of the wash that is not a Juniper or Pinyon. It is a Douglas Fir. Immediately across the wash from the Douglas Fir at about eye level in the rocks is a common bush, Littleleaf Mountain Mahogany. Just above the tree there is a wash junction. Go right (north).

Twenty minutes above the junction there is a Douglas Fir tree growing on the right side of the wash that leans across the wash and scrapes the wall of the canyon on the other side. A few feet beyond that tree you push through some red barked Serviceberry bushes that are nearly blocking the wash.

Twenty five minutes above the junction notice the plants on the right side of the wash at waist to shoulder level. As you approach, the main plant visible is what appears to be a collection of green sticks. It is Mormon Tea. Behind it is a strange, straight tree with short needles in bunches of five. Some how, a Bristlecone Pine has taken root and is growing out of the Navajo Sandstone on the edge of the wash. There are thousands of Bristlecones on the slopes above the wash but only this one in the wash.

Five minutes above the Bristlecone (thirty minutes above the junction) a recent rockfall blocks the wash forming a pool upstream and three minutes above that another recent rock fall has impounded another pool. Thirty minutes above the rockfall some large Navajo Sandstone boulders block the wash. They are most easily circumvented by climbing up under a Ponderosa Pine on the left (south), then returning immediately to the wash. In a couple of minutes there is a wash junction where the route goes to the right (north).

Five minutes beyond the junction, there is a second Douglas Fir "bridge" where a tree growing on the right (north) side of the wash leans over and is rubbing the wall on the other side of the canyon. Just past that tree, on the left (south) side of the wash, there is a Skunkbush.

A few yards above the "bridge" there is a big lava chockstone that can be conquered on the left (south). One hundred fifty feet further there is a wash junction.

Go left (south). About 1 minute above there is a series of lava chockstones, the last of which is NOT easy to conquer. At the first blockage there is a somewhat narrow but very useable ramp that goes up on the left (south) side of the wash and will go above the entire series. It is easy to move back into the wash just above the last chockstone. A few minutes later, a black boulder is climbable on the left (south). A few yards beyond that an easy walkover black boulder takes you to a wash junction of two equal size washes.

Take the left (south) fork. After fifteen minutes the rock (particularly on the right {north} side of the wash) is white in a freshly broken piece or gray where weathered. Look above that white rock in the cliff. The tan rock is broken in a very distinctive pattern. It is in blocks only six inches or so on a side. Three or four minutes farther up the wash there will be a very minor drainage coming in from the left. Look for two cairns along the main wash; one to the right six feet up the loose slope, and one to the left on a broken black boulder (C).

Turn left and go up the slope staying on the west (right) side of the minor drainage. The slope is steep and tree covered, with loose footing part of the time. Take the easiest route possible but stay within 100 feet of the drainage. There is an amazing view at the top of the ridge which you should hit at a distinct saddle.

At the ridge turn right (southwest) and climb along the top of the cliffs. The cliffs form the north edge of the Deep Creek drainage and the route follows close to the edge all the way to Tub Flat. Be sure to stop and look at the view to the east occasionally.

Missing picture

The forest along the way to Billings Point will have a large number of Bristlecone Pine trees that look somewhat droopy. About one hour above the saddle the rim will be covered with black lava boulders and becomes a bit more difficult to walk. Next, the rim will make a right turn and head north. Somewhere along that north trending open bench study the slope ahead.

The easiest route to Billings Pass is over Billings Point. To get there go up the mostly bare slope to the north. Very near the top the forest takes over but a game trail goes between a large boulder on the left (west) and trees on the right. Follow the game trail. It is well used in some places and not well used in others, but walk along just east of the ridge staying within twenty feet of that ridge and often within two or three feet. At the top step out into a semi-open area. The high point of the open area goes to the top of the ridge between some Aspen trees. Walk through that break in the trees. Billings point is just a few yards to the left (south).

Ever since climbing up the steep slope to the ridge there have been fantastic views and a deep canyon on the left (south). Once beyond Billings Point those cliffs are left behind and by the time the route is at Billings Pass, a scant quarter mile, there are no cliffs or canyons, just smoother rolling terrain. You have walked through the visual birth place of the Waterpocket Fold. East of Billings Point the cliffs of the Fold are spectacular, but west of Billings Pass it is covered with lava flows and erosional fill.

From Billings Point follow the open part of the ridge west and down to the large USFS sign at Billings Pass. Guy Pace reports that the pass was named for Lon Billings who, with his partners, ditched water through this pass to the nearby Baker Ranch.

Leave the pass headed west to the top of the first ridge then bear left (southwest) and follow the open areas west and southwest staying on or near the ridge top to Tub Flat (T) and the USFS road.


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