Bull Mountain Snowshoe

Dan invited me on a snowshoe trip to Bull Mountain just over the Utah border.  This peak is noted for being a county highpoint and for having substantial topological prominence.  Dan had failed on this peak the weekend prior (due to bad weather and navigational errors) and was ready for revenge.  We met at 5am and were soon heading to south central Idaho to bag the peak.  After a stop in Burley crossed the Utah line and we were at the trailhead ready to go just before 9am.  The weather was pretty good for us - mild temperatures (in the 30s), high clouds, and minimal wind.

We were able to make good progress up the ATV trail and thence to a smaller trail up Lake Fork.  This trail started out good but was soon obscured by blowdowns in several places.  Dan did an amazing job bypassing the obstructions and managing to find the trail fragments, making what would have been an arduous struggle through snowy forest into a reasonable endeavor.  Eventually we worked our way high enough that we could see a clear path to the ridge leading to the summit.  It was a steep grunt up to the ridge top, but from there it was a straightforward ascent to the very flat summit of Bull Mountain.

The summit views were great and took in some ranges I had not seen in a long time.  Due to fog, we couldn't see the Great Salt Lake immediately to our south.  The summit register was filled with familiar names from the county highpointing community and made for great reading.  Other than the flatness of the summit, everything about this peak was great.  Our descent was much quicker than our ascent and we were easily back on the interstate heading home before dark.

On the way home, we stopped at Wendy's in Burley.  This choice was questionable due to the really slow service.  The highlight of the Wendy's visit was the person in front of us who had to wait 5-10 minutes to get his order taken.  After ordering a frosty, the cashier said "That's it?!  If I had known you were only ordering a frosty, I would have taken your order much sooner!".  Fortunately we didn't have to wait as long as he did for our orders but I left with a great memory of bad restaurant service.

In short, this was a very fun and rewarding snowshoe ascent under very pleasant conditions.

Bull Mountain Snowshoe Pictures!
GPS Track
Dan's Trip Report