Kane County Highpoint Trip Report

Date: May 26, 2004
Author: Andy Martin

We revisited this county, and I relocated my former cairn about 50 yards (150 feet) to the southeast. The old cairn was changed into a big arrow pointing to the new location.

On my first visit I did not have a GPS unit, but used a line of trees to determine east/west bearing. As seen here this line of trees, formed by logging, does not run east/west, but northwest/southeast. This resulted in me going too far north and even though I ended up heading quite a ways south towards higher ground, the cairn was almost surely placed north of the Kane county line.

I was helped quite a bit on my return visit by the air photos that briefly appeared on the Topozone site (now require a fee to access). The Terraserver site no longer supports topo maps, and will not let you zoom in far enough on their air maps.

However, when Topozone did support free photos I came up with a GPS coordinate of NAD27 UTM (338925 E, 4156529 N). On the air photos this is at the northwest corner of a logged area.

This logged area is small, and the southwest most shown on the Terraserver link above. To get to the "new" cairn hike to the end of the dirt lane shown touching the south line of section 36 (this is at the county line). There is a 4 way intersection near here, at the middle of a logged strip (now regrown with 20-foot aspen trees). Continue straight through the 4 way intersection, pass through a strip of non-logged forest, and reach the final logged area, just before the plateau drops off from 10,000+ to 9,000 feet.

Just a few yards into this logged area the road curves to the northwest. This is a good place to fire up the GPS if you have one. I experienced poor GPS accuracy here due to tree blockage. Proceed perhaps 500 feet to the end of the road, and head to the north edge of the logged area. A foot high cairn is at edge of the trees, with the register jar and skull.

Those who wish to go the extra mile can head short distances northwest and southwest along the high ground. Although the cairn is probably still not precisely on the Kane county line (and HP), I believe it is closer than the former location - hopefully within 30 feet.

The topozone map at my GPS coordinates is here, and corresponds to (37.5435° N, 112.8233° W) using the NAD27 datum. The red target is slightly off the line in this view, but on other magnifications is right on the line - go figure.

Road conditions were hampered by snow but I barely managed to get the Accord to within 3/4 mile of the top. A rocky patch is found just southwest of the word "Deer" in the lettering "Deer Valley" on the quad. Those who park at this spot have an additional mile (each way) to stroll. Someone was bush camped at this spot and the meadow edge is a popular bush camping location in the summer.