Rich County High Point Trip Report

Bridger Peak (9,255 ft)

Date: August 11, 2002
Author: James Wedekind

We completed Naomi Peak and were still itching to do some more hiking. To get our hiking fix we headed up the road to Bridger Peak and the highest peak in Rich County. The Utah Summit's book by Huff and Wharton proved to be completely useless when we followed the directions printed in it. The distance from Logan to Swan Flats was stated to be about 20 miles, while really it is 32 miles. That's quite a delta for such a short distance. The mileage to the trailhead was also off by about 40%.

Enough about the "guidebook", let's talk about the peak. The trail heads down right off the bat and then heads directly up the steep hill across the ditch. Did I mention the trail goes straight up the hill (absolutely no angling or switchbacks!). The trail is prominently used as an ATV trail, evident by the 3 inch layer of loose dirt that covers the entire trail. When the trail takes a sharp right it's time to begin the bushwhacking part of the trip. Head southwest up the slope and continue heading higher and higher until you can't go up anymore. Tadaaa, you've made the top! We found a small register in a glass bottle and signed our names. The views over to Bear Lake were spectacular.

While we were hiking up we saw a small forest fire get smothered by helicopters dropping water. Thank goodness they were able to put it out, otherwise our road out may have been cut off by the fire.