Sanpete County Highpoint Trip Report

South Tent

Date: July 16, 2006
Author: Scott Surgent

I followed High in Utah (HIU), and found similar conditions as in the Roach's recent report. I started hiking up the "road" up North Tent but abandoned that idea within minutes. Instead, going by the map and on a hunch, I descended about 100 feet to "Beck's Ditch", an irrigation canal (?). I hopped onto the south side and followed some paths on the berm for a half mile (and about 50 feet of gain) to below the saddle between the two Tent peaks. From here, I went straight up the hillside to the saddle and then on to the South Tent summit. Turned out to be a good "shortcut", saving me the hassle of climbing North Tent and that awful chopped-up road. The r/t hike took about 2.25 hours.

Driving up to South Tent definitely requires 4wd and, frankly, the road was pretty bad. A part of the road had sloughed off down the mountainside near the very top, leaving little room for mistakes. The road on top, Skyline Drive, is heavily rutted and the domain of ATVs. I scraped the bottom of my truck a few times on the ruts. I did see one other truck up there - and talking to the guy found out he was also seeking South Tent, so I told him about cohp.org. Maybe he'll join! I was happy to be down afterwards.