Zion: Burnt Mountain
Categories: Zion
Like a lot of the other places I go, there is virtually no information on the internet about Burnt Mountain, so I am about to add a lot of visual data. Burnt Mountain is a huge monolith of rock, surrounded on all sides by 1,000 foot cliffs. It sits alone in the Kolob section of Zion National Park but views of the mountain are usually obscured by other towers and from a distance it often blends in with higher cliff bands. It must have been named during a time that it’s high summit plateau was burned up from lightning strikes. There is only one record I’ve found of anybody climbing it.
Over the last year I’ve made several trips to the area but I haven’t yet been all the way to the base of the cliffs. I was very close on my last attempt but got turned around on some brushy cliffs. I still plan on getting over there on another trip, but I’ve already had a great time in the area. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Starting off the trip near Red Butte.
I’d only been hiking about 15 minutes before it started raining and getting very windy. Storms on the Kolob Terrace usually are very windy.
This is where you would start to climb Red Butte. It’s all brush until you get on the steep slickrock fins.
Climbing out of the valley onto the north ridge of Redd Butte puts you on the edge of a cliff that is MUCH higher than one you climbed up.
I travelled through scrubby forest while working my way up the slopes.
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I’ve been up there three times to catch the light at different times. There’s an extraordinary amount of detail to capture in the scene.
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An astounding panoramic view of Burnt Mountain the the Kolob Fingers behind it. You don’t get views much better than this and I have never seen this one in Zion.
Looking back the views were just as good. Red Butte looks completely different from the north. It’s cut into thin slices that make travel across it extremely difficult.
Hello!
The storms that hit me had moved all the way over to Pine Mountain.
There are a lot of places to go in this picture, looking northeast across Hop Valley. The large beehive shaped peak is Arch Peak. To the right of that in Langston Canyon and keeping a low profile behind both are Langston Mountain, which is on my list of places to go and offers an amazing perspective of Kolob Arch.
The remains of this deer were scattered around for quite some distance.
Coming back through the cold sage during a nice sunset.
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Sunset over Red Butte after a rainy afternoon.
I parked under this tree so i could find my car on the way back through the brush.