I've wanted to do this double peak hike ever since I did the Buffalo Peak hike a month or so ago. Since it was just Nutmeg and I on this Saturday I decided to finally do it. I had looked for a trail down the southwest side of Buffalo Peak last time I was there and thought there was one that went down so I was hoping to not have to do any bushwhacking. I expected it to be a fairly easy hike so my old dog Nutmeg (age 8) wouldn't be too stressed out. We started hiking from the Squaw Peak Overlook trailhead at 7:15am.
I made it to Buffalo Peak without any stops except a photo or two. There are a few steep spots but they are short and there is plenty of level sections to catch your breath. Nutmeg and I saw one deer scamper away down the hill towards Squaw Peak just as we came to the saddle at the base of the final climb to the peak. We didn't really spend any time at the top of Buffalo Peak 8:06am but kept moving since we were planning on returning later. We started down what I thought was the trail down to the Rock Canyon first left fork trail to Squaw Peak. It ended up being a well worn game trail that came to some scary looking rocky sections and looked like it only got worse. We retreated up the hill to try an approach further to the northwest where it looked less steep on Google Earth.
The going was much more sane but again there was nothing but game trails. The hillside was mostly open at the top and I could see hikers crossing the meadow on the Squaw Peak trail below. We picked out was down the hillside. It was not particularly bad terrain but there were a few bands of trees we had to pass through. We eventually made it out to the well worn trail to Squaw Peak. We made good time to the top and were enjoying the view at 9:20am.
There were a couple of other small families, including one dog, at the top when we got there. They all headed down soon after we got there. Nutmeg and I spent a long time at the top enjoying the view, catching some sun, eating a snack and drying out my shirt. There wasn't much of a breeze but it wasn't hot either.
We headed down at 11:45am knowing we still had to hike back up to the time of Buffalo Peak again. I thought about going down Rock Canyon but then I would have to walk or find a ride so we kept to the plan. We were able to find better game trails going up the side of Buffalo Peak than we had coming down. We were back on the top just before noon. Again we didn't stay long at this peak but kept moving along.
We saw a few people on the return to the trailhead, mostly kids. We got back to the truck at 12:53pm. There were a lot of people at the trailhead parking lot. There was a group that was doing major car repair, another taking a family photo with Utah Valley in the background and many starting off on hikes or bike rides. Nutmeg and I called into H.Q. and stopped for salads at Cafe Rio on the way home. Very nice 7 mile hike with an interesting profile.
GPS Tracks: kml gpx
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