Weber County Highpoint Trip Report

Willard Peak (9,764 ft)

Date: September 6, 2004
Author: Joseph B. Stanford

We drove South from Mantua on Willard Peak Road (which is the continuation of Main Street going south). Zero point at 110 South and Main in Mantua. At 6.5 miles, a sharp bend. About 7 miles, at a ridge line where a pond is visible to the east, two of us started biking and one drove. We biked another 6.1 miles to the end of the road (not the peak), most of it uphill and hard-going. This is a 4WD road all the way, 5-15 miles per hour for the truck, on the slower side near the top. At 9.2 miles, we entered Willard Basin with a sign indicating 9300 feet elevation. Great camping area with potable spring water at about 11 miles in Willard Basin.

We took bad advice from ATV riders on the road and so continued on the main road. When we reached the summit they had identified as the peak to the east of Willard Basin, it was not Willard Peak but Inspiration Point, at 13.1 miles. Willard Peak was less than 2 miles away, north along a ridge. So we hiked over and back, about 2 hours total. The peak is rocky with a prominent split running through it longitudinally. The elevation is 9764 feet with 3 markers.

Weather was gorgeous, the leaves were turning, the views were great. The only downside was that we run into about 100 ATVs going up and down from Inspiration Point; maybe 30 jeeps or trucks; nobody else was riding bikes.

Total trip time from Mantua and return was just under 7 hours. If we had hiked Willard going straight north from the campground in Willard Basin, instead of going on to Inspiration Point, we would have knocked off 2 hours from our time. Driving all the way to the Willard Basin Campground instead of biking would have knocked off another hour. The ATV tracks and roads out of Willard Basin campground running north to Willard peak are now closed to motorized vehicles and probably also to bikes.

Coming back from the Summit to the base was a lot more than the 30 minutes claimed by Dale Millsap, on June 23, 2001.