Tushar Mountains

"The great mountain wall leaps at once from the narrow platform of the valley to nearly its greatest altitude. Immense ravines, rivaling those of the Wasatch in depth, but narrower and with steeper sides, have deeply cleft the great tabular mass, and subdivided it into huge pediments, which from below appear like individual mountains. In the torrid heat of July, we see the fields of lingering snow light up their gloomy crestsŠ As we ascend the valley to the southward the scenery is impressive, for every object is molded upon a grand scale; though it is only by long study and familiarity that the huge proportions are realizedŠThe northern portion of this uplift is crowned by volcanic peaksŠ[and] deeply scored with grand ravines, well calculated to kindle the enthusiasm of the mountaineer and task his energyŠ"

Description

Truly at the pinnacle of southwest Utah, the peaks of the Tushar Mountains are like multicolored jewels atop a crown. The mountains were named for the Paiute word for white, T'shar, an indication of the light color seen near the summits of the peaks. Largely invisible from a great distance, the spectacular peaks at the climax of the range are best seen up close. Approaching from the east, the grandeur of the peaks is hidden by sharp and steeply rising foothills. From the east and the north, the peaks are visible, but only hint at the true majesty that is best enjoyed from the high alpine and rock-strewn ridges that provide a dream destination for the hiker or mountaineer. The peaks of the Tushar are the highest in the region, with three topping 12,000 feet. Found at the edge of the Great Basin, the volcanic heights of the Tushars provide a contrast to the dominant plateau structure to the east. Showing more similarity to the mountains of the Great Basin than the high table lands of the Colorado Plateau province, the range is a stunning complement to the outstanding desert and valley country that surrounds it. The Tushars contain both a dazzling diversity of views and vistas and a broad range of vegetation and wildlife. Matchless in southern Utah, the area contains alpine scenery that rivals Rocky Mountain National Park. One of the most striking views in the range can be had from the main route through the area along Forest Road 123. This road departs north from state Highway 153 west of Beaver, UT, climbs the range, winds through the heart of the area and descends to the hamlet of Marysvale. The road is well known as part of the Paiute trail system. Visitors following this road to the pass above Big John Flat and Mud Lake are treated to a panoramic view of Mt Baldy and Mt. Belknap. Their ashen grey peaks above tree line fall conically to beautiful shades of rust red, purple, tan and golden yellow before being subsumed by alpine spruce/fir forests. To the west of this pass, a short hike to the ridge reveals the stunning gorge of Bullion Canyon, Mt Brigham, and South Edna Peak. An even wider palate of colors graces the slopes here with shades of purple, yellow, white, tan, light green, and pale orange blending gently into the bright green of short alpine grasses and forbs. Mountain goats can often be seen grazing here in the meadows below a feature called The Pocket. The diversity of the terrain continues to astound the visitor to the north and south of this point. The craggy heights of Shelly Baldy peak to the southwest invite a scramble to the summit. To the southeast, the smooth green folds of Delano Peak, the range's highest point at 12, 169 feet, descend to aspen and conifer forests further south. North of this point, the peaks around the abandoned mining camp of Kimberly provide a challenging and noteworthy experience for the wilderness traveler. The Tushar Mountains contain the following roadless areas: Black Mountain ­ Wet Hollow, Bullion Delano ­ City Creek, Circleville Mountain, Pole Creek, Robber's Roost, Sargent Mountain, and Tushar Mountains, covering approximately 249, 900 acres. The Tushar Mountain area falls within two level III ecoregions: the Central Basin and Range and the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains Ecoregions. The district contains four level IV ecoregions. The Central Basin and Range Woodland- and Shrub-Covered Low Mountains, the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains Alpine Zone, Semiarid Foothills, and Mountain Valleys subsections are all represented.

When considered for wilderness protection, popular and well-traveled ATV trails that compose the main branch of the Paiute ATV trail system have been drawn out of areas proposed for wilderness protection. Areas of destructive clear cutting near major transportation routes have also been excluded from the UFN's proposal. Truly a magnificent place, the Tushar Mountains are unquestionably wild, remarkably diverse, and strikingly unprotected. The Tushar Mountains deserve recognition and protection as wilderness due to their regional uniqueness, the presence of nationally significant geology and scenery, critical habitats, and sensitive and endemic plant species.

Threats

The area faces threats from uncontrolled ORV use in mountain meadows and fragile alpine environments, overgrazing by domestic livestock, and clear cutting of slow-growing arid high-elevation forests.

Location

The Tushar Mountains are located east of the community of Beaver in southwest Utah. The area is roughly bounded on the north by Interstate 70 on the west by Interstate 15, on the south by Circle Valley, and on the east by Utah state highway 89. These main highways provide striking views of the mountains, and each offer their own differing perspective of the area. Highway 89 runs through Marysvale Canyon along the Sevier River. The geology of the area takes center stage here as the dazzling multi-hued red, purple, and tan of Big Rock Candy Mountain emerge around a bend, the flanks of the Mountain sparsely sheltered with Ponderosa Pine. From Highway 89, the traveler can ascend the Tushars from the hamlet of Marysvale via Forest Road 123. This route serves as s jumping-off point for many excellent hiking trails such as trail #215 to 11,303 foot Copper Belt Peak, trail #74 down Bullion Canyon, and trail #50 skirting 11,306 foot Signal Peak. Other non-motorized trails accessed from here include the Skyline Trail, a National Scenic and Recreational Trail, an easy hike to Delano Peak, trail #172 to Blue Lake at the base of Mt Belknap, as well as numerous cross country hikes to named and unnamed peaks. A hike from the Blue Lake trail to the summit of Shelly Baldy Peak is especially rewarding, offering outstanding 360-degree views. Travelers along I-70 on the north pass through Clear Creek Canyon, home to Fremont Indian State Park, the largest concentrated Fremont Indian habitation site ever discovered. Views of Signal Peak and Fish Creek Canyon are worth savoring from the highway. Traveling along I-15 on the west side of the range, the imposing figure of 12,122 foot Mt. Baldy dominates the ridgeline. In addition to the hiking opportunities listed above, more than 200 miles of non-motorized trails can be found in the Tushars, including trails to \unusually-named places such as Little Twist Creek, Iant Ridge, and Senseball Lake. An area worth exploring again and again, the wilderness traveler will find this hauntingly beautiful locale near the top of their list of favorite places.

Wilderness Characteristics

Geology and Landforms

The spectacular peaks of the Tushars were formed between 22 and 32 million years ago by volcanic activity that included a calamitous explosion that blew off the top of a massive peak perhaps as high as Himalayan peaks. At the cusp of the Great Basin, the range also shares characteristics of the Plateau Province to the east. The renowned geologist and explorer Clarence Dutton called the high peaks of the Tushars: "noble cones ending in sharp cusps [that] stand pre-eminent, while behind them numerous dome-like masses rise to nearly the same altitudeŠ The resultant sculptural forms are correspondingly bold and craggy."

Geologically complex, this area dominated by past volcanism is composed of lava flows, ash-flow tuffs from calderas, volcanic domes, cinder cones, rhyolite, basalt-like rocks, conglomerate, and metals such as gold, molybdenum, and uranium. Akin to an outdoor geology textbook, the area contains developed and undeveloped geothermal activity, fluorite, and the hydrothermically-altered rocks of Big Rock Candy Mountain.

In a survey of Natural Landmark Areas of the North Portion of the Colorado Plateau, Biotic and Geologic Themes, conducted by Brigham Young University scientists, the Big Rock Candy Mountain Altered Zone was described as "unexcelled in the Colorado Plateau." The same study recognized a grouping of volcanic rocks known as the Skinner Canyon Ignimbrite, calling the exposure of low-grade volcanic glass in Clear Creek Canyon "one of the most spectacular displays of strongly jointed ignimbrites in the Colorado Plateau."

TES species

Threatened, endangered, or sensitive species known to occur in the area are:

Plant Communities

Astonishingly diverse due to elevation change, the Tushars support alpine and sub-alpine vegetation, mountain meadows, dense aspen and spruce/fir stands, ponderosa pine and Douglas fir, mountain brush, sagebrush steppe, pinion-juniper woodlands, oak, mountain mahogany, and upland mountain grasslands. The area contains endemic species such as the Tushar Paintbrush, as well as rare and sensitive plants. Recent fires in the area, both natural and prescribed, have been of great benefit to vegetation, causing regeneration of Aspen and other species. After nearly one hundred and fifty years of overgrazing, the Tushars have a shot at recovery if greater care is taken in the future to ensure the restoration of rangeland health and the exclusion of livestock from riparian zones.

Wildlife

The area supports a wide variety of wildlife species including pika, marmot, deer, elk, mountain lion, mountain goat, black bear, raptors, blue grouse, turkey, bobcat, rabbit, coyote, ground squirrels, and other small mammals. The area contains summer and critical winter range for mule deer and elk.

Archeology and history

The first known residents to leave their mark on the area were the Fremont peoples. The largest Fremont settlement ever discovered was found during the construction of I-70 in Clear Creek Canyon. Artifacts form the village, as well as petroglyphs are visible in the Fremont Indian State Park adjacent to the north end of the Tushar Mountains.

Later residents were drawn to the district by gold and silver. As early as the 1860s, rich deposits of these metals gave rise to boomtowns such as Marysvale, Bullion, and Kimberly. Bustling in their time, only Marysvale is still inhabited. Once known as the "Queen of Utah Gold Camps", the Kimberly mine employed around 300 miners. The mines played out around the turn of the twentieth century. Now a series of private inholdings within the National Forest, Kimberly is the site of a ghost town high in the northern grouping of peaks of the Tushars. Other metals such as lead, zinc, alunite, and uranium were later discovered and mined. Uranium refined for the first test of an atomic weapon at the Trinity site in New Mexico was mined in the foothills of the Tushars.

The area's exceptional scenery has long drawn visitors, and one vision of the area as a paradise for a railroad tramp became a widely known song. "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" by Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock, excerpted below, was a hit for Burl Ives.

Naturalness and other unique features

The area possesses a very high degree of naturalness, palpable solitude, and nearly unlimited opportunities for primitive and unconfined recreation. Impacts to the range in the form of roads, popular and well-traveled ATV trails, clear cutting, and livestock- focused pinon juniper chaining have been excluded from the UFN's wilderness proposal where they are truly evident and significant. The area contains a number of unique and special features. A survey of Natural Landmark Areas of the North Portion of the Colorado Plateau, Biotic and Geologic Themes, conducted by Brigham Young University scientists and released in May 1980, found two highly significant areas within the Tushar Mountains vicinity. The first locale, The Big Rock Candy Mountain Altered Zone, was given the study's highest priority rating. The highest priority rating was given to "sites that are of truly national significance and are either unique to or distinctive of the Colorado Plateau." The Altered Zone was said to be "unexcelled in the Colorado Plateau for showing the effects of hot water or hydrothermal alteration of igneous rocks and the development of clays in the weathering process associated with the late phases of igneous activityŠ The highly altered, brightly colored rocks associated with a variety of igneous intrusions and extrusions make the area distinct and virtually unique in the Colorado Plateau." The same study recognized an outcrop of strongly jointed volcanic glass in Clear Creek Canyon along the I-70 corridor called the Skinner Canyon Ignimbrites. The group of geologists said of the display: "the spectacular development and exposures of columnar joints in the rewelded ash flow tuffs here are almost unique in the Colorado Plateau because of the limited exposures of these types of volcanic rocks."

In addition to the nationally significant geological areas above, the Tushar Mountains contain other special features such as Ice Caves, "The Face", historic mining and sawmill sites, mountain goats, pristine alpine tundra, river segments eligible for Wild and Scenic status, and several 11,000 and 12,000 foot peaks.

The district contains two Forest Service Research Natural Areas. Research Natural Areas, or RNAs, prohibit development, as they are meant to establish a baseline for study of ecosystem health. Located approximately 11 miles west-southwest of Marysvale, the Upper Fish Creek RNA encompasses the entire upper part of a watershed that drains northward from the crest of the Tushar Mountains. The Upper Fish Creek RNA, created in 1988, was established for the protection and study of its sensitive plants and high alpine environment.

The Tushars are also home to the Bullion Canyon RNA. Established in 1987, the RNA encompasses much of the upper part of a major watershed east of the Tushar Mountains' crest. The area contains populations of six rare plant species, one of which is endemic to the Tushars. The 1300-acre area was established for protection of these plants, the alpine environment, and the presence of unusual geology.

Truly an extraordinary place, the Tushars are emblematic of the need for greater protection of public lands in Southern Utah. The mountains, valleys, meadows and forests on the Tushars are ideal for hunting, fishing, wildlife viewing, photography, horseback riding, hiking, backpacking, birding, rock climbing, and ski touring. Full of challenge for humans and refuge for wildlife, there are few places in North America better suited to wilderness protection than the Tushar Mountains.

Roadless Areas within the Canyon Mountains Wilderness

References

Clarence E. Dutton, Report on the Geology of the High Plateaus of Utah, 1880

Hamblin, W.K., Rigby, J.K., and Welsh, S.L., A survey of Natural Landmark Areas of the North Portion of the Colorado Plateau, Biotic and Geologic Themes, May 1980, Brigham Young University, for the Heritage Conservation and recreation Service, USDI

http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/fishlake/recreation/bullion.htm

http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/open-file/of02-172/chapters/chap4.pdf

http://wildlife.utah.gov/range/pdf/wmu22/22intro-sum.pdf

http://www.marysvale.org/history/historical_info.htm

http://ingeb.org/songs/onasumme.html

http://rna.nris.state.mt.us/rna_detail.asp?sitecode=S.USUTHP*119

http://rna.nris.state.mt.us/rna_detail.asp?sitecode=S.USUTHP*117

Undeveloped Area Evaluation, Fishlake National Forest, 2004

Tim D. Peterson, personal experience and conversations with old-timers in the field