Hogan Pass
After a day of cycling in the San Rafael Swell, where you
have to choose between the shoulder of an Interstate and
an unpaved surface, a ride of Hogan Pass may be the
perfect antidote. This road is a well surface plateau
climb to cooler temperatures - without traffic.
click on profile for more detail
|
1.(6810ft,mile00) START-END NORTH:
Fremont Junction. I70 exit is at 6520ft a short
distance north
2.(8820ft,mile15) Hogan Pass
3.(8980ft,mile16) TOP: high point
4.(8160,mile23) junction with dirt road 206 on left
5.(8060ft,mile25) paved road joins from Johnson
Valley Reservoir on right
6.(7440ft,mile28) road on right joins with road from
point 5.
7.(7230ft,mile30) Fremont
8.(7090ft,mile35) START-END SOUTH: Loa |
 Approaches
From North. The climb begins in the center
section of the 110 mile stretch of I70 without services
between Green River and Fremont Junction. Fremont Junction is
exactly what it says, a junction without any additional
settlement. Ut12 begins to climb steeply from the exit, first
paralleling the south side of the Interstate and then turning
south. A few last glimpses of the lower rocky badland bluffs
of the Wasatch Plateau are lost to juniper forest, through
which the road explores its way ever upwards. Two downhill
sections are marked with signs, "wheelbarrel flats"
and "paradise". On an April 16th, paradise was a
deserted shack next to frozen lake surrounded by hills shaped
like ocean waves. Maybe, whoever named this place paradise,
had been looking for it for a long time. A trailhead
sign, located shortly before the summit, is marked "Hogan
Pass". At this point a vast panorama across buttes and
dessert opens to the roughly sixty miles distant Henry
Mountains. The top has a small parking lot and out house
without summit markers or elevation indications. The pass is
marked on USGS topo maps, but not on commercial or state
highway department maps.
From South. The approach is described in a downward
direction. After the lush greenscape of the climb, the
starkness of the plateau presents itself as yet another
variation of Utah landscapes. Snow lingers longer on this side
of the pass, and the decent to Fremont is generally gradual,
and there is so little traffic, that brakes might be viewed as
optional, except perhaps during a few rolling hills on the
plateau. The first sign of civilization is several collections
of car wrecks and farm equipment, with a high concentration of
VW buses, an unusual combination. I wonder what the old
military professional hero Fremont would have thought of
having this place named after him. A little further, the town
of Loa has a well stocked, not overprized food supermarket and
an attractive, small downtown with the obligatory, nondescript
LDS temple tower playing the part of church steeple.
Tours
Dayrides. A long dayride circle over Hogan
Pass, the Ut24 summit
Loa-jctUt62, another Ut24
summit Sigurd-jctUt62, returning over Meadow
Gulch Divide measured somewhere over 116 miles and 7500ft
of elevation gain in over 10 hours. More details on the Meadow
Gulch Divide page (m2.6.4.18).
|
