I've' been to St. George a zillion times, but have only gone into the Pine Valley mountains once before. Last Saturday, we had a free day so we decided to spend the day exploring some of the range. Our target was Burger Peak at 10,321' which I believe is the second highest point in the range (adjacent Signal Peak holds that designation at 10,365').
The most direct route to Burger is by way of the Forsyth Creek Trail. It's' roughly 6 miles of steady climbing to the summit starting in Pine Valley at approximately 6,650'. My app said the total gain was 3,629' which felt about right. From car-to-car it took us 7:04 with about 5:45 of moving time.
The first mile or so of the trail is very gentle as it winds it way through juniper and mesquite. Once you hit the wilderness boundary, the climbing begins and you follow the drainage up on a fairly well-maintained trail through pine, aspen, oak, and maple. The fall colors were on full display which was a nice change of pace and distracted from the constant climbing over an often-times rocky path. At the higher elevation, we encountered patches of snow that had to be from the storms a couple of weeks ago.
At just shy of 5 miles in, you hit a trail junction. The Blake Gubler Trail veers to the southwest while the Forsyth Creek Trail continues for another 0.9 of a mile to ridge where it finally tops out. We were feeling pretty good up to this point, but this last 0.9 mile which gained another 1,000' at elevation really kicked our butts and our pace slowed considerably as we repeatedly had to stop to catch our breath. The upside was that we finally got some views south and west which were quite expansive.
We had given ourselves a 3 p.m. turnaround time and that is when we reached the ridge at roughly 10,150'. Signal Peak at 10,365' is visible from here, but it's rounded, whale's back summit isn't terribly impressive and affords no views according to what I've read. It reminded me very much of Wright Mountain.
The obvious spur leading to the summit of Burger was only another 0.2 miles and 200' gain from this point so we extended our turnaround time and went for it. We figured we might never be here again, so we'd take the opportunity and just hump a little on the way down. The spur follows a minor ridge that required some minor route finding in places. At the summit, there are two rocky prominences of about equal height. The one farthest north is the summit proper. Neither has terrific views which are better off the backside of the spur. We plunked down here for a late lunch enjoying the serenity of the place and the satisfaction that we hadn't turned around.
45 minutes later we headed back down wondering whether we'd make it to the car before sunset. The down was much quicker than the up, and despite some knee-bashing, we made it back to the trailhead with a full 15 minutes to spare. Despite it's diminutive size, there's a lot to explore in the Pine Valley range and since I'm spending time out here anyway, I hopefully can see more of it. It's quite a nice change from the desert.
