Hike to the Summit of Lone Peak via Jacob’s Ladder

The trail to Lone Peak’s 11,253-foot summit is a grueling hike. The trail via Jacob’s Ladder is long and steep, and near the summit, you’re climbing on large boulders with 600′ drops all around you. If you’re afraid of heights, this is NOT the hike for you.

Reaching the summit of Lone Peak is a bucket list item. I can see why people hike it; But I don’t understand why someone would hike it twice. My teenage son and I both had a goal to summit Lone Peak, and this was the summer we were going to make it happen. After all, a grueling hike up the side of a mountain is a great way to social distance.

After our 11 hour hike to and from the summit, I’ve compiled a guide to help others with the same bucket list item know how to prepare and what to expect on the 11.1-mile round trip hike to the top of a mountain peak.

I do want to call special attention to the time it takes to do this hike. We started our hike at around 7:30 a.m. I wouldn’t recommend starting too much later than that, especially if you’re hiking in the summer months. For a hike like this, start as early in the day as you can to avoid the heat on the ascent. You’ll thank yourself later.

Before You Hike to Lone Peak Summit: A Packing List

Before hiking day, I reached out to a few people who had hiked Lone Peak before. I was told to have one gallon of water (equivalent to 3.75 liters), and plenty of food. You burn a lot of calories hiking to the summit. I planned accordingly, but even then, I got tired of my trail mix and wished I would’ve had a little more water with me. And I made the hike in early September. I can’t imagine hiking this in the heat of a Utah summer.

Here’s the packing list we had for our hike to the summit.

• 5 liters of water (in the summer, I’d recommend even more)
• Snacks (dried fruit, granola bars, apple sauce packets, fruit leathers, trail mix, etc.)
• A lunch (sandwiches, chips, string cheese, juice box, etc.)
• Layered clothing (long sleeve t-shirt, sweatshirt)
• Sunscreen (SPF30+)
• Hat (ball cap or wide-brimmed hat for shade)
• Sunglasses
• Trekking poles
• Binoculars (not required, but we were glad we brought a pair)
• Small First Aid kit (bandaids, snakebite kit, etc.)
• Toilet paper
• Hand sanitizer
• Kleenex packet
• Phone charging battery pack
• Small camera
• Small survival kit (rope, lighter/matches, duct tape, etc.)
• Headlamps or small flashlights
• Water filtration device (although we didn’t come across any streams in which to use it)

Some of the items on the list above are “Just in Case” items. The weather was sunny for us all day. Even near the top, we didn’t require sweatshirts or even a long sleeve shirt. The survival kit and headlamps were in case we got delayed and needed to spend a night on the mountain.

I was glad I brought a trekking pole and had solid hiking shoes. During the hike, the pole helped me climb and descend with extra support. Although my right arm was a little sore the next day as I had used muscles I don’t normally use.

Jacob’s Ladder Trailhead

Jacob’s Ladder is only one of the trails that lead to the summit of Lone Peak. Cherry Canyon is another route. I’m told it’s longer (mileage wise), and not as steep as the Jacob’s Ladder route. But I can only speak to the popular Jacob’s Ladder trailhead.

Access to the Jacob’s Ladder trailhead is only available from three main locations: Peak View trailhead on Traverse Ridge, Coyote Hollow trailhead (hiking up Corner Canyon past Ghost Falls) near the Draper Utah Temple, and an access road near Orson Smith Park in Sandy.

Currently (summer 2020), the access road that runs from Peak View trailhead to Jacob’s Ladder trailhead to Orson Smith Park is closed to motorized vehicles. As a result, we parked near Peak View trailhead and walked along the road to the Jacob’s Ladder trailhead. When the roads are open, you can drive on a bumpy (but doable) dirt road to shave off a couple miles from your round trip hike.

The Gentle Hike to Lone Rock

Not everyone who hikes this first part of the trail is making their way to the summit of Lone Peak. Lone Rock is roughly 1.5 miles along the trail and marks the official start of the Jacob’s Ladder trail. But from Lone Rock, you have some amazing views of Utah County. On a clear day, you can see all the way down to Provo and northern Utah Lake.

The elevation climb from the trailhead to Lone Rock is gradual enough that families who love to hike can do this part of the trail. In fact, I hiked this with all of my kids a few years ago. It’s not a cake walk, but it’s a fun adventure for the family.

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However, I will note that mountain bikers also like to use this trail. And on narrow portions, you better keep your ears open for bikers speeding their way down the mountain. My son has been both a hiker and a biker on the trails in this area and made a keen observation during our hike – hikers hate mountain bikers and mountain bikers hate hikers. It’s all about perspective.

Lone Rock is a great spot to grab a snack and adjust your water bottles around to make sure you have easy access to them. If you’ve got trekking poles, this is when you need to get them out. You’re about to start the largest elevation gain in the shortest section of the trail. It’s called Jacob’s Ladder for a reason.

Climbing up Jacob’s Ladder

I read a comment in a hiking forum that said Jacob’s Ladder is appropriately named. It’s not the steepness of the trail that’s the killer. It’s the fact that it seems to go on for ever, showing no mercy.

We likened hiking Jacob’s Ladder to this: Imagine walking up a down escalator for two hours straight. Or, if you’ve ever walked up the stairs from the lower lot to the upper lot at Universal Studios, imagine doing that several times in a row – without using the escalator, of course.

The first part of the trail is super dusty and steep. You wind your way through the oak brush as you ascend. When you find yourself in a clearing, take a moment to watch the valley below get further and further below you. Utah Lake seemed to keep growing, too.

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When you feel you’re about ready to give up… don’t. You aren’t there yet, but you will eventually reach an area where you can stop for lunch. It’s a great spot to recharge from the calorie burn of Jacob’s Ladder so you’ll be ready for the rest of the trail.

Strolling Across the Saddle

The saddle portion of the trail is a great relief from the strain of Jacob’s Ladder. The trail has more gradual elevation changes as the oak brush changes to evergreen trees. In the summer months, the meadows in the area are filled with wildflowers. But you’re also fighting the heat of the summer months, so take your pick.

When you’re standing in the Salt Lake valley looking up at Lone Peak, it doesn’t look very far. But when you’re climbing it, you realize it’s set further back from the foothills that you think. The hike across the saddle portion is what brings you east, past the smaller mountain tops that seem like the summit of Lone Peak. It’s misleading, and can be a little depressing to think that after climbing Jacob’s Ladder, you still have a long way to go.

The saddle portion of the trail is pretty easy to follow. But as you transition from the saddle to the rock slabs and boulder field, it’s easy to get lost.

Crossing the Rock Slabs and Boulder Field

There’s a point in the trail where the dirt path opens up to a large rock field. You can see that transition point in the photo above. When you reach that point, following the dirt trail isn’t something that’s easy to follow. It’s the point where cairns (stacks of rock) take over.

After hiking about 100 yards into the boulder field, my son made another keen observation. I think it was from all those Bear Grylls shows and survival guides he reads. Look backwards often so when we are walking back this way, the trail seems more familiar. We didn’t want to get lost cross the boulder field on the way back and not be able to find the trail. The “looking back” technique helped a lot.

From this point to the base of the summit, there are multiple trails. On the way up, we took one route that ended up taking us over a pile of large boulders. We were following cairns, but they weren’t easy to find. Eventually we made it to the base of the summit, and could see where our final destination was. We stopped for a second lunch – because we were burning calories like nobody’s business – and then headed in the final and most treacherous portion of the hike to the summit.

The Final Scramble to the Summit

As we stood at the base, my son had done his research and pointed out the route we needed to take. After hiking five miles so far, this last mile seemed just as bad as Jacob’s Ladder. When he told me we needed to climb in the chimney, I probably rolled my eyes. But we kept hiking.

The chimney is a steep, narrow, rocky path that starts to the left of the summit. It really is the only point to access the final ridge from the route we took. As you climb the chimney, you eventually reach the top and have to climb through the opening of the chimney – a narrow hole formed when a large rock fell across the top of the chimney.

After clearing that section, follow the ridge. The closer you get to the summit, the large the boulders are and the more scrambling you have to do. The dangerous part of this is that if you aren’t careful, you can fall. The drop is about 600′ on either side.

Reaching the Summit of Lone Peak

Finally, after several hours of hiking, climbing, scrambling and sweating, you reach the small rock that is the summit. The benchmark lists the summit at 11,253 feet elevation. But then you step up onto a rock that I think adds another foot to the elevation. If there are too many people on the summit, you need to be VERY careful so you don’t fall, or inadvertently cause someone else to call.

The summit is equivalent to a large kitchen table, with steep 600′ drops on three of the four sides. Standing on the summit is nerve wracking. We stayed close to the ground – especially when thousands of small birds started swarming the area. It was a cool sight, but reminded me of a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film, The Birds.

We enjoyed a moment at the summit before another group of people arrived. We, like many others, sent texts and made phone calls to family and friends to let them know of our accomplishments. After all, it’s not every day someone calls you from an elevation of 11,253 feet.

We also pulled out the binoculars and explored the valley below. It was fun to look at shopping malls and neighborhoods. Sadly, you can’t see my house in Sandy from the summit because there’s a lower peak in the way (which means I can’t see the summit from my house – which was news to me).

After spending about 20 minutes at the summit, we began our trek back to the car.

Descending from Lone Peak

You’d think that coming down the mountain would be a cake walk. It wasn’t. The constant jarring of my knees and the amount of effort we’d already put into reaching the summit was wearing on my. In fact, it was wearing on my active, healthy 17-year-old son, too. After what seemed like 10 minutes, we were standing in the area below the summit, looking up at where we had just been.

We still had a long way to go. We stopped often for water and snacks. But we were pretty sick of our trail mix. It was late in the day, and I was wishing I would’ve take the advice of the Hobbits and had a Second Lunch ready to go. We took another round of Advil – me for my knees, and my son for his headache.

On the way down, we found a much better trail for traveling across the boulder field to the dirt trail of the saddle. We should’ve taken that route on our way up. When we reached Jacob’s Ladder, I was dreading the descent. My knees and legs were already hurting and I could feel blisters starting to form on my feet (in fact, I didn’t wear shoes for three days after the hike because of the size of my blisters).

After reaching Lone Rock, I put the trekking pole away and we increased our speed. We were tired, hungry and ready to eat a caloric dinner and rest our feet. We were running low on water and just wanted to be done.

Conclusion

After grabbing some Wendy’s drive-thru, I dropped my son off at his mom’s house. He was talking about how accomplished he felt. I laughed, but realized he was right. When I shared a few photos of our adventure on Facebook, others commented on how amazing that was.

One of my friends and former colleagues, who had made the hike before, said it’s quite the feat (on your feet). 😉 Despite how tough the hike was, I am glad we did it. We had some great time to talk about life and what plans my son is thinking about, since high school graduation is so close (next May).

While this hike isn’t for the faint of heart, it’s worth doing. You can’t just wake up and decide, I want to hike Lone Peak summit today. You need to be in shape (at least be familiar with tough hikes) and have the mindset and resources so you don’t end up stranded or hurt on the mountain.

As said earlier, I can see why people would want to hike to the summit of Lone Peak. But I can’t understand why anyone would want to do it twice.

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