Casto Bluff

Our plan was to hike Crow Peak on Friday morning, and then head back to camp and rest a little while.  Then later, in the afternoon, go and hike to the top of Casto Bluff.  It was a good plan until we came to a cliff face that blocked us from getting to a saddle that we needed to reach in order to complete the hike.  It was getting late, so we decided to come back and try a different route on Saturday.  Friday’s attempt wasn’t a total bust, as we enjoyed great views as we traversed a high ridge and got some unique views of Casto Bluff that inspired us to go back and “bag” this peak on Saturday!

That's Casto Bluff (9,580 ft) up ahead . . .
Our plan is to start on the far right ridge and work our way south to the top of the Bluff . . .
You can see the saddle on the ridgeline that will give us problems on our 1st attempt

We began our initial ascent at the Judd Pasture Troughs

Blue Mustard was blooming where we parked the Can-Am

This little hoodoo stood out as we traversed the ridge heading south for Casto Bluff

Kent & Tom peer through this opening, in the cliff walls,
 only to discover there is no way to reach the Bluff from here . . .
But they did see another route that might work

Here's a better view of what they saw . . . somehow we need to get to that saddle to complete the hike
It was getting late, so we made plans to come back and try, again, on Saturday

Here's a good view of the ridge we have been following, as we head back to Judd Troughs 
The Sevier Plateau offers a variety of unique terrain . . .
That's Hancock Peak (9,990 ft) and off in the distance you can see the snow-capped Tushar Mountains

A baby short-horned lizard

Kent has been intrigued by Blind Spring Mountain . . . so Saturday morning we made plans
to go and hike this peak before completing Casto Bluff in the afternoon . . . 
Once we arrived, it was fairly obvious we probably weren't going to get the dogs on top and
it was highly doubtful we could make it . . . we decided to save it for another day!

We were quite surprised by all the neat colorful rock formations along the way 

Lola could easily be mistaken for a bear cub . . .
She enjoyed a drink from Blind Spring before we turned around and headed back to Casto Bluff

We parked by this aspen to begin our hike up Casto Bluff . . . 2nd attempt
(It is located in a pull out area just to the south of the Judd Troughs) 

Obviously there is no trail . . . it was a bushwhack to get to the saddle!

Up on the saddle . . . all we have to do is follow it south . . . right??

Use your imagination . . . is it a dog or a cow wearing a hat!?

We took in the views from here . . .  it was a long drop-off beyond these rocks

The top is near (or so we think), but first we must negotiate this narrow bridge . . .
That means going up and over the rock in front of Tom . . . there are steep drop offs on both sides!

Pictures can be deceiving . . . we had to use all fours to get across this section
Kent stayed here with the dogs, while Tom & Allison continued on to the top

Trees can be pretty even when they die

Turns out the top was actually another one-third mile away

We could see a long way
(Click on the picture and it will open in landscape view)

Tom thought it was scarier coming back down the rock bridge . . .
Kent, Lola and Ezy are waiting for Tom & Allison behind the fir tree

Time to work our way back towards the saddle

You can see the cliffs, in the distance, where we were stopped on our 1st attempt last night

Allison spotted this feather from a Mountain Bluebird . . .
 Blue feathers symbolize calm & peace, a perfect ending to this hike 

This was a fun and challenging hike, and other than a few short sections of bushwhacking, a very rewarding hike.  If you're interested in our routes, Tom has posted them both on his Peakbagger.com page.  For our first attempt on Friday night you can click here for a topo map and GPS tracks - for Saturday's successful summit route, you can click here.  Round trip was about 2.5 miles, with 700 feet of elevation gain and took us about three hours.