Yankee Ponds

Over the last few weeks we've been spending a fair amount of time in the Sidney Peaks area.  While searching, with Google Earth, for some additional hikes that would get us some elevation (and out of the valley heat), we came across several unnamed ponds that looked interesting.  Since all of them were inaccessible by vehicle, and none of them had trails, we used our GPS to plot a course that would make a loop hike to all three.

We began our hike at the south end of Yankee Meadow Reservoir . . .
From here we followed a fence line east for approximately a mile to where it ended at a lush meadow

Finding our way around the wet meadow, we had to ascend a rather steep section to gain the next meadow . . . 
The entire hillside was covered with Fireweed . . . it was amazing! 

Soon we were following Bowery Creek towards its headwater . . . 
Crystal clear & cold, Bowery Creek flows all the way down to Yankee Meadow Reservoir

At the headwaters of Bowery Creek we found Pond #1 . . .
We appropriately named it "Bowery Pond" . . . pretty original, huh?

Yikes, a snake!  It scared Allison, somehow she managed to take its picture

After leaving Bowery Pond we hiked a short distance southeast to Pond #2 . . .
We ended up calling this Yankee Pond, as it sits under a cliff that holds Yankee Benchmark

Such a beautiful spot . . .
Kent was hoping to cast a line in this pond, but there were no fish

We decided to slightly alter our route and headed back to Bowery Pond
That meant descending this boulder field to get back to the headwaters

When we first passed Bowery Pond we had seen some small trout . . .
Time to "wet a line!"

It didn't even take a minute for Kent to hook this Brook trout
All together we caught three . . . and released them

Water droplets left from last nights rain 

This white snail shell really seemed out of place

After fishing for twenty minutes, it was time to head for Pond #3 . . . 
This section of bushwhack was pretty bad . . . we almost turned back . . . but we pressed on

There were a lot of neat rocks . . . this one sparkled in the sunlight

This is why we didn't give up!
Pond #3, which we named Shelter Lake . . .
Somehow, this pond was spared from the devastating 2017 Brian Head fire

Just us . . . getting ready to head back for the fence line

"X" marks the spot or does it?
 Actually the rest of the hike was virtually bushwhack free . . . so yes it does!
(There were game trails to follow through this section)

Monkey flower was prevalent near the ponds and seeps 

A mile later and we were back to the fence line . . . 
We have come full circle!

We really enjoyed this hike!  We liked that we got most of the steepness out of the way early (about 1,400 ft of total elevation gain) and were able to spend the rest of the hike traversing back and forth across contour lines that were all near the same elevation.  There was certainly a fair amount of bushwhacking, over the five miles, but we considered it worth it for all the springs, streams and ponds that we got to see on the hike . . . water is a precious and special thing in southern Utah!