11,101 feet Alpine
The uncomplicated big day from this town
Box Elder Peak, from the top of Grove Drive.
Eleven thousand one hundred and one feet in the Lone Peak Wilderness, reached from the same small dirt car park that serves Horsetail Falls, by a route running anywhere from about 10.7 to 14 miles with 4,900 to 5,980 feet of climbing depending on the line you take. No fee, no permit and nothing in dispute, but a final mile that is steep, loose and completely in the sun.
Southern Utah is my home turf. Alpine is not, so these pages are researched rather than lived: checked against city, county and venue sources, and dated so you can see how fresh they are. For the on-the-ground work here I lean on a Utah County partner agent.
Start here
Eleven thousand one hundred and one feet, from a dirt lot at the top of a street.
Box Elder Peak is the blunt summit on the north side of the Lone Peak Wilderness, and from Alpine it is reached from the same Dry Creek trailhead at the top of Grove Drive that serves the Horsetail Falls walk. At 11,101 feet it is only about a hundred and fifty feet lower than Lone Peak itself, and it gets a small fraction of the attention, which is most of its appeal.
The most travelled version follows the Deer Creek and Dry Creek trail and runs roughly 10.7 to 10.8 miles out and back with something close to 4,900 feet of climbing. A longer variant staying with Dry Creek logs about fourteen miles and 5,980 feet. A loop taking in the Box Elder Trail sits between the two at around 11.4 miles and 5,100 feet. Whichever you pick, plan for five to six thousand feet of ascent and a day rather than a morning.
What sets this apart from the other Alpine mountain day is that nothing about getting to the start is complicated. There is no fee, no permit, no reservation and no dispute. There is a dirt car park with about twenty spaces, and after that it is simply a question of whether you have the day in your legs. That combination is why this is the summit I would send anybody to first from this town.
The day in numbers
11,101 ft
the summit
10.7 to 14 mi
depending on the route you take
4,900 to 5,980 ft
of climbing, published range
9 to 12 hrs
car to car at a normal pace
Choosing a line
Three ways up from Alpine and one that belongs to the next canyon.
The published figures for this mountain vary more than for anything else in this companion, and the reason is that people are describing genuinely different routes under the same name. Here they are separated out, with the ranges shown rather than averaged into one misleading number.
| The route | Distance and climbing | What it is like |
|---|---|---|
| Deer Creek and Dry Creek, out and back | About 10.7 to 10.8 miles, close to 4,900 feet | The most travelled version, and the one most trip reports mean |
| The long Dry Creek variant | About 14 miles, 5,980 feet | A longer approach for a longer day; the same summit at the end of it |
| The loop with the Box Elder Trail | Around 11.4 miles, 5,100 feet | Between the two, and it gives new ground on the way down |
| From Granite Flat, in American Fork Canyon | A different drive and a different day | The eastern approach, which is the next canyon's rather than Alpine's |
Route figures as published in current trail data and checked 14 August 2026. Where sources disagree the range is shown rather than an average taken, because the disagreement reflects different lines rather than measurement error. All three Alpine side options leave from the same dirt car park at the top of Grove Drive, and all of them enter the Lone Peak Wilderness, where no day use permit is issued and no bicycles are permitted.
The eastern approach to this summit is American Fork's, not Alpine's. Box Elder Peak can also be climbed from Granite Flat, up American Fork Canyon, and that is a different drive with a recreation fee and a seasonal road at the start of it. The canyon, its fee card, its campgrounds and its closures are all written once on American Fork's canyon page. This page carries the Alpine side, which starts at the top of a residential street and costs nothing.
The part that decides it
The last mile is steep, loose and completely in the sun.
Everything below the final climb is a long, honest trail: forest, then basin, then open slope, with a steady grade that rewards a slow pace. What changes near the top is the surface. The final mile is steep, the footing is loose, and there is no shade and no water on it. That is where the day is won or lost, and it is worth thinking about before you are standing at the bottom of it at one in the afternoon in July.
The specific trap is the descent. Loose ground on a steep slope is slower to come down than to go up, and most people budget the return as though it were the reverse of the climb. It is not. If the ascent of that section took an hour, the descent will not take thirty minutes, and the difference compounds across a day that was already nine to twelve hours long.
The heat is the second half of the same problem. An exposed final climb on a summer afternoon is a materially harder thing than the same climb at nine in the morning, which is why the standard practice on this mountain is an alpine start. Being off the loose section and back into the basin before the middle of the afternoon is a better objective than any particular summit time.
None of this makes it a dangerous mountain. It makes it a long one with a demanding end, on ground where nobody can drive to you. Carry water for the entire day, carry a light in case the arithmetic goes wrong, and set a turnaround time at the car rather than negotiating with yourself on the slope.
Set a turnaround time before you leave the car park, and treat the loose final mile as slower down than up. This is a five to six thousand foot day finishing on steep, loose, unshaded ground at 11,101 feet, and the failure mode is almost never the climb. It is a party that summits an hour later than planned, finds the descent of the last section takes twice as long as expected, and ends up crossing the basin in the dark with empty bottles. There is no water above the basin and no vehicle access above the trailhead, because everything up there is designated wilderness. Carry the whole day's water, carry a head torch even on a summer morning, and pick a time at which you will turn round regardless of how close the summit looks.
Nobody fails on Box Elder Peak because of the climb. They fail because the last mile comes down slower than it went up.
Shaping the day
An early start, and a season shorter than the trailhead suggests.
The season is the first thing to get right. The car park at the top of Grove Drive is dry and warm weeks before the upper mountain is ready, and that gap catches people out every year. Midsummer into early autumn is the honest window for the summit, with September and early October giving the cleanest combination of clear ground, cool air and long enough daylight. In a heavy year snow lingers high into the summer.
The start time follows from the parking and the heat together. The lot is shared with the Horsetail Falls walk, it holds about twenty vehicles, and it fills on summer weekends well before the middle of the morning. Add an exposed final climb that is far better done early, and the answer is the same from both directions: be walking early, and on a weekend be walking very early.
What to carry is short and non negotiable. All of the day's water, because there is nothing reliable above the basin. Sun protection, because the top of this mountain has no shade at all. A light, because the sums go wrong on long days. And enough food for nine to twelve hours of work rather than for a hike, which is what a five to six thousand foot ascent actually is.
The reward is a summit looking straight across at Timpanogos with the whole length of Utah Valley below it, on a peak that sees a fraction of that mountain's traffic. For anybody who came to Alpine wanting a big day and read the access section on the other summit page, this is the one to do.
The other summit
The Hamongog route
The Alpine side of Lone Peak, two meadows, a lake basin, and an access question worth reading first.
Read the pageThe short version
Horsetail Falls
Four and a half miles from the same dirt lot, and the walk most visitors to Alpine actually do.
Read the pageThe gentle end
Lambert Park
Two hundred and fifty five city owned acres of trail below the wilderness line, free at any hour.
Read the pageWhere this sits
The biggest thing you can do from an Alpine street.
Box Elder Peak is the top of what this town offers under its own power. These pages carry the rest of it and the valley beyond.
Where it ranks
Sixth on the list
The summit takes sixth place, and the entry is honest about why a great day out ranks below a city park.
The ranked listThe other approach
American Fork Canyon
The eastern route to this summit starts at Granite Flat, behind a recreation fee and a seasonal road.
Read the guideThe companion
Alpine, in full
Seven pages on the town under Lone Peak, from the open space to the paperwork.
Read the pageKeep reading
More of Alpine on The Local.
Things to do
The top 8, ranked
Eight entries, ranked, each with the body that runs it and the season it keeps.
Read the guide255 acres
Lambert Park
Sixteen miles of volunteer singletrack, a rodeo ground inside it, and no motors at all.
Read the guideThe Dry Creek walk
Horsetail Falls
Two and a bit shaded miles up Dry Creek to a cascade and a Marine Corps plaque.
Read the guideToward Lone Peak
The Hamongog route
Two meadows, a lake, a summit ridge, and a gravel road nobody agrees about.
Read the guideMoving here
The end of the road
What it takes to own a lot where the highway stops and the fuel starts.
Read the guideThe companion
Alpine, in full
The open space, the two trailheads, the tower, the week in August and the wilderness line.
Read the pageQuick answers
The summit, answered.
Eleven thousand one hundred and one feet, on the north side of the Lone Peak Wilderness above Alpine. That puts it only about a hundred and fifty feet below Lone Peak itself, which stands at 11,253 feet on the same ridge system, and it sees a small fraction of the traffic that Mount Timpanogos across the canyon does. Note that there is also a Box Elder County in northern Utah, which is a completely different place and a common source of confusion in search results.
It depends which line you take, and the published figures vary because people are describing genuinely different routes. The most travelled version follows the Deer Creek and Dry Creek trail at roughly 10.7 to 10.8 miles out and back with close to 4,900 feet of climbing. A longer variant staying with Dry Creek runs about fourteen miles and 5,980 feet. A loop taking in the Box Elder Trail sits between them at around 11.4 miles and 5,100 feet. Plan for nine to twelve hours car to car.
At the Dry Creek trailhead at the top of Grove Drive in Alpine, the same dirt car park that serves the Horsetail Falls walk. It holds about twenty vehicles, it has no restroom and no water, and there is no overflow parking because the streets below it are residential. Anyone attempting the summit is generally walking before it is properly light, which solves the parking problem and the heat problem at the same time.
It is a full mountain day rather than a hike. Expect five to six thousand feet of climbing and nine to twelve hours car to car at a normal pace. The difficulty is concentrated at the end: the final mile is steep, the footing is loose and there is no shade and no water on it. Nothing on the route requires technical climbing, but the descent of that last section is slower than the ascent, which is the single most common way the timing on this mountain goes wrong.
No. The route enters the Lone Peak Wilderness, which covers 30,088 acres and was designated in 1978 as Utah's first wilderness area, and the Forest Service issues no day use permit for it. There is no fee at the Dry Creek trailhead either. What the designation does mean is no bicycles and no motorised or mechanised equipment past the boundary, and campfire and group rules that can tighten through the season, posted on the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest alerts page.
Midsummer into early autumn for most people, with September and early October giving the cleanest conditions of the year. The trap is that the car park at the top of Grove Drive is dry and warm weeks before the upper mountain is ready, so an early summer attempt can meet snow well above the trailhead while the valley is in shorts. In a heavy snow year the high ground holds well into the summer, and winter and spring turn this into a genuinely different undertaking.
Nothing you should rely on above the basin, and certainly nothing on the final climb. Carry the whole day's water from the car, which for a five to six thousand foot ascent in summer is more than most people pack for a hike. The trailhead itself has no water and no restroom either, so this is a day where everything comes out of the boot with you. Sun protection matters as much as water, because the last mile has no shade at all.
Yes, from Granite Flat, and that is the eastern approach rather than the Alpine one. It is a different drive and a different day, and it starts behind the recreation fee and the seasonal road that govern American Fork Canyon. Those are covered on American Fork's own canyon page rather than here. The Alpine side starts at the top of a residential street, costs nothing and has no gate on it, which is why this page carries that version.
Box Elder Peak, for almost anybody doing it for the first time. It is only about a hundred and fifty feet lower, it is a long but non technical day, and everything about reaching the trailhead is settled. The Alpine side approach to Lone Peak goes through the Hamongogs from Schoolhouse Springs and carries a live access question over the last stretch of gravel road, along with a summit that finishes in granite and involves scrambling near the top from either direction.
Five thousand feet, and nothing to book beforehand.
The thing worth taking from this page, whether or not you ever climb it, is how much mountain sits directly above this town with no gate, no fee and no reservation system between you and it. That is not true of the canyon at the north edge and it is not true of most of the Wasatch. It is a genuine feature of an address in Alpine. Tell me what you are weighing and I will put you with a Utah County partner agent who works this end of the valley, and stay on the file for the financing side.
Referral disclosure. Outside Southern Utah, I connect home sellers and buyers with partner agents I trust in their area. If you choose to work with an agent I refer, that agent's brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee. The fee comes out of the agent's compensation; it is not an added cost to you. You are always free to choose any agent you wish, and using a referred agent is never required.