The mountain side Salem
The mountain everybody here looks at and nobody here walks up
Loafer Canyon, and the half hour drive to the trailhead
Loafer Canyon Road climbs off Salem's south bench toward the canyon mouth and the bench town above it, and the mountain behind that stands at roughly 10,700 feet. The signed Forest Service route up it, Trail 098, starts on the Mount Nebo Scenic Byway about twelve miles south of Payson, which is a thirty minute drive from town. The road, the base, the four different things called Loafer, and why there is no way onto the mountain from town.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
Start here
Salem holds the road and the ground the road starts from
Loafer Mountain stands southeast of Salem at roughly 10,700 feet. It is the largest thing visible from this town and the town has responded by naming things after it: an elementary school at 1025 South 250 West, the city's sports complex on the east side, and the county parkway that now runs along its foot.
Loafer Canyon Road is the piece of this that genuinely belongs to Salem. It climbs off the south bench toward the mouth of the canyon and carries on toward the small bench town above, and the addresses strung along it are split between the two places depending on which side of a boundary they land. Driving it is the closest a Salem address gets to the mountain without leaving the valley floor.
What the road is not is an approach to a summit. The slopes above the canyon mouth belong to the bench town and to the national forest, the mountain itself is a subject for the town that sits under it rather than the town that looks across at it, and the only signed way up starts thirty minutes away on a completely different road. That distinction is what trips up most people who go looking for a way onto it.
The mountain and the road
~10,700 ft
Loafer Mountain, on the skyline southeast of town
5.8 miles
of Forest Service trail, one way
~2,100 ft
of climb, packed into the last five miles
~30 min
of driving from Salem to reach the trailhead
Four things called Loafer
The name is on a school, a sports complex, a parkway and a trail
This is the single most confusing thing about Salem for a newcomer, and it costs people real time. Four separate things in and around this town carry the mountain's name, two of them are roads that go to different places, and only one of them puts you on the mountain. Here is which is which.
| What | What it actually is | Where it goes or sits | What it is not |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loafer Mountain | The peak itself, southeast of town at roughly 10,700 feet | On the skyline from most of Salem, in the national forest | Not reachable on foot from any street in Salem |
| Loafer Canyon Road | A local road climbing off Salem's south bench toward the canyon mouth | Up toward the small bench town above Salem, with addresses split between the two | Not a route to the signed trailhead, and not a forest road |
| Loafer Mountain Parkway | A county built arterial, three phases, roughly forty four million dollars | From SR-164 near the freeway about four miles south, becoming Elk Ridge Drive | Not a canyon road at all. It runs along the foot of the mountain, not into it |
| Loafer Mountain Trail 098 | The signed Forest Service trail, 5.8 miles with about 2,100 feet of climb over its last five | From the Mount Nebo Scenic Byway about twelve miles south of Payson, on toward Santaquin Peak | Not in Salem, and not reached by either of the two roads above |
| Mt. Loafer Elementary | A Nebo School District elementary school at 1025 South 250 West | In the town, on the south side | Not a trailhead, a park or a public facility of any kind |
| Loafer View Recreation Complex | The city sports complex with fields, courts, pickleball, horseshoe pits and a walking path | 600 East Canal Road, on the east side of Salem | Outdoor fields and courts, not an indoor pool or a fitness center |
The two roads are the ones that cost people time: one climbs toward the bench town above, the other runs along the foot of the mountain to the freeway, and neither reaches the signed trail. Alignments and access can shift with new construction, so confirm anything time sensitive before you rely on it.
The parkway is the newest of the four and the one most likely to be mid works when you read this. Two of the four Loafers are roads and this is the one that catches people out, because despite the name it does not enter the canyon at all. Utah County built it as an arterial along the foot of the mountain, tying this end of the valley straight to the interstate, and it arrived in stages from December 2023 with work on the last of them starting in spring 2025. It is a commuting road rather than a recreation one, so the dates, the cost and what it does to an address here all sit on the moving here page, and it is worth confirming whether that last stage is finished before you count on it.
The signed way up
Thirty minutes of driving before anybody sets foot on the mountain
Loafer Mountain Trail 098 is administered by the Spanish Fork Ranger District of the Uinta Wasatch Cache National Forest, and its trailhead sits on the Mount Nebo Scenic Byway about twelve miles south of Payson, just north of Payson Lakes. From Salem the approach runs southwest through Payson, into the canyon, and up the byway, which takes roughly half an hour in good conditions. That drive is not a detail. It is the whole difference between what the skyline promises and what the map delivers.
The trail runs 5.8 miles one way with something in the order of 2,100 feet of climb, and almost all of that climb is concentrated in the last five miles, which tells you where the work is. It is open to walkers, horses and mountain bicycles, and it carries on toward Santaquin Peak for anybody with the daylight and the legs. As a day out it is a genuinely good one, and it belongs to the byway rather than to this town.
The road that gets you there is gated for the winter and reopens progressively as the snow lets go, which puts this outing out of reach for roughly half the year. The gate season, the byway stops, and who to call for the current road status are all covered on the Nebo Loop page, which walks the whole byway rather than just the stretch a Salem visitor drives. Confirm the fees and the gate status before you set out.
The honest summary for a Salem address is that the mountain is a view every day and an outing a few times a year. That is less romantic than the alternative, and it is the honest version.
There is no published route up the north side, and there is good reason not to improvise one. Salem faces Loafer from the north and has no signed access onto it. You will find descriptions of scrambling in from Water Canyon and using roads that need somebody's permission to pass, and access on that side of the mountain, including around the wildlife management ground, has been a live local sore point for years. Sending yourself through a gate that somebody else controls is not worth doing on a forum post's say so. Separately, no Sawmill trail out of Salem appears on any Forest Service record, whatever an old forum post tells you. The signed trailhead is on the byway, and it is the only one worth naming.
The mountain fills the window from every street in this town, and the only signed way onto it starts on a road that leaves from somewhere else entirely.
Whose mountain it is
Salem takes the base, and the bench town above takes the rest
Two towns sit under this mountain and they carry different halves of it. Getting the division right is what stops both of them writing the same page badly, and it also happens to be the fastest way to understand the geography.
Salem's half is the valley floor and the road. The town sits at 4,613 feet on ground that runs out flat toward the freeway, it holds the lower end of Loafer Canyon Road, and it looks at the mountain rather than living on it. Everything a Salem address deals with concerning Loafer is a view, a name on a school, and about ten minutes of climbing road.
The other half belongs to the small bench town above the canyon mouth, which sits considerably higher, backs directly onto the forest, and deals with the things that come with that: a wildland edge, the practicalities of a single main way in and out, and the questions a household actually has to answer when it lives under a mountain rather than beside one. That side of the mountain belongs to the bench town above, not to Salem.
The forest ground itself belongs to neither of them. The slopes above are Uinta Wasatch Cache National Forest, the trail on them is administered from Spanish Fork, and the byway that reaches the signed trailhead is a shared valley subject with its own page. Salem's honest claim on Loafer Mountain is that the town is named around it, and that turns out to be a bigger claim than owning a trailhead would be.
The byway
The Nebo Loop
The road the trailhead sits on, its gate season, its stops and the ranger district that owns its live status.
Read the guideWhere it ranks
Fourth on the list
The ranked seven puts the mountain fourth, behind three things you can do in Salem without starting the car.
The ranked listThe valley
Utah Valley on The Local
Every town in this valley written up separately, plus the seven subjects that none of them owns alone.
Open the hubWhere this sits
The south edge of a town that fits in ten minutes
Loafer Canyon Road leaves Salem at its highest point and everything else in town sits below it, most of it within sight of the water in the middle of Salem. Here is what picks up from the bench.
Downhill
Salem Pond
Eleven acres of spring fed water, a two fish limit, a footbridge and a loop that takes half an hour.
Read the pageMoving here
The town around a pond
The parkway that changed the run to the freeway, the city that bills its own power, and the growth figure with a date on it.
Read the pageThe companion
Salem, in full
Start at the top and work down: the whole of this town, ordered outward from the water.
Read the page
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Keep reading
More of Salem on The Local
Things to do
The top 7, ranked
Seven entries in a town of ten square miles, three of them at the same eleven acres.
Read the guideThe water
Salem Pond
Fed from underneath, stocked by the state, walked in half an hour, and never frozen hard.
Read the guideNine days in August
Salem Days
Nine days in August, two parades, a tractor pull and boats built of cardboard.
Read the guideBefore it was Salem
Pond Town heritage
A dam in 1851, a fort in 1856, and a mill that has processed one load of ore.
Read the guideMoving here
The town around a pond
City power, a second water pipe metered since 2023, and the state's fastest growth rate.
Read the guideThe companion
Salem, in full
The water at the middle of it, the road up the mountain side, and nine days in August.
Read the pageQuick answers
Loafer, answered
Not in Salem, which is the single most common mistake made about this mountain. The signed Forest Service route, Loafer Mountain Trail 098, starts on the Mount Nebo Scenic Byway about twelve miles south of Payson and just north of Payson Lakes, in the Spanish Fork Ranger District of the Uinta Wasatch Cache National Forest. From Salem the approach runs southwest through Payson and up the canyon and takes roughly half an hour, so the mountain in the window is a drive rather than a walk.
5.8 miles one way, with something in the order of 2,100 feet of climb concentrated in its last five miles, which tells you where the work sits. It is open to walkers, horses and mountain bicycles, and it carries on toward Santaquin Peak for anybody with the daylight and the legs for it. Because the byway it starts from is gated for the winter and reopens progressively as the snow lets go, this is a snow free months outing rather than a year round one.
There is no signed route up the north side from the town. Hunting forums describe scrambling in from Water Canyon and using roads that need somebody's permission to pass, and access on that side of the mountain has been a live local argument for years, so none of it is a way in you should count on. There is also no Sawmill trail out of Salem on any Forest Service record, whatever an old forum post says. The signed trailhead is on the byway.
It climbs off Salem's south bench toward the mouth of the canyon and carries on toward the small bench town above, and the addresses strung along it are split between the two places depending on which side of the boundary they fall. It is a local road rather than a forest road, it does not reach the signed trailhead, and it is not the same thing as the Loafer Mountain Parkway, which is a county built arterial running along the foot of the mountain to the freeway.
An arterial the county laid along the foot of the mountain to tie this end of the valley straight to the interstate. Despite what it is called it never enters Loafer Canyon and it will not carry you toward any trailhead, so treat it as a commuting road and nothing else. It arrived in stages from December 2023, with work on the last stage starting in spring 2025, so confirm whether that stage is finished before you count on it. The dates, the cost and what it means for an address here are on the moving here page.
About 10,700 feet. You will see 10,687 feet quoted in climbing references, precise enough to look official, but treat it as approximate. What is not in doubt is that it is the dominant summit on Salem's southeastern skyline, that the trail toward it gains roughly 2,100 feet over five miles, and that the ridge carries on toward Santaquin Peak.
Four, plus a school, and the duplication costs visitors real time. There is Loafer Mountain itself, Loafer Canyon Road climbing off the south bench, the Loafer Mountain Parkway running along the foot of the mountain to the freeway, and Loafer Mountain Trail 098, which is a Forest Service trail thirty minutes away on the byway. Add Mt. Loafer Elementary at 1025 South 250 West and the Loafer View Recreation Complex at 600 East Canal Road and the count rises to six.
Both, in the sense that the two towns hold different parts of it. Salem sits at 4,613 feet on the valley floor and holds the lower end of the canyon road, so its relationship with the mountain is a view, a name on a school and about ten minutes of climbing road. The bench town above the canyon mouth sits considerably higher, backs onto the forest and deals with everything that comes with a wildland edge. That is its own companion's subject rather than this one's.
Effectively no, because the road to it is not. The Mount Nebo Scenic Byway is gated through the snow season and reopens progressively as conditions allow, which puts the trailhead out of reach for roughly half the year. The byway is not state maintained, so its live status belongs to the Forest Service ranger district rather than to the transport department, and the shoulder seasons in particular are worth a call before setting out from Salem.
A road, a base, and a mountain that belongs to the byway
Anybody buying on the south side of this town is buying a view of Loafer and a position on the climbing ground below it, which raises questions a listing photograph will not answer: how a parcel sits against the bench and the drainages coming off it, what the county parkway has done to the run to the freeway from that particular street, and where the boundary with the town above actually falls on the canyon road. 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.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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