Loafer Canyon, and the half hour drive to the trailhead.

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 published here as a way in. There is also no Sawmill trail out of Salem on any Forest Service record, whatever an aggregator or 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, work on the last stage started in spring 2025, and Utah County holds the current position on whether that stage is now finished. The dates, the cost and what it means for an address here are on the moving here page.

About 10,700 feet, and that figure deserves its hedge. The number circulating in climbing references is 10,687 feet, which is precise enough to look authoritative and comes from a community source rather than from a survey marker, so this page treats 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 telephone call before setting out from Salem.