East Mountain is tucked away in the middle of Emery County and is only significant because it is the highest peak there. East Mountain is mainly of interest to county highpointers and locals who visit the area. Emery County's has a population of 10600 people (as of the last census) and Castledale is the largest town with a population of 1657 although Ferron is almost as populated with 1653 residents listed. If you look close at this linked table, you will see the name of Molen, a place where some of my ancestors settled and tried to make a go of it. Ok, ok, back to East Mountain.

At 10743 feet high, East Mountain is the third highest peak on the Wasatch Plateau with So. Tent Peak and Mussina Peak to the west in neighboring Sanpete county being higher. A good view of East Peak is available from So. Tent Mountain as is shown on the signature picture.

View west to So. Tent Peak

Getting There / The hike

NOTE
SP member madsjim tried the access provided below but found that "the FS had blocked the road past Indian Creek campground. The sign said it
is temporary but could be permament. They have built a solid wood log
barrier across the road and only a mountain bike or hiker could get past
it."

This adds six additional miles to the roundtrip so be prepared for this
new situation.

Madsjim went on to say: "The sign said that the
closure was due to off road damage in the meadows farther up the road.
There is a possibility that the fence will be destroyed and taken down if
the ranger office gets enough input from people. The addition is recent as
of April so anyone trying to get the highpoint by driving to the end of the
road to attempt your route description will get a rude surprise"

So, prior to going, check with the Ferron/Price BLM office and possibly the forest service (see under red tape section) to get their input about the condition of the road and whether it'll be opened back up or not.
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The easiest access is from Castledale Utah which can approached by going north on highway 10 from I-70. You can also approach Castle Dale from the north by heading south out of Price, also on highway 10. Head West out of Castledale-Orangeville by taking Utah highway 29 to Joes Valley Reservoir, a paved road. From UT-29 at Joes Valley Reservoir, take the Miller Flat Road north and follow signs toward Indian Creek Campground (turn right after about 7 miles, then left after another 0.7 mile). After a total of 10 miles, the campground appears on the left. Pass by the Campground's main entrance and cross a cattle guard. The road continues through cow pastures and gradually worsens. This would not be a road I'd want to be on if it rains as it would turn to really bad mud in no time at all. Best time to do this one would be July to October.

Most vehicles would park at this LOCATION
but we were able to drive further up a rough track to the very end of the jeep road and parked HERE.

The Hike starts from either place and the trail is easy to follow. At a junction as the trail meets up with a trail ascending from the north. You'll see some tanks on your right (near where the spring is marked on the topo) and the trail continues past them and goes to the right (southeast).
In a short distance, the trail forks again, take the right fork which heads up fairly steeply for a bit but soon comes out of the trees and onto a grassy slope. Take the grassy slope to the top but be sure to remember where you came out of the trees to make your return to the trail easier.
The trail disappears into the grass but it is obvious as to where you want to go.

Highest area of East Mtn

The top of East Mountain is somewhat rounded and flat but the views to the west and north are very nice. The actual highest spot is near some bushes about 130 feet south of where the benchmark is found.

Total Miles from where we parked: 3 miles roundtrip Elevation gain 1300 feet.

If parking lower, than add about 1/2 mile round trip and an additional
300 feet of elevation gain.

Red Tape

No permits or other regulations to be noted at this time.

East Mountain is within the boundaries of the Manti-La Sal National forest.
For more information about conditions on the Wasatch Plateau area, consider calling:

Manti-La Sal National Forest
599 W. Price River Dr.
Price, UT 84501
(435) 637-2817

or

Sanpete Ranger District
150 South Main Street
P.O. Box 692
Ephraim, UT 84627
(435) 283-4151

Camping and Weather

The two nearby campgrounds are:

Joe's Valley Reservoir Campground (more on Joes Valley below). This one is just a few miles from East Moutain and more info can be found HERE.

Indian Spring Campground is really close to East Mountain but a recent renovation of the campground converted all sites to group campsites, not
very useful for just a couple of people. For more info, click HERE.

We camped just off the road a little north of the Indian Springs campground and it was fine for just car camping.

Emery County

Emery County was named in honor of George W. Emery, governor of the Utah Territory in 1875. Its county seat is Castle Dale and the largest city is Huntington. It is one of those counties where the population is expected to shrink as in the year 2000 the population was 10,860, and by 2005 has been estimated to decrease by about ten percent. Now that it is 2007, it would be interesting to see if this has happened.

The Fremont culture was one of the earlier civilizations of this area and you can learn more about that if you click HERE.

Crandall mine accident

See the pic and the story link

Click HERE> for story on this tragic mine accident (thanks to gjagiels for the link)

Joe's Valley SP page

A ton of good information can now be found on the Joe's Valley area
at this well done Summitpost page:

Joe's Valley Check it out.

External Links

Three trip reports from www.cohp.org are found HERE

Don't miss this Trip Report by Scott Surgent

Books
High in Utah
Hiking Utah's Summits
Neither book follows the route we used in getting to the summit and from looking at both routes, I think the best route is the one offered by what you see in my map. This route provides a trail most of the way versus no trail as outlined in the books. Your choice. High in Utah gives road directions from both Joes Reservoir and an alternate drive in route from Fairview.

Other informative links:
History of Castle Dale Utah

Castle Dale Museum

San Rafael Swell guide PDF format

Images