Little Creek Peak Field Trip - FF
August 29, 2005 – field trip to Bear Valley and Little Creek Peak
On August 29, 2005 we convened a field trip to view the proposed Little Creek Peak backcountry area primarily located in Iron County. We met at the Justice Center in Cedar City and headed out for a driving tour. A portion of our tour followed the Old Spanish Trail (1830-1848). All told, our caravan consisted of eight vehicles. We reconvened at the Little Creek Ranch (an excellent facility that I’m told is available to rent for conferences, reunions, and special events). Frank Fay (planning team leader) laid out a map of the proposed Little Creek Peak area and asked the group to think about three questions during the field trip:
We had an extended discussion about the need for backcountry designation and about the “specialness” of this area. Several ideas were expressed:
· The mountains of the north part of Cedar City RD are naturally “backcountry”, we will not gain anything from a designation.
· Little Creek Peak is not significantly different from other peaks in this area.
· Attracting people to this area is not a good idea. Trail heads are not sufficient, some folks would trespass on private land, additional people will detract from the backcountry experience.
· It might be good to expressly manage some areas in an undeveloped condition before the larger numbers of visitors in the south of the ranger district decide to move north for recreation.
· The rugged nature of this area will always be backcountry.
After the discussion we drove to an overview of Bear Valley. From there we could see the western edge of the proposed area, Little Creek Peak, and Sandy Peak. We could also see the private land in the valley, the Prairie dog colony, and the rangeland management in the valley. We discussed boundaries. A suggestion was made to follow the slope break (approximately tree-line). We also discussed Prairie dog management, road maintenance, and historic range vegetation treatments. We left the area, drove past Red Creek Reservoir and back to Cedar City.