A rather hot spell was followed by a stormy spell up on the mountains but finally on Saturday it looked like the clouds were not going to gather over Boulder Top, well not the black storm clouds

I turned off UT24 just through the gap between Torrey and Bicknell and immediately noticed a sign for an access road to the Great Western Trail, I thought maybe I would find a track leading to the Boulder Top access road.

The trail started to climb the spur of Boulder Mountain that forms the southern side of the gap with good views of Bicknell Bottoms

Over the top of the spur was a downhill in some deep fine sand, I careened down it and at the bottom decided it was obvious that the trail was going in the wrong direction, then I tried to get back up the slope. No chance, the knobs on my rear tyre are really worn down but I think I would have needed paddles to get up there. I hit it at about 25mph but barely made it 15 yards up the hill before the rear wheel was buried. The tough part was up in the dark patch, all the tracks are mine. In the end I hauled the bike around and set off to find a way out in the other direction,it wasn't far before a track led back to 24.

Back on the right track I had good views of Thousand Lake Mountain where I had been the day before in the truck

The road rises up through the juniper into the aspen, where there are more open areas of aspen the forest floor is covered with flowers

Lupins, indian paintbrush and in the shadows wild roses.

Up on top I took a side trip to Raft Lake

Quite a contrast from last September

Road 178 crosses the Top diagonally through the small forests that dot the area