Vernon Hills Utah

The Vernon Hills are a small cluster of bumps in the Rush Valley. They are surrounded by flat lands so the hills are completely isolated from any mountain range. There are 3 highpoints in the Vernon Hills with over 300 feet of prominence, all can be toped within a few hours. I had a feeling the Vernon Hills would be riddled with 4WD roads and ATV trails. Sure enough, roads go up two of them and the third is an easy walk up. With snow on the distant ranges on a perfect blue sky spring day, this was a fine outing only a short distance from town.

Vernon Hills North
This is the easiest of the three because a communication site sits near the summit. A good road will take you up. Just before the top is a saddle between it's 2 summits. A left turn will go to the true summit while the right goes to the communication site. The road left is rough at this point and requires high clearance. A park and walk from the saddle will still only be a 10 minute hike to the top. An adventurous car can get within feet of the top.

Vernon Hills East
This one has two roads to the summit. I took the one on the north ridge of the false summit. It was very, very steep. I parked on the false summit and walked with the kids to the top. 5 minutes. If no 4WD/high clearance, add about 20 minutes to the hike or give a try to the western approach.

Vernon Hills South
Took a decent spur road on the east side to it's end. Just over 400 feet of climbing from that point. Open easy slopes. Best views, it is the highpoint of the Vernon Hills. No ATV trail to the summit so it is the most primitive of the three as well.

The Vernon Hills can be reached by taking Highway 36 south of Tooele. From Lehi, take highway 73 to 5 Mile Pass and turn left on the Pony Express Road. On highway 36, the dirt road to the hills cuts off the highway about 1.4 miles after the signed Pony Express Road (going west) (2 miles from the junction with the pony express road from 5 Mile Pass). The Vernon Hills road is signed if you are coming from the south but not from the north. There are several other access points as well but the two I show on the map below are drivable for most cars.

Distance: All under a mile
Elevation Gain: 0 to 400 feet
Summit Elevation: 6,334, 6,241 and 6,174 feet
Access rating: Level 2 (to reach the base of each)

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On the summit of Vernon Hills East with car on false summit and Vernon Hills South in the center. Sheeprock Mountains in distance, Sabie Mountain on left.

Oquirrh Mountains on left, Wasatch Range in distance. Timpanogos on the right with snow, Lakeview Mountains below Timp with Thorpe Hills below that.

Boulter Peak and the East Tintic Mountains

Rush Valley and the Oquirrh Mountains

Summit of Vernon Hills South

Vernon Hills South route

Below: Stars show where I parked, dashed black line shows another possible road or ATV trail

Vernon Hills, North, South, East