TR: Snorkeling Elk Yurt, Tushar Mtns

[salomonskiier12]

Made the trek from Cali over to southern Utah's 3rd tallest range, the Tushar Mtns. Spend 3 nights in the Snorkeling Elk Yurt (http://www.skitushar.com/pricing.html), and 4 days enjoying the spring conditions that this weak winter had to offer. Snowpack was deep enough to cover most rocks and grass, and the weather was warm enough to hike and ski in a light shell. As a result, many Colorado snowcones were made, and many beers were drunken.

Being our first time in the yurt, we did not know exactly what to bring, and what was up there already. The yurt owner, a friendly, helpful, and awesome man, left out many details in describing to us what was in the yurt, so hopefully this thread will help to clear up some things for future travelers.

The yurt came with a small propane, 2 burner stove, a janky wood stove and wood, a bunk bed, various pots and pans, utensils, a lantern, and a giant propane tank to power the stove or lantern. To clear a few things up, we would have been better off bringing our own whisperlite to cook/boil water. The two burner stove is really only capable of cooking on 1 burner; using 2 at a time is not realistic. Either way, boiling water and cooking would have been a lot faster if we used a jet-boil or other camp stove.
The wood stove was certainly great to have, but it takes a lot of TLC to keep it burning for more than 2 hrs at a time...We didn't have very cold weather, but if it did get cold, we really would have had to work to keep the yurt toasty.
We were told not to bring any pots and pans, however, it would have helped to have more than 1 pot to boil water in; one large pot had a hole in it, and the others were simply saucepans.
Also, be prepared to deal with any mice that may be lingering in the area...we only saw a few of them scampering around.

Our saying for this yurt: everything 'almost' works! Granted, we are camping, so we can't complain too much about the accommodations.
I would recommend this place to anyone in a heartbeat! Other than a few small things, the location was great, the price was right, and it is an absolute hidden playground.

For a few of the guys in our group, it was their first backcountry experience, hopefully one that will be repeated. But in the mean time, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The guide towed a few items in for us


The group


After we slogged in for 4 hours, finally arrived at our yurt




The tiny wood burning stove with some wood. More wood was available outside along with an axe


The one bunk. Double with memory foam on the bottom, and a single up top. There were numerous sleeping pads already there for us, so that was another thing we probably didn't need to slog up the mtn.


Once we sobered up, headed to the closest peak, Delano Peak and Poison Creek drainage.




It was pretty bare up top. Could not skin all the way to the summit of Delano

[_Aaron_]

Not to hate on the owner but all of those things are pretty easy fixes. Might be worth mentioning it to him. Other than that it looks fun. Thanks for sharing!

[salomonskiier12]

It was pretty bare in some spots


Summit of Delano




We then descended down through poison creek drainage, and headed back to camp for some more fun




And cooked a little food on our sketchy 2 burner...


Even played a little Polish Horseshoes...


And the group after a long few days of a lot of drinking, and a little bit of skiing


There are a ton of pictures and video, all of which can be seen at this link:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?...kU&usp=sharing