Mytoge Mountain and Fish Lake Shoreline trail
Fish Lake is a natural lake in the high plateau of central Utah. Elevation at the lake is 8700 feet. This lake is famous for large trout. But it's also the site of the Mytoge Mountain bike trail. In the picture at right, that's Mytoge in the background.

Along the north shore of the lake, there's an easy well-groomed trail that hugs the shoreline. This is perfect for the kiddies. Strong intermediate riders will use this trail to complete a 26-mile loop: west on the shoreline trail, around the west side of the lake, south to the top of Mytoge Mountain, east across the upper plateau, down some technical stuff to the east end of the lake, then back to the shoreline trail.

The Mytoge Mountain trail rises up volcanic rock through quaking aspens and pines. Most of the trail is OK for a strong intermediate rider, with short areas of advanced technical. Long stretches of easy trail (for example, 10 miles along the north shore) allow reasonably seasoned riders to complete the entire 26-mile loop.

Fish Lake lies in a "grabben," a chunk of land that slipped downward between two fault lines. It's the origin of the Fremont River. The Sevier Plateau is covered with volcanic deposits, dating from the last 20 million years, on top of lakebed deposits from the Tertiary Period (age of mammals beginning around 65 million years ago). The plateau was lifted up in the mid-Tertiary. The Great Basin subsided, creating the dramatic elevation change between the I-15 corridor (5000 feet) and the plateau country just a few miles to the east (9000 feet).

Getting there:
Fish Lake is about 210 miles south of Salt Lake City. Take I-15 to Cipio, then UT-50 to Salina. Backtrack west (turn right) on I-70 about 7 miles, then take UT-24 to UT-25 and continue to the lake. The shoreline trail can be picked up anywhere along the north side. There's a parking area titled "Doctor Creek Trailhead" at the west end of the lake, which is a good place to pick up the shoreline trail.