We started this loop at the Temple Mountain west Campground, which is located at the intersection of Temple Mountain and Behind the Reef road (GPS 38.66777778, -110.6855417). Easiest access to this area is from nearby Goblin Valley State Park via Temple Mountain Road, but we came in from the north.
This area is sandwiched in between the San Rafael Reef Wilderness Area to the east and Muddy Creek Wilderness Area to the south.
The mountain was so named because the outline of this feature resembles the Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City. Towering 1,200 feet above its surrounding terrain at 6772 feet, it is the highest point along the San Rafael Reef, and prominently visible from long distances.
Mining claims were staked here as early as 1898, but no significant quantity of ore was produced until 1914 when mining for radium, vanadium, and uranium began and continued intermittently into the 1920s. The Temple Mountain mines were major uranium producers on the Colorado Plateau in the late 1940s and early 1950s. From 1948 through 1956, the Temple Mountain area produced approximately 1,287,000 pounds of Triuranium octoxide (U3O8), also known as yellowcake, and 3,799,000 pounds of Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5). During the uranium mining boom as a result of the escalation of the Cold War, a shanty town known as Temple City temporarily sprang up here.
We are driving a Kawasaki KRX 1000.