The scenery behind the main ridge's jagged exfoliated granite slabs and enormous standing rocks is spectacular, too. Located between Milford and Beaver, Utah, the 16,000-acre Granite Peak area is readily accessible from those towns or from Interstate 15 and provides a scenic, natural area for backcountry recreationists. The proposed wilderness also contains important archeological sites, obsidian quarries that were used from Paleo-Indian to historic times.
Access is easiest from Beaver, Utah.
From town, travel west towards Minersville Lake. Turn right onto a dirt road about five miles out of Beaver and right again after a mile. Old mining roads parallel the mountain on either side, but the most interesting views and hikes are from the western flank, on the far side of Soldier Pass from Beaver. The Mineral Mountains, of which Granite Peak is the most notable feature, have been studied intensively by scientists from the University of Utah in connection with geothermal and volcanic activity in the Great Basin. The igneous rocks of the Mineral Mountains are the source of heat for several nearby springs, such as Roosevelt Hot Springs.