Hay Lakes

Hay Lakes spreads across 22,144 acres on the high north flank of the Aquarius Plateau in south-central Utah, within the Dixie National Forest. The terrain is montane, mountainous country broken by a sequence of named flats, draws, and knolls: Hay Lakes Flat and Butterfly Flat occupy the broader meadow-pocked benches; Lost Knoll, Pelham Knoll, and Lost Spring Knoll rise from the rolling forest matrix; and Pelham Hollow, Antelope Spring Draw, Allen Well Draw, Rock Spring Draw, Lost Spring Draw, and Pacewell Draw cut the surface into a network of shallow drainages. The eastern edge reaches the Awapa Plateau. The hydrology is rich for so dry a state: Antelope Spring Draw heads here, gathering Antelope Ditch and feeding a chain of named lakes — Pollywog Lake, Butterfly Lake, Big Lake, Lost Lake, Hay Lakes themselves, Lake Philo, and Pelham Lake — supplemented by Antelope Spring, Jackass Spring, Lost Spring, and Corner Reservoir. The watershed significance is major; this concentration of subalpine lakes is exceptional for the Colorado Plateau.

The forest mosaic reflects the Aquarius Plateau's position as a high cool island above the surrounding desert. Rocky Mountain Wet and Dry Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest dominates the higher elevations, with Great Basin Subalpine Bristlecone Pine Woodland on the most exposed crests — a regionally distinctive community of slow-growing, wind-shaped trees. Intermountain Aspen and Conifer Forest and Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest fill the middle elevations with large stands of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) that turn the plateau gold in autumn. Southern Rockies Mixed Conifer Forest occupies the transition belts. The drier flanks shift to Colorado Plateau Pinyon-Juniper Woodland, Intermountain Mountain Mahogany Woodland, and Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe, with Intermountain Semi-Desert Shrub-Steppe at the lowest reaches. Open Northern Rockies Subalpine Grassland fills the meadows around the lakes. Streamside corridors hold Rocky Mountain Subalpine Streamside Woodland, Shrubland, and Rocky Mountain Foothill Streamside Woodland. The narrow-endemic Aquarius Indian-paintbrush (Castilleja aquariensis) grows here at the edge of its global range.

Wildlife confirmed in the area links these habitats. Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) caches whitebark and bristlecone pine seeds in the high stands. Pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) works the lower pinyon-juniper woodland. Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) range the open sagebrush and grassland flats; greater short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi) holds the sandy openings. Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) hunts the same flats. Brown trout (Salmo trutta) occupy the stocked lakes and streams. Western tiger salamander (Ambystoma mavortium) breeds in the spring-fed pools and lake margins, where Suckley's cuckoo bumble bee (Bombus suckleyi) and monarch (Danaus plexippus) move through the meadow forbs as pollinators. Olive-sided flycatcher (Contopus cooperi) calls from snags along the streamside corridors. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

A walker moving across Hay Lakes Flat in summer crosses an open lake-and-meadow country backed by spruce-fir; the climb to Lost Knoll opens views east across the Awapa to the slickrock country beyond. The high lake basins hold ice into June; aspen stands roar in afternoon wind.

Hay Lakes' 22,144 acres lie on Boulder Mountain — the high north flank of the Aquarius Plateau — in south-central Utah's Garfield and Wayne counties. The deepest layer of human history here is the Fremont culture, the prehistoric farming and foraging society whose remains were first scientifically defined nearby. "Archaeologists first identified the Fremont in 1928 near Torrey, Utah and named it after the Fremont River" [1], the watercourse that drains the Aquarius Plateau just east of Hay Lakes. The Fremont occupied the lower valleys and the better-watered uplands from roughly A.D. 500 to 1300, planting maize and building pithouse villages. As the medieval climate cooled, the farming lifeway faded; the high plateau passed back to foraging peoples. "The historic tribes of Utah including the Ute, Southern Paiute, and Shoshoni... speaking languages collectively known as Numic were also part of the landscape" [2], and "the living Utah tribes are also part of and descended from the Fremont legacy" [3]. The Aquarius high country was Southern Paiute and Ute summer territory at the time of contact.

Euro-American settlement reached the area in the late nineteenth century. "People in search of new land for grazing and farming began coming to the area in the 1870s" [4], establishing the Mormon agricultural villages of Wayne County — Loa, Teasdale, Bicknell, and others — at the foot of Boulder Mountain. The plateau itself became summer range. "Raising livestock is the oldest and most important industry in Wayne County" [6], and cattle and sheep were trailed each year onto the Aquarius for the short summer grazing season. Timber soon followed: "Isaac Riddle and his sons built a lumber mill near Teasdale in Boulder Canyon. Other sawmills went up in the county, with good timber coming from Boulder Mountain and Thousand Lakes Mountain" [5]. The spruce, fir, and aspen stands of Boulder Mountain supplied lumber for the new towns and for export.

Federal protection arrived in two stages. President Theodore Roosevelt issued "Proclamation 593—Establishment of the Dixie Forest Reserve, Utah, September 25, 1905" [7], creating the original Dixie Forest Reserve in the southwestern corner of the state. The Aquarius and Boulder Mountain country was placed under separate federal administration as the Powell National Forest, formed from the Aquarius Forest Reserve in the same era. Decades of administrative consolidation followed: "in 1945, the Powell National Forest was added to the Dixie National Forest" [8], bringing the Boulder Mountain country — including what is now Hay Lakes — under Dixie management. Spruce beetle outbreaks in the mid-1920s, drought, and overgrazing all shaped Forest Service policy in the area through the twentieth century.

Hay Lakes today is a 22,144-acre Inventoried Roadless Area managed within the Fremont River Ranger District of the Dixie National Forest. It crosses the Garfield–Wayne county line in the USFS Intermountain Region and is protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Vital Resources Protected

• Subalpine Lake-and-Spring Hydrology — Hay Lakes preserves an exceptional concentration of subalpine lakes on the Aquarius Plateau: Hay Lakes, Big Lake, Lost Lake, Pollywog Lake, Butterfly Lake, Pelham Lake, and Lake Philo, fed by Antelope Spring, Jackass Spring, Lost Spring, and the headwaters of Antelope Spring Draw. The roadless condition preserves the intact lake margins, stable cut-slope soils, and unaltered spring discharge that this lake-and-meadow complex requires. With the watershed rated of major significance, the integrity of these lakes is the area's defining conservation value.

• Great Basin Subalpine Bristlecone Pine Woodland — Great Basin Subalpine Bristlecone Pine Woodland occupies 14.5 percent of the area, on the most exposed high crests. Bristlecone pine is among the slowest-growing and longest-lived trees in North America, and is susceptible to the introduced white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola). The Aquarius population has so far been spared major infection by the arid climate and stand isolation; preserving the unbroken canopy and intact understory is essential to maintaining that protection.

• Aspen Mosaic and Aquarius Indian-Paintbrush Habitat — Intermountain Aspen and Conifer Forest (21.9%) and Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest (9.3%) cover the middle elevations with large stands of quaking aspen — a community already pressured throughout the Intermountain West by chronic livestock browsing and climate-driven dieback. The narrow-endemic Aquarius Indian-paintbrush (Castilleja aquariensis) grows here at the edge of its global range; documented threats include road construction and recreational disturbance. The roadless condition preserves both the contiguous aspen canopy and the specific microhabitats this plant requires.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Disruption of Spring-Fed Lake Hydrology — Road construction in this gently sloping subalpine bench would intercept shallow groundwater flow, alter snowmelt routing across the flats, and concentrate sediment into the spring-fed lakes. The water-table-dependent meadows surrounding Hay Lakes, Big Lake, and Pelham Lake are particularly sensitive to drainage disturbance. Even modest hydrological alteration can convert wet meadow to drier upland and shrink the breeding habitat that western tiger salamander and other amphibians depend on.

• Bristlecone Pine Stress and Invasive Disease Vectors — A road corridor through the Great Basin Subalpine Bristlecone Pine Woodland would directly remove individuals of a species that can take centuries to replace. Roads also act as vectors for white pine blister rust, which has so far largely spared the Aquarius population because of arid isolation; persistent vehicle and human traffic raises the likelihood of pathogen introduction. The combined effect of canopy edge stress and disease introduction is largely irreversible on a human timescale.

• Aquarius Indian-Paintbrush Loss and Aspen Fragmentation — The Aquarius Indian-paintbrush has been specifically documented as threatened by road construction. A road corridor would directly remove individuals and create the edge habitat that allows non-native species to outcompete the endemic flora. Roads through the aspen mosaic would fragment clonal stands, alter the fire and browse dynamics that aspen depends on, and accelerate the dieback already pressuring this community across the Intermountain region. The combined loss of endemic-plant habitat and contiguous aspen would be very difficult to reverse.

Hay Lakes covers 22,144 acres on the high north flank of the Aquarius Plateau in the Dixie National Forest. The area is broken by named flats and knolls — Hay Lakes Flat, Butterfly Flat, Roundup Flat, Lost Knoll, Pelham Knoll — and laced with the lake-and-spring complex that gives it its name. Recreation here is primarily dispersed, with one inventoried motorized trail and no developed campgrounds or formal trailheads inside the boundary.

Trails and Backcountry Travel

The Antimony Knoll ATV Trail (Trail 35171) runs 1.9 miles on native-material tread within the area. Use designation is not specifically listed in agency records, but the route is recognized as the principal motorized opportunity within Hay Lakes' boundary. Beyond that single corridor, all travel is cross-country: foot, stock, and skis (in winter) following the rolling forest-and-meadow terrain between lakes and along the named draws. Travelers should arrive with map and compass skills; the gentle topography offers few large landmarks once one is among the timber. All overnight use is dispersed: pack in, camp on durable ground away from the lake margins and springs, and pack out.

Fishing

The lake system is the recreational centerpiece. Hay Lakes, Big Lake, Lost Lake, Pollywog Lake, Butterfly Lake, Pelham Lake, and Lake Philo — along with Corner Reservoir on the area's edge — support cold-water fishing for brown trout (Salmo trutta). Most lakes are at elevations where ice persists into June; the open-water season is short and productive. Antelope Spring, Jackass Spring, and Lost Spring feed the system year-round. Standard Utah Division of Wildlife Resources regulations and seasonal limits apply; anglers should consult current Dixie National Forest fishing information for stocking schedules and access notes.

Hunting

The mosaic of subalpine spruce-fir, aspen, mixed conifer, sagebrush steppe, and open meadow provides classic Aquarius Plateau big-game habitat. Hunters pursue Rocky Mountain elk, mule deer, and pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) on the open flats. Utah's regulated big-game hunts are by limited-entry and general-season tag; consult current Utah Division of Wildlife Resources regulations and Dixie National Forest seasonal closures before the trip.

Birding

One eBird hotspot within 24 kilometers — Posey Lake Campground and Picnic Area (81 species, 54 checklists) — anchors regional birding. Inside Hay Lakes itself, the subalpine lakes support breeding and migrant waterfowl including Canada goose (Branta canadensis). Canada jay (Perisoreus canadensis) moves through the spruce-fir canopy in family parties, and golden eagle hunts the open flats. The bristlecone pine stands on the highest crests support a small cavity-nesting community. The mix of subalpine and aspen habitats in a single basin makes the area distinctive for high-elevation Utah birding.

Photography and Quiet Recreation

The combination of subalpine lakes, ancient bristlecone pine, large aspen stands, and views east across the Awapa Plateau provides composition options that change with the season. Aspen turn the plateau gold in late September; lake surfaces hold morning calm into early summer; wildflower bloom in the meadows is intense and short.

Dependence on the Roadless Condition

Every kind of recreation here depends on what road construction is not doing. The lake fishing depends on undisturbed shorelines and unaltered spring discharge. The big-game hunting depends on the contiguous cover that road corridors fragment. The naturalist depends on the bristlecone stands and aspen mosaic that road-edge disturbance compromises. The 1.9-mile ATV corridor exists within a larger fabric of intact, unroaded country; that fabric is the area's defining recreational asset.