Horse Ranch Mountain, the Zion NP High Point

Anyone have any beta about climbing (hiking) Horse Ranch Mountain? I think I heard that you start at the Taylor Creek Trailhead. Can anyone confirm that?

The red dot below is the Taylor Creek Trailhead. The read lines are trails. The yellow line looks like a possible ascent route. Any thoughts on that? Is that where the "normal" route goes?

I don't know the answer to your question specifically, but I do know there are roads up above the canyon rim there that might give you quicker access, and certainly less elevation gain. I think there is some private property up there, so you would need to look into that.

I saw the roads on Google Earth but I don't know if my little car would be able to handle them. But yeah, any beta about the roads would be great, too. Thanks.

In the '70s I drove to the northern edge of the park and hiked the old dirt road that circled Horse Ranch.
Numerous trees had fallen across the trail, already closed for decades.

The views from the south side are outstanding.

Hiking up from below would be horrendous.
But the headwall on the south face has a huge patch of varnish the shape of which gave it the name, The Black Diamond (long before the company).
It would be quite a prize to bag the FA, but also one of the toughest approaches in Zion.

I do not know the current condition of the road to the trailhead, but almost drove it yesterday for the eclipse.
Interesting coincidence.

I tried to make Horse Ranch a quick tag on a drive up to Salt Lake by trying to take lower basin road from the north and getting as close as possible. The road was easy for 2WD but was gated and padlocked closed very shortly after the junction with upper basin road at 8000'. From there using the road, the hike would be ~12 miles roundtrip. I didn't have time for it that day. Did you happen to try the route from Taylor Creek, I'll be heading back there this summer.