Bells Canyon

 

For six years we've spent our Memorial Day mornings at Annie's sister's house for a giant breakfast.  Not only is there a lot of food, there are a lot of people.  We decided that this year instead of eating breakfast, then laying around in a food coma all afternoon we'd get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.  The only question was where to go.

Since we were already in Sandy, we decided it would be nice to hike a trail in Sandy.  And just up the street from Annie's sister we found the perfect trail: Bell's Canyon.  The only problem was that everyone else in the valley found the trail, too.  It was wall to wall people.  Well, had there been walls up there, it would have been wall-to-wall.  We'll just say it was tree to tree people.

I've already done quite a bit of hiking this year and have enjoyed every mile, but for this hike I was especially excited because I could bring along the rest of the family.  It was great to have Annie and Titan right there with me.

I think Titan was really excited to come along.  Thanks to our friends, the Slacks, he was able to ride on my back the whole 4.5 miles we hiked.  Well, except for the half mile that I had to carry him...

The area was beautiful.  I've been on very few hikes in Utah with so many trees.  There were trees everywhere.  Unfortunately, there were trees everywhere.  The picture below shows the trail at its widest.  Farther up the canyon, the trees got closer together and lower to the ground.  Being a large, tall guy with a baby on my back, that made it a little difficult to hike.  Add in the thousands of people trying to pass us both directions on the trail with very few spots on the trail wide enough for people to pass and it made for a frustrating afternoon.

However, regardless of the frustration with the trail, we had a great time.  We parked at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon and took the trail up the side of the hill, then down the other side, then back up to the reservoir.  It was about 3/4 of a mile to the reservoir (a little farther for us since we had to park up the street.  Did I mention there were a lot of people?)  From there, it was a short amble up the dirt road to the turn off to Bell's Canyon (as shown in the first picture).

After some distance (I could check the GPS, but I'm not going to), maybe 1/2 mile from the turn-off, there's a nice bridge where we crossed the stream to the south side of the canyon.  From that point the trees got closer together, the trail got steeper, and Titan started freaking out every time a branch rubbed against the sun shade on the carrier.  We took him out and carried him for a half mile or so.

Then, upon talking to some people coming down the trail (yes, we talked to people) we determined we were still 1/2 mile from the waterfall and that the condition of the trail wasn't going to improve any.  We made the difficult decision to turn around.  We put Titan back in the carrier and made our way back down.

The above picture is the view of the valley we had from the highest point we reached.  Did I mention there were a lot of trees?  Hiking alone it would have been easy to make it to the waterfall, but I wouldn't have traded the opportunity to hike with Annie and Titan for a view of a boring waterfall.  It was a great day.

And somehow, on the way back down, Titan was able to get in a long nap.

Adam's Canyon

On Thursday we had our annual work retreat at my boss's house in Farmington.  It was nice.  Lots of food to eat, a little work to do, and then we were able to leave about 2:30pm.  Since I had a ham meeting that night at 7:30 I didn't want to go home, which left about 5 hours to do something, and what better way to fill five hours than by heading up into the mountains?

When I was preparing my list of hikes to do this summer, I came across a hike up Adams Canyon in Layton.  It seemed pretty good, but I found a lot of conflicting information about it so I was hesitant to add it to my list.  I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to hike Adams Canyon.

It starts just off US-89 near Oak Hills Drive.  From the dirt parking lot the trail goes up the side of a hill, switching back over and over.  It sort of feels like you're climbing the fire escape of a tall apartment building.  You start at about 4800' and get to the top of the hill at about 5200', a 400' climb in a half mile of hiking.

After you get through that grueling climb, though, things get better.  You can hear the creek down in the canyon below; there are trees everywhere; the ground is soft and the trail is well-maintained.  There are only a couple places that peek out of the trees to give you views of where you came from, but that's more than made up for by the beauty of the forest you're hiking through.

The trail follows close to the creek for much of the first half-mile after you get into the canyon.  I imagine you'd get your feet pretty wet if you went too early in the year.  At a certain point (maybe 1.25 miles from the start?) there's a bridge over the creek and you start walking on the south side of the canyon.  You can sort of see the bridge in the distance in the picture below.

There are a couple places where trees have fallen to block your path.  Some of those have been chopped up and moved to the side.  Others are still there to add variety and beauty to the trail.  None of them are too hard to get around.

There are a few smaller "waterfalls" along the trail as you get farther and farther in.  And, since the trail follows the creek you know that whenever the water falls fast you'll be climbing up steeper slopes.  There are some really steep parts on the trail.  There are a couple places where you're just scrambling up the steep side of the canyon to continue up.  There are even a couple scary spots where I wouldn't necessarily want to bring kids.  Most kids would probably be fine on the trail, but you'd want to keep a close eye on them.

Between the green, green trees and the giant rock formations and the water shooting down the canyon it is one of the prettiest areas I've ever been.

About 1.88 miles in you come to a point where the trail crosses the creek, but there's no bridge this time.  Later in the year you'd probably be able to hop from rock to rock and keep your feet completely dry.  I saw some other people hop across and only get their feet a little wet (of course, they were much younger than me and could jump a lot farther).  I decided to take my shoes off and cross that way for two reasons: 1) I didn't want wet shoes the rest of the night, and 2) I really sounded good to soak my feet in some nice cold water.

As soon as you start to cross the creek, if you look upstream, you'll realize you've made it to the end of the trail and see the 40' waterfall just a few feet away.  It was amazing to be there just feet from the waterfall and have the whole area all to myself (for almost fifteen minutes!)  I walked around all over in the small pools at the base of the waterfall, and sat on a rock a soaked my feet for a bit.



On the way up I saw very few people.  I started hiking at the same time as a youngish woman all dressed up to run.  I let her go ahead of me thinking I'd see her halfway up when she was on her way back down.  We leap-frogged a bit all the way up until one point when I passed her and she never caught back up.  It really felt good that an old guy like me could keep up with someone who was obviously in much better shape (and a fraction of the weight).

The way back down was a completely different story, however.  There were people everywhere.  There were probably close to two dozen people hiking up as I was heading back down. 

There were a couple places on the trail where it wasn't completely obvious which way to go.  The trail branches off here and there and the branches look as well-traveled as the main trail.  I ended up missing the bridge back over the river on my way down and went an extra eighth mile or so before I had the sense to look at my GPS.

In my research about the trail I had heard that there was another waterfall at the mouth of the canyon.  There are so many trees that it's hard to even see the creek at the bottom, but I was determined to find the other waterfall.  So I followed the sound of rushing water and eventually found it.  It's not as big as the one higher up the canyon, but it's pretty.  It was worth the extra half-mile of hiking and the additional 200' of climbing to get back up to the trail.

All in all it was a great hike.  The weather was perfect, the trail was beautiful, my body held up just fine.  It's a very popular trail, though.  If you'd like to hike it, I'd recommend hiking on a weekday if you can.  Mornings would probably be better than afternoons, just because you'd be able to avoid the sun beating down on you during the first half mile.  Be prepared to climb some steep slopes, get your feet wet, and enjoy a beautiful canyon.

Baer Creek Canyon

 Yesterday we went up to Davis county to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Annie's family.  I had the choice of shopping at random stores all afternoon or hiking on an unknown trail.  I decided to do a little hiking and ended up on the Baer Creek Trail east of Kaysville.  You can read more about it here. 

 The trail is unexpectedly beautiful.  There are trees everywhere, pretty rock formations, soft ground to walk on, and a beautiful creek running right near the trail.  There are a few places that get a little steep, but they don't last long, and they're usually followed by a bit of downhill.  It's a great hike.

 Not long into the hike there's a bridge over the creek.  It's a bunch of 2x10 boards connected together to make a beam about a foot wide.  It seems pretty stable, and it's in a very beautiful area.

 After about .75 mile the canyon gets a lot more narrow and the trail gets steeper.  In a few areas the trail is a bit washed out.  It other areas the trees grow very close to the trail, making it almost feel like you're walking through a tunnel.  I only came across 3 people on the trail the whole day.  I couldn't believe there was such a beautiful trail so close to the city with so few people on it on one of the best hiking weekends of the year.

About 1 1/3 miles from the trailhead the trail crosses the creek again but there's no bridge here.  I guess nobody wanted to drag a bunch of 2x10s and concrete up this far.  A little later in the year it would probably be easier to cross without getting your feet wet, but the water was a little high yesterday.  And since it was almost fiesta time anyway I decided to turn around and keep my feet dry.  In the picture above you can see the trail heading up steeply in between those rocks on the other side of the creek.

The water was nice to look at, but it was also really loud.  I guess when you go hiking you're looking to hear the sounds of nature, but it's nice when you can still hear your music.  

On the way back down I took the opportunity to take a couple little side trails.  One leads to a really nice area down by the creek with a place to build a little fire and dangle your feet in the cold water.  The other leads up to a nice overlook, also with a place to build a little fire.  This last picture is from the overlook.  I can imagine you could see some beautiful sunsets from up there on the right evening.

All in all, it was a great little hike.  With the extra exploring it ended up being just about 3 miles, with about 1000 total feet of elevation gain.  I hear the trail continues on to Lewis Peak, but that it gets unbelievably steep by the end.  I'm not a big fan of steep, so I'll just drive to Lewis Peak if I ever decide to go