Rocky Mouth Waterfall

It's March and I was able to get out and do a little hiking. It was a beautiful day for a hike and I had no other obligations so I decided to take my son up to the Rocky Mouth waterfall.

I'd heard about the hike a lot, and had wanted to go for a long time. It's still a little early in the year for there to be much water falling, but that was just perfect with a not-quite-two-year-old.

The trail starts at about 11300 South Wasatch Blvd in Sandy. There's a little parking lot (really little, in fact) and a wooden stairway that leads from there toward the mountain. Then, after climbing 100' or so you come out into a neighborhood. Really. Just like that. And there are no signs or anything telling you where to go.

I figured it was probably best to continue going uphill, and sure enough I found where the trail continues up around a curve in the road.

Being an impromptu sort of hiking excursion I didn't have a way to carry Titan. Well, just in my arms or on my shoulders (he hasn't figured out the whole hold-on-to-dad's-head-so-I-don't-fall-off thing, so I had to hold him on there. He walked quite a bit of the trail, but wasn't able to get over the big steps (and he gets distracted really easily. I'm pretty sure he pointed out every leaf and rock.)

The trail is pretty short. It's probably not even a half mile from the parking lot to get to the waterfall. It's also not very steep. I think I read that there's an elevation gain of about 280', which isn't too bad over 1/2 mile.

The trail goes in between a couple houses, which is a little odd but it works, and the waterfall isn't too far beyond the back fence of the houses. It's a really pretty area. I'd like to head back when the trees have leaves and there's more water falling.

Just short of the waterfall there's a cemented-shut mine entrance. The tunnel goes into the mountain a little bit before the cement wall, so it sort of still looks like a tunnel. Titan kept saying "tunnel" and "train", I guess expecting a train to come roaring out of the tunnel any time.

The waterfall is one of the prettiest you'll find so close to the valley. I imagine it looks better with more water, but it was nice to be able to get up close to it without worrying about it carrying Titan down the mountain.

The hike was about a mile round-trip, and took us less than an hour. In fact, it almost took longer to find Wasatch Blvd than it did to hike the hike. It was a great first hike for the year.

This would be a great hike for families with young kids. It's not too steep, you're not walking on the edge of any cliffs, and there are plenty of rocks and leaves to keep the kids interested the whole way.