This is part of an occasional feature where Utah hikers tell us about their favorite trails. This week’s contributor is Torrey Mayor Adus F. Dorsey II.
My favorite Wayne County hike is Lower Spring Canyon in Capitol Reef National Park. From the Chimney Rock parking area to the Fremont River and Highway 24 the hike is about 9 miles in length. The national parks brochure description lists it is “strenuous, “ but I took my Ma down there when she was like 65 and by about mile 6 I was lucky to get her to stop for lunch. If there was anyone showing signs of strenuous activity it was me.
Lower Spring Canyon starts at the Chimney Rock trail parking lot. Your backpack should have plenty of water, sun screen (depending on the time of year) and variety of healthy snacks or a lunch from one of the local delis, which are always delicious. For me, it is a full lunch. I like to find a nice shady spot somewhere on the way and enjoy the canyons solitude while I eat my pastrami sandwich. After that, take a short afternoon snooze. Living in Wayne County you get to do that because you can.
I also like to take a pair of water sandals for the river crossing at the end of the hike. Generally passers by on the highway are pretty good about giving you a lift back up the hill to the Chimney Rock parking lot even if you are sweaty and look like someone that has just crawled out of the canyon, which you just did, but if you are in a group it might be a good idea to park a car at the lower end of Spring Canyon so as to avoid having to walk the 7 miles on the highway back to your starting point.
I like to start at Chimney Rock because after the short cardiac workout up the switchbacks at the very beginning of the hike it is all down hill from there. Right off you will start seeing long, gnarly trunks of petrified wood. Local lore has it that some hardy Girls Scouts packed the solid rock trees up there in the early 1930s, but we all know that would be improbable and in reality it was cave men using dinosaurs as pack animals to get them up to the trail. Believe what you will.
About a mile down the canyon you start to encounter a short section of narrows with two 10 -to-15-foot dry falls. (Wild wet falls if you have dared venture in the canyon during threatening weather or a flash flood.) The two falls can be bypassed by following a hiker made path route on the north side of the canyon. Use caution in this area, or send someone you don’t like first to check it out.
The 9-mile Lower Spring Canyon hike offers beautiful scenery, as much time as you need for personal nature contemplation or more than enough time to learn more than you might care to learn about your friends or family. At the end of the hike you are faced with a river crossing with no bridge. On most summer days rolling up your trousers above your knees will get you across in good shape but it could be a problem if you need to hitch a ride you being soaking wet unless that ride is from a local cowboy that needs a good laugh and some friendly conversation.
Surely you will be walking in the footsteps of the ancients in Lower Spring Canyon. Granaries strategically placed on the cliff walls and geological formations like the famous Elf Slipper make Lower Spring Canyon my all-time favorite hike.
Dorsey can be reached at adus@torreyutah.gov.
