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The Dry Creek Loop in Dimple Dell is a nice little loop trail on the south side of the canyon. It features a creek, forests, and lovely mountain views. We did this one just a few months ago, but we missed a little bit of the east end of it so I wanted to come back. Plus, it is a little blustery today so I didn’t want to do anything that was too exposed.
Quick Details:
Length: 1.42 mile balloon.
Trail Type: Balloon, connector, longer options.
Difficulty: DR3. Super mild climb.
Elevation Gain: About 200 feet.
Restroom: No. There are restrooms at both the Dimple Dell Road Trailhead to the east, as well as the Badger Cove Trailhead to the west.
Dogs? Yes, leashed.
Other Info: Like most trails in Dimple Dell, this trail starts at the top, so the return trip is uphill.
To Get Here:
Take i15 to 106th south heading east. Follow the road past 13th east until it ends at a T junction with Dimple Dell Road to the left or 2125 East to the right. Go left. About 475 feet later Dimple Dell Road will swing to the right (east). There is a very small dirt parking lot at that elbow on the left.
Mountains as we head up 106th (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).
The very small parking lot. Just make sure you are not blocking the gate, and access to it. The trail is just to the left of the gate.
The other direction.
Random free range chickens.
The Trail:
Heading down into the gully.
Hill full of greenery around the scrub oaks.
View across the gully.
The pipeline scar and the Mountain View Trail through it.
The Mountain View Trail and the Sego Lily Trail.
On this trail, we have a sandy S curve here.
The bottom of the S curve.
Then through this gate.
Then pretty shortly you reach the loop part of the balloon. Last time we went left (west) and we cut the east section short. So today We decided to go right.
If you want to skip the loop and just hit the Dry Creek Trail you can just go forward between those posts.
Cliffs below Primrose Point.
Heading through the sage brush.
Dry Creek living up to it’s name, and the Dry Creek Trail.
A connector trail that connects the Dry Creek Trail and the Mountain View Trail.
Mount Jordan.
Across the gully.
There are several small connector trails between the the loop and the Dry Creek Trail below if you need to shorten your adventure. In fact, I am fairly sure this is the one we used last time.
Woodpecker hole.
Not much further we have reached the east end of the loop. It looks like we were less than a tenth of a mile from doing the full thing last time. LOL. But hey, it gave us an excuse to come back.
Oh look, they have put a sign in. I hope they have added more signs along the Dry Creek Trail. It has a million splits and is hard to follow.
Heading back west along the Dry Creek Trail.
Dry Creek.
Cliffs above.
The bottom of the gully.
The creek.
Trail split. For this part of the trail you want to stay on this side of the creek. So, left.
The connector trail leading to the Mountain View Trail again. This is approximately halfway between the Wrangler Trailhead and the Dimple Dell Road Trailhead, so I tend to use it to make shorter loops using both trails.
Continuing along.
The creek.
Primrose Point.
Continuing along.
The creek.
The middle of the loop. This connector will take you directly back to the “string” part of the balloon. But, we have more of the loop to do.
The creek.
Hills above.
The creek.
Crossing through the pipeline scar.
Hitting a thicker forest area.
Mess of trees above.
Lots of grass coming up already.
The bench above.
Forest.
Oregon grape.
More forest.
It’s thick through here.
Bushes.
Trees.
The trail is a little more thin in here.
Like the east end, there are a few connections on the west end. This will get you there, but is not the main loop.
Thick bushes and trees.
The next split is what you want and…
There is now a sign! This was definitely not here in November, there was a brightly colored marker though.
Heading back up to the bench.
The trail has been worked down pretty deep into the soft sand.
Mount Jordan.
There are a lot of trail splits here too. But, it is a lot easier coming from this way. Just keep following the split heading up and east, there are no sharp turns. Looking back, I got way lucky finding the right way down coming from the other direction though. o.O
The other side of the gully.
More soft beach sand.
Mount Jordan again.
Neat old wind mill.
Another random split, or merge I guess from this way.
I saw a bunch of these weird looking prints on the ground. We had a couple thoughts, like a horse stepped on a dog print, but there were quite a few. So my final thought is it is a horse with a weird hoof, or maybe something stuck in it. But, still just a total guess.
Across the gully with the pipeline scar.
Now we are up on the bench again with a nice view of the mountains.
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Panoramic.
Continuing along.
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Another panoramic.
Crossing the restoration area for the pipeline scar again.
The sign.
In the middle.
The scar on the other side.
And on this side, above us.
It seems to have filled in with a lot of sage brush. I am not sure exactly when this happened, but this article (outside link) talks about how they found a 500 - 1500 year old ancient pit home while replacing a pipeline in 2015.
They rerouted the pipeline so the dwelling could be researched and inventoried. But sadly, they buried it back up so we cannot visit it and see it, due to fears of vandalism and theft. It is a shame they could not find some middle ground to allow us to see some ancient history while protecting it as well.
Playing around on google earth, the scar goes back to 2005. The article did say it was replacing it in 2015 though. Anyway, the point is its been about 10 years of regrowth at this point.
And.. upon further review, the 2015 pipeline miiight have been somewhere else entirely. So.. 20 years of regrowth. But the pit house info is interesting so I am going to leave it.
Primrose Point.
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Panoramic.
Continuing along.
Super sandy.
At about 1.28 miles we have reached the “string” of the balloon to get us back to the trailhead.
The trail down to the Dry Creek Trail again.
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Panoramic.
Horse riders on the Sego Lily Trail.
Starting the climb back up.
Another weird print.
Forest.
Back through the gate.
Across the gully again.
Crossing contrails.
Top of the S curves.
Forest.
The final climb. It looks worse than it actually is.
More forest.
Lots of greenery here.
Final push.
Back to the parking lot.
I am glad we came back to experience this trail with much better lighting! I just have to laugh at us that us cutting the trail short last time was such a tiny little portion of it. But, hey, now we have gone both clockwise and counterclockwise. I think it is easier to follow doing counter-clockwise like we did today. We only ran across a few other people, so it was really just a nice adventure 9 out of 10 squirrels.
As for difficulty, it is a super mild climb, DR3.
Dogs are allowed, leashed. Please clean up after your furry friends.
