Davis Creek: Early Spring

 

Last time we hiked to Davis Creek was in the fall. We hiked to Pretty Valley, back down, then up to Hell Hole, up to Prayer Rock (what a fun combination of places to visit, right?) and then back down. We kind of did a big Y shape. Well I knew there were more water falls in the area that we had missed so I thought we would return. I remember the trail to Hell Hole was quite steep so I decided we would hike to Pretty Valley and up then come back down through Hell Hole (now that I know they connect).

To get here find 500 south in Farmington, follow it east until it curves south. It will eventually turn into a well maintained dirt road and you will see a small reservoir with a small parking lot in front of it on the right. There is a trailhead above that, but if you go just a little bit further up there is a tiny parking lot (2, 3 car max) and the Davis Creek Trailhead.

Check out this handy dandy Map Farmington City provides.

View from the lower parking lot at the reservoir. Also shows the condition of the road, not bad at all.

Strait ahead is Davis Creek. The Triumph Trail Head is right here. I haven't done it, but it looks even steeper than this one. Maybe I’ll hike it to the 1st waterfall one day. (It goes up the other side of this canyon.)

Just a little bit south lies the Davis Creek Trailhead. Now for the fun stuff. :)

The wildflowers are coming up!

Rocky hillsides.

The first waterfall.

So I feel really silly after my last post. I was looking for Indian Annie Rock the whole hike, little did I know I looked right at it. Do you see her?

How about now? So, its more than just a head-dress. Its a head that looks like it is wearing a head dress. Indian Annie was a local story of an orphaned Indian girl who was adopted and grew up to be a beloved towns person of the area. After she died this formation was named after her.

A little ways up from Diamond Fork Bench, where the previous shot was taken there is a split in the trail. 100 ft left to see the waterfall, or 1.1 miles to Pretty Valley. We have seen the waterfall from this vantage before, and there is not much too it, but I did want to get a closer shot of the rock formation.

It is so glaringly obvious, I cannot believe I missed it last time. This is a really cool rock formation.

Another shot of the waterfall. The side trail takes you to the top of it, so there isn’t a whole lot to see. Plus it’s a little on the scary side.

Wildflower lined trail.

It is starting to green up!

More wildflowers.

El Capitan Rock. I just love this rock! Quick note, to see it, you must take the Pretty Valley Fork. Like I said, I decided to go up this way, and down Hell Hole. If you want you can skip the side trip to Pretty Valley altogether, but you wont see this cool rock.

It has really interesting markings that make it look like Petrified wood.

There is a really nice view from it.

And it’s fun to climb on.

This last image showcases all of that.

Well, 2nd time doing this trail, 2nd time looking right at a named feature without realizing it. I think this is Wolf Head Rock. It is a fairly big rock right after El Capitan. I didn’t notice that it was shaped like a wolf head, but I also didn’t notice Indian Annie Rock either. so, not confirming this is it, I would have to come back to do that, but I am fairly certain this should be it.

Above El Capitan the trail levels out significantly. You can also see there are still good trail markers showing the way. These continue all the way to Pretty Valley, after that it goes back to streamers and metal caps. I said it last time, but I really appreciate all of the work Farmington has put into this trail.

Through the scrub oak. I really would like to do this during full bloom some time.

And we have reached Pretty Valley. Here is the campsite in it.

Pretty Valley proper. I am not 100% certain, but looking at my little map, I think the strange cut off tree may be Beehive Tree. Not finding a whole lot of information to back that up though. Farmington has done really great with providing a trail map with interesting things to look for, but they could still use a little work describing them, and maybe why they are significant.

A better shot of the spring I found here last time.

 

Pretty Valley again. We decided to keep on trekkin up.

I saw a lot of rose bushes around here, random thought, I didn’t see a single one on the Wildrose Trail.

Pretty views up here as well.

I think that might be Prayer Rock.

I am pretty sure this is where Davis Creek enters the wetlands.

Lake levels. The Great Salt Lake has a very large dry shoreline. The levels can fluctuate greatly.

Pretty Valley from above.

The trail washed out here. It has been steep for a while, but I wasn’t sure if we could make it up.

And then we spotted the cairn. Random useless knowledge saves the day! Cairns or piles of rocks are used to designate trails.

I think the original trail had a slide and there was a reroute. Here we are at the top of the slide where another set of cairns guides us back to the trail.

And more uphill climbing. I think the the Hell Hole fork is steeper, but this is still really steep! uff.

Pretty blue flowers.

And now we’ve started hitting conifers again.

And here I can see the waterfall I saw last time! We’re gonna find it darn it!

Quick crop.

And we hit the last intersection we hit last time. We can go to Prayer Rock to the left, Hell Hole ahead, or  Cattleman Trail to the right.

I thought this was Christmas Tree Ln, but a glance at the map tells me it is Hell Hole. That is weird because Hell Hole Camp is closer to Christmas Tree Lane then. Meh but lookie what I see.

What’s this?

I found a geo-cache without even looking for one. I have heard of geo-caching and it has started to get my interest more and more. I just recently learned you sign the log, take a trinket and leave a trinket. I read some of the entries, a lot scouts come up here it would seem. Kind of cool to find.

Better shot of Hell Hole.

Ick! Snow! This is why I am keeping to lower valley hikes. Much higher and there will be quite a bit of this stuff!

Hell Hole Camp. The 2nd waterfall is just north of here (follow the sound of the creek) We had already seen it, and I was on a mission to see the other 3 so we thought we’d hit it on the way down. From here on out, the already difficult trail gets even more difficult. No more signs, just the ribbons and cans. The trail gets really thin and spotty, I almost lost it a few times. And even this early in the season it’s a bit overgrown. The waterfalls are awesome! But yea, rough rough trail ahead.

After hiking up a bit we stopped to catch some air and I kept hearing a weird noise. I looked up to see this happy woodpecker popping in and out of it’s little hole in the side of this tree. I have seen one pecking a tree before, but I have never seen one in it’s home. Really nifty!

More wildflowers. I wonder what this particular species is.

Hrm. Not sure where the trail is, do we need to scramble up these boulders?

Oh look a cairn. Yep, up we go.

View back down.

And, not sure where the trail is again. Crap. Well, it looks like the stream may have washed some of the trail out, so we kept climbing and found it again. Kind of hard getting around all the debris and the hole.

Cool scraggly looking old tree. Later, at the top of the trail while I looked at the map again I saw a marker for Old Abe Tree and this looks to be about the right location. There weren’t any other interesting looking trees so I am certain that this is what it is. It’s cool, and worth having a name.

Nearing the top, and getting close to what I am pretty sure is the 5th and final waterfall. The trail here gets really sketchy, I mean really sketchy. I could barely see it through the trees, and with how high up and steep it was I was starting to worry there wasn’t going to be a good view.

A couple steps further we found this. Okay, there is a rope to pull yourself back up with PHEW! Still pretty steep and made me a little nervous, but it is better than nothing.

Now this was worth it! What a pretty waterfall!

I tried to get the interesting rock outcroppings in with it.

With some more of the stream below.

View downstream.

 

Maybe it was the nice cooling mist, but I really enjoyed this waterfall. It was really pretty.

For size.

Landis scrambling up the rope. It was tough, but the rope really helps to pull yourself up. I could think of a few other spots right around here that could use rope.

Little cave. The trail continues up from here to Bountiful Peak (probably another mile or 2), but we were done. Also, somewhere right around here is something called Moose Run Ridge. A little further up is Fern Meadow.

Condition of the trail up here.

Pretty forest shot.

Back to Old Abe Tree.

Which is fairly large.

Better shot of the washed out trail.

Back to the rock outcropping. It was actually easier down than up.

Nice shot of the canyon below.

Wildflowers.

I saw this on the way up, but thought there would be a trail to it eventually we passed it and arrived at the waterfall above. So On the way down I started looking for an overlook of some sort.

Well here we go. I am thinking this is the 4th waterfall.

I don’t know how I missed the on the slower going trip up, vs the higher speed trip down, but I caught it on the way down. This must take us to the 3rd waterfall.

Crap another rope. This one didn’t seem as bad at first but after a few feet it got even more steep. We were tired and didn’t want to climb back up. Glancing at the waterfall, it looked like it may have been just a better view of the previous waterfall so we turned around and headed back up.

Comparing this image against the others above, I have determined it to not be the same waterfall and this must be the 3rd waterfall. Kicking myself for not manning up and going down to it as I think this might be the one you can see from Hell Hole and appears to be the highest one. Sigh. Oh well, it was a fun adventure today.

Upon returning to Hell Hole Camp we took the side trail towards the 2nd waterfall.

It looked like with the higher flow of water it would be more pretty, but we were tired and didn’t want to do any more boulder scrambling.

Landis rinsing off in the creek.

Christmas Tree Lane.

 

I love these thin trail through a bare forest shots.

Almost back to the first major trail split, where you can either come up to Hell Hole, or go towards Pretty Valley.

These beautiful butterflies taunted me the way up in this portion of the trail, and on the way down. They refused to settle down for a shot until I found one that wasn’t so skittish. Absolutely stunning creature!

Pretty shot of the backlit trees.

Wonder what this is for.

Back to Diamond View Bench where we can see Indian Annie Rock. I read that the different light during the day changes the way the formation looks (obviously) but in the morning hours she looks young, midday, middle aged, and dusk an old woman. A great analogy of life to the daylight. I can see it here vs my earlier images some 3 hours ago.

Pretty shot of the trail

The reservoir Davis Creek feeds.

Where Davis Creek redirects to the reservoir.

And a hole in which we can hear it through.

View from the freeway.

This is seriously an amazing hike, beautiful, tons to look out for, and is absolutely deserted. Again, Farmington while providing landmarks to look for could use a little help providing a better description. However, it kind of fun looking out for them, it’s kind of like a scavenger hunt. The whole trail is up. Seriously UP. Last time I was here I gave it a 9 out of 10 only losing 1 point due to difficulty. I had hoped with the addition of 3 new waterfalls I could up that to a 10, but the additional difficulty to see them brings it right back down to a 9.

Using my new difficulty scale, I will say, if you plan to hike to Pretty Valley and back, it is a good DR4. If you plan to hike to Hell Hole and beyond (from either direction) it gets a DR5. Particularly the trail to the 3rd through 5th waterfalls. To see any waterfall on the trail involves being on a steep cliff, and/or having the climb down a rope. Definitely not something I would bring the kids on.