Terraces - Elbow Fork Trail

 

Today we met up with some friends and had planned on hiking to Dog Lake. Unfortunately, even though it is June, and there is very little snow left on the mountains, for some reason Millcreek Canyon is operating under “winter conditions” meaning the road is closed about halfway up. Crap. So we turned around and Priscilla took us up a small side street above the Terraces Picnic area. We found the trail head, looked at the maps and started hiking the Terraces – Elbow Fork Trail. At 2 miles we figured it was the better option over the Bowman Trail.

Pretty little trail.

Thimbleberries in bloom.

Nice green slopes.

Puzzle wall.

The trailhead said only 1024 feet of elevation gain, but I think it was a whole lot more. This is UP.

Some flowers. I have no idea what the small viney things are.

The trail was kicking our butts and we need to take a small break to catch our breaths and munch some trail snacks.

Strange pine cone.

More pretty green hills.

Pretty shot of the other side of the canyon (north).

We reached the top of an open ridge that gave us a view further into the south side of the canyon where there seems to be a smaller canyon. I think that is where the Bowman Trail goes. See, not much snow, even way up there.

Cool rock formations on the north side again.

And of course west down the canyon we can get a glimpse of the SL Valley.

More flowers. I am loving all of the wildflowers up here!

Well, I had hoped that we were done with the steep ridges, but here we are again. At least it is very pretty.

Random boulder, covered in moss.

Hey some nice downhill section.

Priscilla decided to run down it. Hah! so cute.

Oh good, I got a better shot of those weird little viney flowers, and something else.

Short boulder scrambling section.

With a cool little rock formation/cave dealey.

For size.

And back to the pretty trail.

Cool stump.

There are a couple sections where the ridge we are hiking gets really steep, and like this where the trail gets a little sketchy. However it wasn’t too bad. I think the heavy foliage helps make it less un-nerving.

More pretty green hillsides.

Tree growing over a rock.

Pretty greenery.

Wild snapdragons.

View across the canyon.

The trail is starting to get really thin here.

What in the world?

Whoa! Its a massive caterpillar nest? Cocoon? Do caterpillars make mass cocoons? I have never seen anything like this.

The trail just keeps getting thinner and thinner. At least we’re off the ridge. But the bugs which have been a nuisance the whole hike got really bad in here.

We found another one, with a large mass of caterpillars on the top. They started waving back and forth at us. Wait I took a short video.

Caterpillar dance party! We decided it must be some defense mechanism as they did it as we got in close.

More pretty views. And another caterpillar nest. There were quite a few up here.

More wildflowers.

The trail is has leveled out now, but is getting awfully thin.

 

The trail is just lined with them here.

Pretty blue thing.

View south.

Pretty yellow flowers.

Small patch of aspens.

Bright orange red trumpet looking flowers.

Huh. Now we’re going down?

Shortly after this we passed another group and asked how much further it was. Elbow Fork? they asked, we said yes.They said about 30 more minutes. They then asked how much further it was to us. I was kind of confused as I thought they should know but said about an hour and a half. They asked if it was much more uphill, no not at all. Then it dawned on me, that they must have started the trail from the other end. Okay cool, its a loop.

The trail is quite a bit thinner on this end.

But it does have a nice view down the canyon. Oh and look, you can see the road.

Everything is still nice and green.

We saw the same sign somewhere on the way in. I guess you cross in and back out on this trail.

Pretty big bee.

Ladybug.

Splashes of yellow.

Cool rock formation.

Getting back down to the pretty forest.

I can see both of my initials in these trees. AN

More pretty greenery.

More wildflowers and a big bee.

Even though there is not a lot of foreground focused in on this shot, I really like the way it turned out.

Quick crop.

Starting to hit the switchbacks, must be near the end.

Yep, there’s the road.

And here is Mill Creek.

Crossing the bridge.

Yep it a connector trail.

Across the street I spotted a bathroom that I decided to use, and another trailhead. Mt. Aire and Lambs Canyon. Might have to return and check those out sometime.

Looks like a nice trail.

After taking a break and trying to make heads or tails of the map on that sign, we decided we would just walk down the road back to the car, rather than go back UP and back down.

I think this is that rock formation I was admiring from above.

Another shot of the creek.

There is some climbing gear hanging off that rock.

At least with the gate closed we don’t need to worry about any cars, just the occasional bike zipping by.

Nope. This is the rock formation I was admiring from the trail.

Or, better seen here.

I think this is the view back up.

The creek.

Recent fallen tree. We decided to cross the creek and walk down the path here, thinking it went down all the way.

Nope. End of the line.

No matter, it’s an adventure!

Trying to make sense of the map again.

neat little man made cascade.

And a hollow log makes a nice little waterslide for squirrels!

There are a couple of these man made terraces here (and the name of the picnic area/trail now makes sense).

And we have reached the gate! Not much further now.

The gate doesn’t open until July?!?!

Crossing the creek again.

Mossy rock.

Now we just have to climb up the small side road we took to make it back to the car.

I like the striped rocks near the mouth of the canyon.

Some more wildflowers.

Nearing the trailhead.

Well look at that! We stumbled upon National Get Outdoors Day and didn’t have to pay the $3.00 canyon use fee. This would be the 2nd time we have unknowingly stumbled upon a free use day. Millcreek is the only local canyon that has a use fee. Yea, it’s just 3 bucks, but YAY!

So, in early June look for National Get Outdoors Day and in Late September look for National Public Lands Day to avoid paying fee’s for natural areas.

Okay now on to my Squirrely Rating. I really enjoyed this hike, it was beautiful, we hardly ran into any other hikers, it was lush and green and had more wildflowers than any other trail I have done. However it was UP seriously just UP. The bugs, holy crap it was almost as bad as Antelope Island. Deet did not help, they didn’t care and would just chill on you until you shook them off and they were biters. And finally, as pretty as it was there was no… destination. No final prize. Yea, it’s the journey that counts but I was hoping for something! A waterfall, a lake, just, something other than okay, and now we go downhill again. I am going to finalize on a 7.

And now for difficulty. I am going to go with a DR5. It had very long sections of steep trail, some steep drop offs, and the trail got really thin at parts.