Battle Creek Falls

 

I have been wanting to hike to Battle Creek Falls for a little while now, but have been unable to justify the short hike with the long drive required. Today we were going to visit some family down south, so I decided the quick detour would work out.

The trail head is located in Kiwanis Park on the eastern edge of of 200 S. in Pleasant Grove. Seriously, find 200 S. and drive east until it ends at a dirt parking lot.

The trail guide I used said it was 1.2 miles out and back, easy and flat except for the last section near the falls.

Cool old sign. Curley Springs sounds interesting, may have to return to do that some day.

The first thing I noticed is the stream is dry as a bone. I am a little concerned I came too late in the season and am going to hike to a dry cliff face. Well, we’re here, so lets see what we have.

Pretty little canyon here. Unfortunately, it appears we are going to be hiking in full sun for a while.

Empty creek bed. I was really starting to freak out about this.

But a little further we hiked over this, and it sounded like possible running water under it. Perhaps the creek is diverted for other uses? So that gave me hope to keep going.

Cool rock formations. Wide open trail, not much protection from the sun.

Nice view of the mountains above.

Cool rock formations.

The trail is fairly wide and even graded, so far with a slight grade up, following the dry creek bed.

Ah hah! Water! Looks like I was correct and they divert it. It looks like if the stream is flowing a little faster that excess water can spill down the dry bed.

The stream above.

Rock.

More rocks.

I found the weird little plants I have seen in nearby trails, however this one still has flowers. (Or possible another plant intermixed) I am just fascinated by the whispy seed pods.

Bridge.

Little cave. About this point the trail switches to a much steeper grade.

The canyon is pretty though.

Found a nice patch of shade to take a rest under. The whole trail has been in full sun and it was a hot day today at 96 degrees. Not to mention the trail getting significantly steeper it was starting to kick our butts. So we stopped here to rest, rehydrate and cool down.

Little did I know how close we were. Just a couple feet further I got the first glimpse of the waterfall.

Not much further up is the side trail down to the base of the falls. It’s steep, but much, MUCH less steep and precarious as Farmington Creek. I had absolutely no problem going up and down this.

And here are the falls. Unfortunately, we came too late in the year and the feature that makes these falls more unique than others around here is not existent today. The normally twin waterfalls is one waterfall, with a slight trickle down the other side.

Here I am in front of it. I was really over heated and wanted to cool down some, hoping the mist would be enough. It totally was.

It is still a really nice waterfall and I am glad we did it today. There were a couple groups in the area, so we decided to return to the main trail and see how they looked from above.

Not too bad.

Nice view of Utah Lake below.

The top of the falls. You can see where and how they split.

The trail continues up for quite a ways, but we reached what we had wanted to today, and had other obligations. Perhaps another time. So we decided to head back down to the base of the falls.

Slightly better shot from above.

And of the valley below.

Close up of the main fall, and the trickle fall.

Different angle.

Faint waterfall rainbow.

Another faint rainbow.

And a last parting shot.

Another shot of the valley below.

Rockslide section.

The small reservoir/diversion dam.

Cool peaks.

Cool old log across the creek bed looks like a giant antler.

Gnarly old pine.

Another rock formation.

Trail down.

Sunflower.

Bridge towards Kiwanis Park. We didn’t go in, but there doesn’t appear to be much here other than an old outdoor amphitheater.

Landis turned on his pedometer app at the base of the falls, and from there to here was .8 miles. Which makes this 1.6 miles round trip. Still not too bad.

After visiting with the family, and driving home we could see the canyon we hiked up. 2nd small one from the large one on the right. (DBP album)

Lots of Para gliders on point of the mountain today. (DBP Album)

Every time I go this way I see this little side canyon on the southernmost end of Draper, north of point of the mountain and I always wonder what might be up here. Maybe one day I will go and explore it. (DBP album).

I am super glad we finally did this hike. It was very pretty and had a fantastic end prize. Also, for such a short trail, there really weren’t too many people today.

However, I think this trail is best done in spring, or early summer for 2 reasons. 1. The water flow is high enough to see the twin falls in all their glory. 2. It is in full sun, so the milder temperatures will make it a little more bearable. Fall would be nice for the temperature issue, but again, probably will not see the twin falls.

So as is, I am removing 2 squirrels for both of those reasons for this trip. I will plan on returning in spring/early summer to see if that improves it. Final rating 8 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty. This one is a little more tough. It starts out with a slight elevation gain, the trail is mostly evenly graded, with some rough loose rocks to hike over, then towards the end gets pretty steep. And of course the being in full sun the entire way also contributes to the difficulty. I suppose I will finalize on a DR4.