Holbrook Canyon

Holbrook canyon is a pretty trail located in Bountiful. Mostly flat with a few steep uphill and downhill slopes. It crosses the creek (sometimes on sturdy bridges, sometimes on loose logs) several times. It crosses through many different scenes of deciduous trees, and conifer forests. It starts, and ends with small waterfalls and has amazing cliff sights. This trail truly has a lot of stuff to keep you interested the entire hike up.

To get here take any exit in bountiful and follow the “LDS Temple –>” signs. No seriously that will get you there, (if you are familiar with the area it is across the street and slightly south of the temple) but to be more clear for those unfamiliar with the area take the Bountiful 5th south exit from i15. Follow that up until you reach Lakeview Dr., take a right. (there is one of the aforementioned signs, but if you miss it, it’s a dead end from here.) Lakeview Dr. will curve back east towards the mountains, back out, and back in again. Follow it to Bountiful Blvd. and hang a left. Very quickly you will see a small parking lot on the right with a park restroom. If you pass the temple on the left, you went to far.
Now, on to the trail!



Holbrook Canyon is a pretty prominent canyon located nearby. I had been wondering why we had yet to explore it and just couldn’t figure it out. When we got to the parking lot it looked really familiar. After we started hiking, the trail did not, and it finally dawned on me. We have tried. But the small parking lot has been full every time we did.



Like other nearby trails it starts at the top of a manmade hill. All of these I am unsure if they were originally damns, or were just built level the roads out. Either way, that means you are going to have a last bit of up at the end of your hike.



There is a nice small cascade here at the beginning.



I just love the bright green color of early spring.



And the flowers are starting to come out!



The deer in Bountiful didn’t seem to fair so well this year. Just about every trail we have done so far we have found a random deer leg. Well, Roxy found this one. We never find much more of them. Kind of weird.



More spring greenery!



I love the way the water is just shooting off of the rock there. The best part of this trail is that it doesn’t stray far from the creek for almost the entirety of it.



However, there are a lot of crossings.



This is from the bridge seen in the previous image. Do you see the log up there?



Apparently it was the original crossing here. Yea, I would have opted to get my feet wet. o.O



Another crossing. The creek must be a bit more swollen than normal as most of them don’t seem to cross the entire thing.



Another crossing. I believe this is the last actual bridge.



After the bridge the trail goes UP very steeply and then you hike along a narrow trail on a steep slope for a short while. Managed to get a nice shot of the green hillsides though.



Some pretty purple flowers.



View up the canyon.



Oh I lied, there is another bridge, that also doesn’t quite cross the creek. Although, now that I am looking at this, I wonder if the anchor log just moved downstream.



Some mossy rocks.





Some nice shots of the creek.



Landis helps Roxy across the not so great bridges.



Mossy cliff face.



Moving into a more piney forest.



Little cascade.



Butterfly!



I love trails that follow streams.



Kind of neat.



And, parts of the trail are pretty flooded. Be sure to wear good boots!



Kind of looks like a gargoyle on the cliff up there.



Another crossing.



Just pretty up here.



Another crossing. This one was particularly sketchy, but got us across without getting wet.



More pretty forests.



More pretty cliffs. Who needs to go all the way to Yosemete to see astounding cliffs? We have some amazing ones here! (Although I do still want to go to Yosemete)





And we have some flower lined trails now.



Ladybug. At least I think it’s a ladybug.. it was pretty big and there aren’t any spots.



More cascades.



Big rock surrounded by greenery. This trail has everything. :)



And we finish at a small waterfall nestled between some boulders. I’d say it’s about 5-6 feet, not very big at all, but it is pretty.



There is actually a pair of them, but you can’t get a very good shot of them both with the nearby greenery.



Here is the second one.



A little downstream.

Well from here the trail got really, really steep so we decided to call it a day. I don’t know if we made it to the “nice waterfall with a pool” or if that is further up but we did find a nice little waterfall with a pool and had a great time so we decided to head on back.







Some more flowers.



Gnarly old tree. The cavern in the roots is full of rocks.





Back to the cool cliff faces, the last one the “gargoyle” seems more prominent.



One of the many primitive campsites. I counted 5 or 6 on the way up.



Trail and creek.



I am often asked how often I encounter rattlesnakes since I hike so often and can honestly say never. This was the second snake I saw today (the other scurried away too quickly) this one posed for me. I can’t see his tail, but I really doubt it is a rattler. However, I didn’t want to get close enough to find out for certain.







A couple more shots of the creek.



Pines above the canopy.



Another butterfly. I was kind of blow away by the amount of butterflies fluttering about on this trail.



Back to the mossy stones.



Shot of the hills above.





Green hills, and evidence of a recent landslide.



View down the canyon.



I know we anthropomorphize animals a lot, but I really think Roxy really enjoys hiking. Look how happy she looks! And sometimes I swear I catch her looking at different sights. And, of course she almost always want to go further than us.



Rocky cliff above.



Water is such an amazingly powerful force. Before long, it will probably take this tree down.



A couple small waterfalls that are a little hard to see through the trees.



Pretty white flower.





This is the best time to go on a hike. It’s not too hot, it’s not too cold or wet and snowy, and everything is green and coming up. I think May should be National Go For A Hike Month. Of course, over the years I have learned to do lower elevation hikes this time of year. Much higher and it it is going to be snowy.



Back to the cool water swoop.







More luscious greenery.



Some old structure.



And back to the end with the man made dyke. Now we just have to climb up that last bit!



Well that grabbed my attention.



Didn’t enter but went for a peeksie. Apparently the local teenagers don’t care. I am not sure what exactly is dangerous though.. perhaps the other end lets out at a cliff?



More flowers.

Okay, I am mad that we haven't done this one sooner. It was an awesome trail. It was marked as moderate to difficult that is “hard to follow at times.” I have to disagree with that. Yes, there were some swampy areas, and a lot of creek crossings, but up until the end where I wondered if there might be an alternate route aside from the really steep one the trail was pretty obvious the entire way. There were 2 spots that made me nervous, but they weren’t so bad. It is a beautiful canyon that is worth exploring. The downside/upside is the small parking lot. It seems pretty popular, but I think the small parking lot limits the crowd size. I think I am always more enamored with a trail the first time I do it, particularly if it happens in the spring, but I loved it. Other than the end prize not being that amazing, and the parking lot so limited, it would be perfect. So, I am going to give it 9 squirrels.

 

As for difficulty, like I said the websites tend to mark this as moderate to difficult. Even though my body is currently protesting the adventure I didn’t find it to be so bad. I mentioned earlier there were a few spots that made me nervous, and a few steep spots, but overall it was fairly easy. Of course, unlike most other years we did some winter hiking, so we didn’t have the 4 month slump we usually have.