Rattlesnake Gulch - Winter

Rattlesnake Gulch to Pipeline trail is a great short hike through a scrub oak filled gulch. It is pretty much up the whole way, but at only about a half mile it isn’t so bad. And if you decide to do more, you have a couple different options. Including an additional 2.1 miles to the Grandeur Peak trail.

I had New Years Day off from work and decided what better way to start the year than with a pretty hike? A friend recently posted a picture from here so I looked it up, at a mile round trip it sounded like the perfect winter hike.

I only recently started hiking in the winter, and am kind of kicking myself for not doing it sooner. It is do-able, it isn’t too cold once you start moving and so far, every trail we have tried was popular enough to be packed down. Just ensure you wear good boots with good traction, have a hiking pole, and be aware of avalanche conditions.

To get here head to Millcreek Canyon in SLC. .7 miles beyond the ranger station on the north (left as you go up) side of the canyon is a small parking lot. The trail head is on the downhill end of the parking lot.

Now on with the adventure!

The mountains are just stunning with a coat of snow. (DBP Album)

Into the canyon! (DBP)

View up canyon from the trailhead.

And a view of the trailhead. Time to get in the snow!

I was hoping that since this is a north side canyon we would have some sun, but due to the time of year, and how late in the day we came, we never did get above the shadow of the mountains.

A look down the canyon.

Some trees and snow.

Ok gross I know, I only took this picture to make a point. This pisses me off. Guys, I LOVE taking my dog hiking with me too. My dog  loves it, and she gets exercise. Yea, cleaning up after her is gross, but we do it. Cleaning up after her means carrying it with me until I can throw it away. Bagging it and leaving it on the trail, is probably worse than just leaving a pile. Now we have a plastic bag full of poop. And I would say don’t think you can leave it, on the way up and get it on the way down. You will likely forget where you left it. I picked up 4 bags on the way out, and I KNOW at least 2 of them were older than a few hours. (And we didn’t even bring our dog today!) There is a garbage bin at the trailhead just for this reason. Guys, clean up after your dogs. 1) Its disgusting. 2) It’s rude to all other hikers, and having the mentality that someone else will get it is just wrong. 3) I would like to enjoy hiking with my dog for as long as possible and if this gets to be a bigger problem than it already is, they might reconsider allowing dogs. You made the choice to bring Fido, now follow through with the responsibility that comes with it. Okay, sorry back to the hike.

The peaks above.

Part of the old pipe.

Neat little rocks. From here the trail turns left and you hit the switchbacks and start really going up.

See even on the thin switchbacks the snow is packed down. There were a few kind of sketchy bits where there has been some erosion and the trail is thin, but for the most part it wasn’t too bad.

View down canyon. I love the trees on the ridge.

I kept thinking we would reach the sunlight at any moment, but we never did.

The snow sliding down the steep slope.

Bare branches and peaks above. I believe this is looking towards Grandeur Peak.

Look down the canyon.

Scrub oak.

And we made it to the Pipeline Trail. Which as I understand it goes all the way to Elbow Fork, possibly higher up. At the moment I did not know what the Pipe Line V was, but with some extra research I learned it is a viewpoint. Not sure how much further it was but I wish we had ventured out to it, however Landis’s boot traction was not as good as it appeared and he was having some difficulty, so we got to our intended destination and decided to turn around. One of these days I might make it to that peak! Although, looking at this map, I think the way I tried to do it the first time is probably the way to go. Because the sign says Grandeur Peak Trail and looking at the map leads me to believe that 2.1 miles takes you to the 3.4 mile trailhead.

View down from the trail split.

Fun tree tunnel.

Sun hitting the cliff faces.

Pretty canyon.

Trees along the ridge.

There were quite a few freshly fallen leaves on top of the snow. I thought it was neat.

I like the deep gorges across the way.

View down.

Neat rock formation and trees on the ridge.

Trees and mountains.

Almost back to the trailhead.

View up canyon again, with the moon.

View down i80 at the great big smoke stack near the Great Salt Lake. Huh, thought I had posted some closer up images of that, but I guess I have not. Meh, maybe I have a new topic to post.

Well! It was short, and there wasn’t a lot to it, but this was a great winter hike. A nice work out that was very pretty. I am really glad we decided to venture out to this today.

Going with 8 out of 10 squirrels. It was pretty, but a little tough, and no great end prize (unless you decide to shoot for the viewpoint) and the fact the Millcreek Canyon is a fee canyon removes another star. The nice short trail prompted a new category: Short And Sweet. Going to go back and tag some of the great short trails.

It is a little tough to gauge difficulty as I am still new to winter hiking. It was a little steep, but not too bad. Going to end with a DR4.

Dogs are always allowed in Millcreek Canyon. However they must be leashed on even numbered days. We didn’t bring Roxy today because she doesn’t do too well with the snow.