Fruit Heights Upper Terrace Trail

The Fruit Heights Upper Terrace Trail is a nice easy trail above Farmington and Fruit Heights. It offers a great view of the valley below. I probably would not have enjoyed this trail if we hadn’t made the effort to find Window Cave though. You can do this trail out and back, or you can make a loop and return via the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST).

We have did a small portion of this trail before attempting to locate window Cave and instead found some of the other neat points of interest here.

Farmington City has slowly been improving their trails page (external link) so we came to check it out again. Where Farmington city wins for their trails page, and having interesting points of interest, I wish they would provide more information. Also, they kind of fail at signage. This is where Ogden City wins.

Quick Details:

Length: 1.8 Miles one way
Difficulty: DR4.
Elevation Gain: About 354 Ft. And it;s all in the first quarter mile.
Restroom: No
Dogs? Yes. Please clean up after your furry friends.
Other Info: A short spur trail out to Window Cave is a fun addition.

To Get Here:

From i15 take the exit for US 89 North of Lagoon. Take exit 396 for Shepard Ln. Turn left on Main St. Turn right on 1400 N. Turn right on N Compton Rd. Turn Left on Grandview Dr. Turn Left onto Bella Vista Dr. Turn right on Bella Vista Ct. There will be a circle at the end park here.

The Trail:

After parking you will take this access road up.

Steep! But it’s paved so it’s not too bad.

The trail at the end of the road after the water tank.

Looking into Shepard Canyon. If you want to go to Window Cave, you will take the faint trail down next to the 3rd power pole from the end of the road (this is 2 and 3). At least that is how we found it.

It will switchback once or twice as you continue the climb.

And then it settles down. Only gentle ups and downs, mostly flat from here on.

Cool rock. There is a hole that goes all the way through it as we discovered last time we went hunting for Frog Rock (this is not it. Frog Rock is below on the BST.

Antelope Island.

Wolverine Canyon. Still need to check that one out eventually.

Cool rocks above.

Looking across the benches.

Panoramic of the valley below.

Cool marbled rock.

Cool! We found a little icy alcove.

It’s like a miniature Mossy Cave!

Caused by this little dripping spring. I am going to have to remember to come back next real cold snap we get.

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Baer Canyon. The trail does go out to that, but we didn’t quite make it that far today.

Swinging into Little Canyon.

Rather large fire pit here.

Looking up Little Canyon. I don’t know what is up there, but there is a dirt road.

Like I mentioned, the trail does continue along to Baer Canyon but the sun was setting so we decided to take a shortcut down Little Canyon Road.

Sunlight making the sage glow.

Nearing the full moon.

Sun setting over Antelope Island.

The dirt road is pretty easy going.

Sunset again.

The road keeps going a little ways longer, but we saw this trail down and decided to cut off a little more from the loop. I’m not terribly worried about being on the BST after dark but the less we do at night the better.

Lone tree.

Not the best shot of Frog Rock.

Tiny little halo around the moon.

The Scott Nye Memorial. From what I put together, he and his friends climbed this tower and he fell. The memorial is kind of nice. The gist of it is: have fun and be adventurous, but be careful and don’t take unnecessary risks.

Bella Vista Mine is on this rock formation near the end of the trail. We’ve seen it before and its a short shaft. it’s neat, but it was getting dark. If you want to see it and frog rock a litter better I have pictures from my Shepard Creek post.

One last look at the sunset.

Back to the circle where we parked. Shepard Creek above. Well yay, we made it back to the car before full dark.

If it weren’t for the cool icy alcove and the fact that we finally found Window Cave I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed this trail very much. However it does have good views of the city and with the mild winter we are having it was a good choice to do without having to worry about avalanche dangers. With the shortcut we did our adventure ended up being about 2.75 miles (plus a little extra looking for Window Cave). Overall going with 6 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, Once you gain the initial elevation, which was a bit brutal, the trail is pretty flat and easy. DR4.

Dogs are allowed. Please clean up after your furry friends.

Window Cave

Window Cave is a neat little mine above Shepard Creek. As the name suggests it has a neat little window near the entrance. We attempted to find it once before and did not have much luck. However, I noticed Farmington City has slowly been improving their trails page (external link) and it looked much easier to find now so I thought we’d try again. Well, we still went back and forth and almost gave up, but we did eventually find it. Where Farmington city wins for their trails page, and having interesting points of interest, I wish they would provide more information. Also, they kind of fail at signage. This is where Ogden City wins.

Quick Details:

Length: About a half mile round trip.
Difficulty: DR5
Elevation Gain: About 300 ft.
Restroom: No
Dogs? Yes. Please clean up after your furry friends.
Other Info: Great addition to the Fruit Heights Upper Terrace Trail

To Get Here:

From i15 take the exit for US 89 North of Lagoon. Take exit 396 for Shepard Ln. Turn left on Main St. Turn right on 1400 N. Turn right on N Compton Rd. Turn Left on Grandview Dr. Turn Left onto Bella Vista Dr. Turn right on Bella Vista Ct. There will be a circle at the end park here.

The Trail:

There is a trail on the east side of the circle that I suspect might lead directly to the mine, however the Farmington Trail page suggested going up this access road to the north so that is what we did.

Neat rock formations above.

It is a quick ascent and already getting a nice view of the valley below.

Steep! But it’s paved so it’s not too bad.

The access road leads to this water tank. The trail continues south east.

Starting with this power pole, you will count to 3, and that is where the trail we took is located.

Looking into Shepard Canyon. Also, power pole 2 and 3.

We initially missed this trail and did a lot of back and forth up and down the canyon looking for the cave. We were just about ready to give up when we found it. There is a confusing spider web of trails up here so I may not have taken the right turn off. A sign would have been appreciated. Anyway, I will skip all that and go right to the path the eventually got us there..

Faint trail down next to the 3rd power pole.

When you hit the large rock outcropping you can head down to the lower trail on either side. I liked the way the eastern side looked a little better.

Shepard Canyon from the outcropping..

Down the side of the outcropping.

You can see a ribbon designating the trail. This gave me hope we were on the right path now.

Not much further along this trail and we found it! Finally!

It looks like they tried one direction…

And then went another direction. You can see the little window to the left here.

Landis poked his head in.

The little window again. I’m not sure if they mined this out on purpose, or if it just collapsed or what. But it is kind of neat.

Looking towards the deeper shaft.

The window.

Looking out the main entrance.

The entrance and the window.

From the outside again.

Looking across the canyon.

Well that was fun, but we decided to continue along the Fruit Heights Upper Terrace Trail, which I decided to split off as it’s own post as I thought Window Cave was neat enough to be it’s own post.

I was starting to get really frustrated going back and forth and up and down the side of the somewhat steep slope looking for the cave, but when we did find it I was happy we persevered. It’s possible I missed the correct side trail (there is a confusing spider web of trails up here) so this is where I feel a sign would be helpful. It’s small, and there isn’t much to it, but it’s unique amongst the other mines we have explored nearby in that is has the split shaft and the window. 8 out of 10 squirrels. Losing 2 for difficulty in locating it.

Dogs are allowed. Please clean up after your furry friends.