Jump-off Canyon Lower Loop

We had a plan to surprise Mah in Ogden today, so I wanted to do a trail nearby, and decided we should see if the seasonable waterfall in Jump-off Canyon was flowing. It is an ephemeral waterfall, AKA a seasonal waterfall. Not only does it only tend to happen during a certain time of the year, even that can not happen due to other conditions. Unfortunately our lackluster winter snowpack meant no waterfall today. But, it is still a lovely trail and I am happy we did it. I just didn’t bother climbing into the upper canyon upon seeing a dry creek bed.

Quick Details:

Length: There are quite a few options, but we ended up doing a perfect 2 miles loop.
Trail Type: Loop, or out and back option.
Difficulty: DR3. There is a bit of a climb, but not bad. It is tougher to get close to the waterfall if it is flowing though.
Elevation Gain: We did about 354 ft.
Restroom: No. Closest I am aware of is the Chevron just south of the TH.
Dogs? Yes, leashed.
Other Info: Not a good idea on a hot dy. Not a lot of shade.

To Get Here:

From i15 take take the 12th St exit in Ogden. Take that to Harrison BLVD, turn left. After passing the Chevron on 2nd St look for the TH on the right located at about 425 N Harrison BLVD.

The BL for Ben Lomond High (directly to the west) appears to have received a fresh coat (PSP).

Well this is new.

The Trail:

The stairs up from the parking lot.

I love Ogden's trail markers. They are probably the most useful, and consistent out of all the cities I regularly hike in. Added bonus for aesthetics.

Lovely forest.

Taper-tip onion.

Already starting to get a nice view of the valley below.

Some kind of sunflower.

Phlox.

Woo! The wildflowers are starting to really come out!

First trail split.  You want to hang a left here.

Neat old tree, that looks quite butchered is growing new sprouts.

At the first trail split you get a break from the climb for a minute, which is quite lovely.

Hrm. This looks like lupine, but I don’t know if it comes in that color. Well, I guess it might actually come in this color. Well, I’ll be. However the leaves seem off, so I still am nt sure what they are.

The next major trail split. (Although I realized I missed one on the way back) is the split to do the south portion of the loop, which is the quickest way to reach to split to Jump-off canyon. We took the right fork.

Tufted evening primrose. The blooms open up in the evening. Maybe one day I will see that.

Back to the climb.

More phlox.

Jump-off Canyon above.

More forest.

Raindrops.

Penstemon.

More forest.

More sunflowers type flowers.

Storm clouds.

At almost a half mile you will reach the canal road. the trail continues on the other side.

Storm clouds again.

The canal. Hrm, not immediately finding a name for it.

The valley below again.

Not sure what this is.

Storm clouds over Ben Lomond. Yes, we did get rained on a bit. But not enough to make it miserable.

Mire penstemon.

Taper tip onions.

Normally wide open high up slopes kind of freak me out, but the slope is a gentle grade so its fine.

More of the trail.

Fun little rock alcove.

Both trails lead towards Jump-off Canyon, the the alternate (upper) route will take higher up into the canyon. We stayed on the lower route. I actually have never done the alternate so I don’t know how it is, looking at google maps, it doesn’t seem like it is much more of a climb.

Looking into Jump-off Canyon.

Cactus blooms.

Juniper trees.

Jump-off Canyon.

The first little bridge. The creek bed is dry. Which is usually the case.

Here is where it counts. The 2nd creek bed is also dry. That means there is no waterfall. We just didn’t have a good water year.

Heading up into Jump-off Canyon is not to bad for the first half or so, but the last half is quite a scramble! Since there isn’t any water, we decided to just stay on the loop trail. However you can see our experience with the waterfall here.

Continuing along the trail.

Lower Jump-off Canyon.

More trail.

Fun cave pocked cliffs.

View of the Ogden Valley.

Panoramic.

The fun cliffs again.

The next trail split. You are going to want to go left here. Right will actually loop back towards Jump-off canyon. Maybe one of these days I will do the alternate, upper loop.

Cliffs.

Fun cliffs.

Little cave.

We found a small patch of paintbrush.

With some sage.

We both like paintbrush and started to wonder if it is something we could put in our garden and well, you could but it is extremely difficult. Paintbrush is kind of parasitic and takes things from surrounding plants. It won’t survive on it’s own, and depending on what it is mixed with, they might not survive. However if you have a prairie garden you might have good luck.

This trail split is a little wonky, as it’s a big turn around point for the canal road. Anyway, you want to go to the left, south side of it. The sign is on the right though. If you follow the trail to the right you will eventually end up at the Ogden Nature Center North which has a couple trails.

Across the way you will see a smaller trail next to the old road.

With a smaller trail marker.

Lots of wildflowers through here.

Flowers.

Another trail split. I wasn’t paying close enough attention I just saw the bottom split lead back to the trailhead. But so does the forward split haha. So we did a smidge on the alternate trail, which worked out and gave us a nice round 2 miles.

Looking back towards Ben Lomond.

Crossing back over the dry creek bed.

Heading along the bench.

More flowers.

Sage for days.

The peak above.

Storm clouds.

Back to the main trail.

Back to the mangled old tree that is still clinging to life.

Final trail split. Forward heads to the North Polk Trail, which we haven’t done. Right takes you back to the trailhead.

Lovely forest.

I don’t know what is happening at the trailhead, but it looks like they are doing some work on it. However, it currently looks a little precarious. o.O

I quite enjoyed the trail today. I enjoy it more when there is a waterfall to enjoy, but the loop is quite nice. It offers great views of the valley below, and the wildflowers were great today. I also enjoyed that we only passed one other person. 8 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, there is some climbing, but not too bad. DR3. If you push on into the upper canyon, I would bump that to a DR5.

Dogs are allowed, but must be leashed.