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The Rex Maneuver is a new fun trail within the Deer Ridge Off Leash area in Draper. It features a beautiful scrub oak forest, and amazing views into both Utah and Salt Lake valleys. The main loop is just a smidge higher than it’s sister trail Beware of Doug (which is also a fun trail, we did that last month). Somebody on the Draper trails committee must be a Far Side fan. Unlike Beware of Doug, this trail is for hikers only, so you should not run across any bikes on it. This trail also summits the little peak that the Deer Ridge Loop goes around, which is fun. It might have been that is was a warm, beautiful, bluebird day, but I absolutely LOVED this trail.
Quick Details:
Length: About a 2 mile balloon.
Trail Type: Balloon, with longer connections.
Difficulty: DR3. It is a very mild climb.
Elevation Gain: About 360 feet.
Restroom: Yes, year- round flush toilets.
Dogs? Yes, off-leash even!
Other Info:
To Get Here:
Take exit 288 for 14600 South. Head east. Turn right on Traverse Ridge Rd, Turn right on Deer Ridge Dr. Take that to the end. You will hike the old dirt road to the right of the new restrooms.
The mountains got a fresh dusting of snow (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).
Steep Mountain (PSP).
Potato Hill (PSP).
Little Valley (PSP)
Neat old water tower (PSP).
The Deer Ridge Trailhead (PSP).
The fancy new year-round restrooms (PSP). They completely updated this trailhead just back in 2023. With new year-round flush toilets, picnic tables, and plenty of parking. It is pretty amazing.
The Trail:
The main Deer Ridge Road Loop. It is just to the right of the restrooms, and where you want to start.
Mount Timpanogos.
Trailhead kiosk.
Heading up the Deer Ridge Loop. I was expecting more snow.
Paw print puddle.
Continuing up.
There is some snow.
The Salt Lake Valley.
Alien Tower ahead. We debated about continuing up to that, and decided against it today.
The low point on the ridge between the peaks, plus the peak we will be climbing. If it is even slightly breezy, it will be way worse through here. Today wasn’t bad though.
It is a great spot to see both valleys though. Here is the Salt Lake Valley.
Utah Valley on the other side.
Salt Lake Valley again.
Utah Valley again.
Just after the ridge, keep an eye out for the trail split on the left.
It is about 3/10ths of a mile up.
Closer look at the map. I am glad I took this picture, it came in handy a little bit later.
Then immediately to the right. Left leads to the Telegraph Foot Path, and Off the Beaten Path. One of these days we might check both of those out.
Trail sign.
With the comic strip it is named for.
It is a much more thin trail than the Deer Ridge Loop, but still comfortably wide.
The first switchback. As far as switchbacks go, this is practically nothing!
Alien Tower again.
Scrub oaks with some leaves hanging on. This is called Marcescence, retention of dead plant organs that are normally shed.
2nd switchback.
It’s really just a lovely stroll through the woods.
Mount Timpanogos again.
Here is the snow I was expecting!
On to the next switchback.
Mount Jordan.
Continuing up.
Mount Timpanogos.
Maple Hollow below.
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Panoramic: Mount Jordan, Dry Canyon, Box Elder Peak, American Fork Canyon, Mount Timpanogos.
The Deer Ridge Loop below.
More snow.
There were a couple of short super muddy spots. If they continued for much longer I would have turned back, but they were short spots. Plus, it was not take your boot off sticky.
I am not sure how well I am doing with the count today, but the 4th major switchback.
More scrub oaks.
Connecting to the Deer Ridge Loop.
Where we find a 6 way trail split, this trail, the Deer Ridge Loop, and Beware of Doug all cross through here. We want to go left.
It is signed.
With the cartoon again.
More snow.
Mountains.
Enjoying the hike through the scrub oak.
T Junction… okay, wait, which way?
There is a sign for the way we just came up… what gives?
Well, like I said, thankfully I took a picture of the map and I was able to refer back to it, we have reached the balloon (or loop) part of the balloon trail, so either way is fine. We opted to go left. Now, while I feel the trail is generally well signed, just 1 more little "Rex Maneuver ↔" sign would have been super helpful here.
Continuing around.
Alien Tower. We again debated about going up to it today. It is not as far as it looks.
Utah Valley.
Continuing up.
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Another panoramic.
Beware of Doug Trail below.
Both trails.
I think that is the Off the Beaten Path trail.
Continuing up.
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Another panoramic.
Alien Tower again.
More scrub oak.
Another T junction, and another spot another sign would be helpful. Left is the way to go. Right appears to be a random little side trail that connects back to the Deer Ridge Loop in 50-100 feet or so, as well as to a shortcut trail.
Random cement slab with a pipe.
The other side.
Someone made a cute little snowman on it.
Deer Ridge Loop again. The trail picks up directly on the other side.
On the other side.
Back into the woods.
Scrub oak.
We had a hellova time trying to determine when we reached the high point today. Almost there.
Super smoggy looking to the southwest.
Not so much to the north.
Mount Jordan.
Another unnamed subpeak that we have done before.
The Salt Lake Valley again.
Mount Jordan.
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Panoramic.
More forest.
Landis found an itty-bitty acorn.
I believe we have reached the top, with a nice view of Mount Jordan. It may not be a particularly prominent sub peak, but it is a peak so I am counting it. Due to my fear of heights, I am not really a peak bagger, but I do appreciate when I do manage to make it to the top of one. Even if it is a small one like this or even Ensign Peak.
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Panoramic.
More forest.
There is some stuff on that peak to the west. I winder how you get to that one.
Mount Jordan.
The main Deer Ridge Loop below.
The Salt Lake Valley.
We can see The Claw.
Heading down.
Into the snow.
It almost feels like a novelty at this point. We have gotten a couple dustings in the valley, but it doesn’t seem to stick around for long this year. :(
Continuing along.
Scrub Oak.
Smaller scrub oak.
More forest.
This is really a fun trail.
The peak we just came off of.
Mount Jordan and Box Elder Peak.
This “shortcut” Is listed on the map. but is fenced off soo.. I am not sure if you should use it or not. It will only shave off about 3/10ths of a mile though and honestly doesn’t seem worth it. It is not signed, but the main trail is here pointing left.
Continuing down.
We hit the main Deer Ridge Loop again. The trail picks up again on the other side, just to the right of that fence.
When we do the Alien Tower trail or even just the Deer Ridge Loop we would continue down just to the left of that fence. The fence, which is new, is blocking off a steep part of the old road.
But, today we are doing the Rex Maneuver, which is to the right of the fence.
View down.
Oh gosh… we aren’t going down that are we?
Oh, no, no we aren’t. Phew. As we will see in a moment, that steep line is a pipe.
Back into the scrub oak.
Back to the loop. Now we just have the “string” of the balloon left. Go left here.
The sun just above the ridge.
Heading down.
Mount Jordan and Box Elder Peak.
The low point on the Deer Ridge Loop.
Some greenery poking up through the snow.
More snow.
As I mentioned, that steep trail I thought we would have to take down, turned out to be a drainage pipe.
Back to the 6 way split at the main Deer Ridge Loop.
Bonus Content: Side Quest (click here to skip)
So, we still had some daylight, and some energy, so I thought we should do the section of Beware Of Doug that we missed. So, we did a quick mile-ish detour. I did not included this in the stats above. And will keep it in italics until we return to The Rex Maneuver.
To continue up to the west side the Beware of Doug Trail you want to follow the main Deer Ridge Loop up about ~50 feet or so above the 6 way split.
Where you will find the west side of the loop.
Trail sign.
This part of the trail will take us back to the top of the main Deer Ridge Loop.
It seems a little silly to basically head back to where we were but meh, I wanted to see what we had missed.
The Salt Lake Valley.
The Claw.
More scrub oaks.
A couple more muddy spots, but again, not too bad.
More acorns.
Continuing up.
The Deer Ridge Loop below.
Continuing along.
Into the scrub oak.
More forest.
There is just something really fun about the twisted trees.
Continuing up.
Thick forest.
More twisted trees.
Tiny clearing.
Lots of snow.
More forest.
Human and various sized dog prints.
The valley.
The valley and the Deer Ridge Loop below.
Last bit of the climb.
Back into the scrub oak.
The Deer Ridge Loop is starting to meet up with us, elevation wise.
More forest.
Twisted branches.
Back to where we picked it up last time. Okay, now we have done all of both trails!
We went back and forth as to going back the way we came, or just taking this to the Deer Ridge Loop and connecting back to where we left off from there. We decided on the latter.
Continuing along.
The peak we were on earlier.
The spur that leads to Alien Tower.
Back to the Deer Ridge Loop. Beware of Doug continues on the other side of it, but, as I mentioned, we already did the section we missed. So, now we are just going to follow the Deer Ridge Loop left back to the 6 way split.
Continuing along the Deer Ridge Loop.
Where the Rex Maneuver trail cross it again. Oh boy, todays GPS map is going to look like a big scribble. LOL.
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Panoramic showing both sides.
Some smog out towards Antelope Island.
The bottom side of the shortcut trail we saw earlier.
Mount Jordan.
Sage brush.
Here you can see where the Rex Maneuver crosses the main loop again. The way down is to the left of the fence here. Or of course, we had the option of going down the part we already did on the Rex Maneuver to the right of the fence. However, since we were exploring, I finally decided to see what was beyond…
Oh. Like, almost immediately past the split off I can see a small turn around. Meh, we’ll go around it, what the heck.
Around the north end.
West end.
And the south end. Wooo, that was fun LOL. But at least now I know, and was right, if you miss the turn off, it is not the end of the world. It is less than a 10th of a mile around it and back to the turn off.
Down the main Deer Ridge Loop. The new fencing here cuts off a short, super steep section of the old road. This side route has always been my preference so I don’t mind it.
But it is still steep and rocky through here.
Continuing down.
It looks like hikers have disturbed the dirt enough to show a layer of clay. Neat.
Back to the bottom of the Beware of Doug Loop.
Just a little further along the Deer Ridge Loop.
Back to the 6 way split.
Back to our regularly scheduled program.
The Rex Maneuver’s final leg.
More scrub oak.
Some leaves still hanging on.
Mount Timpanogos above Utah Valley.
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Panoramic.
Forest.
Utah Valley.
More forest.
Utah Valley again.
Spring parsley.
Down to the Telegraph Trail.
And immediately to the Deer Ridge Loop.
Approaching the low point on the ridge.
Utah Valley.
Salt Lake Valley.
Utah Valley again, with a smidge of Utah Lake.
Salt Lake Valley again. Squirreling a bit…
There is a little ridge next to the old road that was a lot more dry so we decided to walk down that.
The Salt Lake Valley.
Grass.
Almost done.
Mount Jordan.
The new fancy trailhead.
You can see more of Utah Lake as you head back (PSP).
The neat old water tower again (PSP).
Heading down Traverse Ridge Road (PSP). It is like driving down the canyon. With light, and good weather it's fine. Bad weather, or darkness, not so much.
The valley (PSP).
Potato Hill (PSP).
Last light on the mountains (PSP).
Wow. I REALLY enjoyed that trail today! Like I said, it might have been just because it was a beautiful day, but really it was just a lovely trail and I am glad we did it. I love how mild the climb was and the views were great. We did not run into anybody on either of the little side trails, but did see some on the main Deer Ridge Loop trail. 10 out of 10 squirrels.
As for difficulty, it was a super easy climb. DR3.
Dogs are allowed, even off-leash! (I just double checked the map to be sure) Please clean up after your furry friends.
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