Parrish Creek

 

I had planned on getting out to enjoy more fall colors. I found this hike and well, I got a hike, but not really any fall colors. However, since this had no trees (hence no shade) this is probably a good time of year to do it.

To get here, take the Parrish Lane exit in Centerville. Follow the road all the way up to the top where a very thin road will fork to the left and go up the canyon a ways to a small parking lot. On the north end of the parking lot you will find a trail marker next to a dirt road. Take the trail up the hill.

The thin canyon road. Hope you don’t have anybody coming the opposite direction! If it helps we didn’t going in or out, I don’t think it is used often enough that it is a common problem.

Some flowers on the edge of the parking lot.

And a butterfly.

And beginning the trail. From below the rocks in the canyon almost make a heart shape, I was hoping to get a better shot of it, but no luck today.

Apparently this is a good spot for paragliding.

Better shot of the mountain.

Before long the trail crosses the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. The sign said Parrish Creek up (or east) so that is the way we went.

Another little butterfly.

Well there seems to be some fall color over on that hillside! Haha that's just how new hikes go, you never know what you might find.

I think this is about the closest the hike takes you to the canyon and thus the creek. I am not sure why this is called Parrish Creek. It should be Parrish Spine or something like that.

View down in. I thought this trail would be down there, not up here on the mountain side!

Oooh! Some fall color.

Not much, but at least this part of the trail has some trees.

And back out in the open.

More color on the other side.

Pretty nice view of the Great Salt Lake from here.

Quick panoramic.

The trail kind of meanders through this grassy bench for a while, and I didn’t realize it at the time but you can see where it starts switch-backing up the side of the mountain again.

Above the grassy bench.

And higher. Alright I have had enough of this hike. I have never really been a fan of hiking up open hill sides. I prefer a nice wooded walk to a steep barren hill. Looking up at the switchbacks didn’t seem like this was going to be much better so between that and having somewhere to be, I decided to turn back now.

We made it to that first switchback beneath the rock there.

Back down through the grass.

Back through the short wooded area.

That is a really large cairn. Random.

A little further down a small side trail takes you to it.

Some of them have some messages printed on them. I wonder what this is all about? A couple searches and no luck.

Sunflower.

We ended up doing a little further exploring, however if I did my math right, we ended up going about .8 miles up. The entire trail is about 3 miles to Centerville Peak. Yea, hitting the peak might have been cool, but we had places to be.

And here it is from below. Driving in on Parrish Lane (which is a little north from where I took this) the rocks outcroppings are closer together and kind of form a heart.

It was a nice trail, it really was. I guess I was just disappointed there wasn’t much color on the trail today, so perhaps it would be fair to give it another shot at another time. Not very many people, wonderful views of the valley below. No shade, so I recommend fall – early spring. For now I will settle on 6 squirrels.

As for difficulty, for the most part it is really easy to do, but there are some steep switchbacks on steep slopes and again, not a lot of protection so I am going to bump it up to a DR4.