Beus Canyon To Fern Meadow

 
Beus Canyon is a beautiful fern filled canyon trail in South Ogden. There is a waterfall at about 1 mile, and Fern Meadow at about 1.5 miles up, which we decided to make our destination today. The trail does continue about 6 miles up to Mount Ogden, but we didn’t do that today. The trail is mostly shaded (which is why I decided to do such a low elevation trail in the heat of summer). It follows the creek for most of the way for the section we did. The trail doesn’t seem very steep, but it is a constant incline so it was a bit tougher than I expected.

Waterfall at about the 1 mile point.

Fern Meadow at about 1.5 miles.

 

Quick Details:

Length: 1.5 miles to Fern Meadow
Difficulty: DR4, the incline isn’t too bad but it is constant.
Elevation Gain: About 1200 ft..
Restroom: No
Dogs? Allowed, leashed.

To get here head to Harrison Blvd in South Ogden. Turn east on 4600 south (towards the mountains). The road will curve right heading southbound now and the trailhead is on the left at about 1900 east. It is fairly obvious and there is a parking lot.

Driving in on HW 89 we passed the nicely painted water towers (DBP).

Trail head signs. I really like Ogden’s new pillar signs I’ve been seeing. I think they look great!

At first glance I thought this meant no dogs, but reading it says leash laws strictly enforced, and scooper laws too.

Almost immediately you are in the woods.

The woodpeckers seem to like this particular tree.

Didn’t catch it very well but not very far in you have some thin switchbacks along a steep slope. I don’t like those, but luckily it was short. 3 switchbacks.

You are rewarded with this view once you get to the top of them, and before you ascend into the canyon.

Not far after the switchbacks there will be a minor trail split, as the sign says, stay to the right.

And then you will see the creek. From here, to where we turned back, the trail does not stray far from the creek.

A little further up.

The trail stays near the creek for most of the way.

Even though it is still super green, it is also super dusty!

The next main trail split. Again, keep right. And again, it is signed.

The first bridge.

What’s left of some fireweeds.

The woods are quite thick up here!

The second bridge. That’s it for bridges. But the rest of the stream crossings aren’t too bad.

More fireweed.

More flowers left on these ones. These fireweeds seem quite a bit taller than others I have seen!

Deadly Nightshade. I was kind of shocked to learn this grew locally, but now I see it just about everywhere.

Rock in the trail.

The thick forest doesn’t open up enough to view the cliffs above very often, but when it does, it is pretty.

And, some more switchbacks. These were pretty easy.

There is a kind of.. lame waterfall here and I thought this was the one we were after and was really disappointed. But I glanced at the pedometer app and realized we have only gone .85 miles. Not quite there yet.

Lizard! We actually saw a TON of lizards on this trail! Holy crap, I can’t remember the last time we saw so many, a close second might be Farmington Creek.

See these switchbacks weren’t too bad. Before long we found ourselves along the canyon floor again.

View down canyon.

Peak above and some scree.

And then you will enter a rocky section.

I can’t believe how green this trail is, at the end of August even! Wow!

We made it to the waterfall! It’s a little small but it is nice. This one is cool too because as you can see, the water starts from underneath that large boulder up there.

Then it runs over this moss covered boulder, and splashes into a pool under the next large boulder.

This waterfall appears to be the result of, or at least greatly modified by a rockslide.

The trail goes up fairly steeply next to it.

The water coming from beneath the boulder.

Creek crossing.

Another lizard.

Lots of ferns up here.

This group of trees looks like it fell across the trail. Someone has since cut most of them off.

More ferns. You almost can’t tell where the creek is.

And you really can’t tell here, it is under there somewhere though.

Ferns and aspens.

the canopy opened up allowing us the see the sides of the canyons… Holy crap, the leaves are already starting to change color? It’s still August!

Trail is getting quite thin and overgrown.

So one thing that was really unpleasant about this trail was there were tons and tons of wasps, just everywhere. But mostly a problem at these little crossings. You can’t see them, but there are a bunch here.

Well, I don’t know for sure if we hit Fern Meadow, but we reached an area just covered in them.

The trail is pretty thin through here.

It’s kind of cool! Probably no where near as cool as the Fern Canyon I wanted to visit, but didn’t in California, but I guess it’s the next best thing.

More fall colors up there!

Wow!

More flowers.

Another crossing, this one had a lot more wasps. Well, we had gone about 1.6 miles, found a bunch of ferns. Like I said, I’m not sure if we quite hit Fern Meadow, but we went as far as we planned. No need to mess with the wasps. Although, looking at the map I think we did make it to the meadow.

Ferns.

More ferns.

Pretty big aspen.

Hillside.

Again, can’t see the creek under the ferns.

So amazingly green up here! It kind of reminds me of Oregon.

Very well camouflaged butterfly.

Back to the waterfall.

The mossy rock.

Little cave, and a little arch.

The full waterfall again.

I really like the mossy rock at the bottom, and well, the moss all the way up.

Green forest again.

Another lizard.

Fireweed.

Another lizard. See, tons up here!

And a wee little one!

So green and overgrown!

View out of the canyon.

The upper switchbacks.

Little waterfall at the bottom.

Bottom of the switchbacks.

I still can’t get over how green it is this time of year!

I would guess even as soon as 2 weeks ago, those fireweeds would have been awesome amongst the green.

Lush green trail.

Spider web over the creek.

View of the valley below.

Down to the lower switchbacks.

Some of the leaves down here are turning already as well.

Weber canyon (DBP).

Normally I tend to keep to higher elevation this time of year, but this was a good low elevation hike for summer. Lots of shade, lots of green, I still can’t believe how green it was, it follows the creek most of the way and there are not a lot of people. It wasn’t the most exciting trail we have done, but it was a nice new adventure. 7 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, it didn’t seem that steep but it was constant and we certainly felt it. Going with a DR4.

Dogs are allowed, leashed. Please clean up after your furry friend.