Sunday, October 28, 2018

Parrish Canyon

Parrish Canyon is a steep, thin trail up a very narrow canyon in Centerville. The trail offers 2 nice little waterfalls a bonus tiny waterfall, and an even more amazing bonus feature that you would not expect at all. It’s a little tougher than I would normally like, but it is very pretty. It’s been a few years since we have done it so I thought we should come check it out again.

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The Upper Waterfall

Quick Details:

Length: 1.7 miles out and back.
Difficulty: DR4. This is a sandy trail along some steep slopes with some sketchy creek crossings.
Elevation Gain: about 460 feet.
Restroom: No. You would probably need to find a gas station.
Dogs? Yes, leashed.

To Get Here:

Take the Parrish St exit from i15. Follow it east as far as it goes, then take a slight left to continue up the narrow one lane road up to a dirt parking lot. The TH is at the north end of it.

The Trail:

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Trailhead sign,

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Great view down.

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The canyon we are heading towards.

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Centerville Peak. We went partially up that trail a while ago via the Parrish Creek Trail

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Already seeing some pretty color.

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Most of the elevation is gained in the first quarter mile as you make your way up to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST).

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The BST. The trail sign points forward, that will be the Parrish Creek trail, which I believe may have been renamed, or at least nick named the Zig Zag Trail. To get to the canyon you want to go left.

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The view on the BST never disappoints, but it is exceptionally pretty during fall.

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Panoramic.

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Nice and flat after the long climb.

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Some nice color in the canyon. Hooray!

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Bright colored oak leaves.

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I hate thin trails on steep slopes, this one isn’t as bad as some, but it did make me a little nervous.

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Some nice color.

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Little tree tunnel.

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Leaf littered hillside.

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Lone maple leaf.

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Bridge over Parrish Creek.

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Particularly pretty tree.

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Looking downstream.

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The thin trail heading up into the canyon. The city of Centerville used to have a trail sign here, but it has since been removed.

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Landslide section.

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The first little waterfall.

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Little closer.

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Looking down canyon there is some amazing color.

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The climb up above the waterfall is a little gnarly, but not too bad.

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Really getting into the narrow canyon.

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It didn’t turn out too great but the creek flowing over solid rock here is neat.

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Messy hillside.

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More color.

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I love the leaves in the creek.

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Looking back down the narrow canyon.

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Pretty tree.

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Pretty little trees.

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Looking up canyon.

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Tiny waterfall.

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Just above the tiny waterfall is a neat panel of pictographs.

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Forest service sign. Basically it asks not to touch the rock art, and that it is illegal to. Please don’t be that person that ruins it for everybody else.

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Some detail shots.

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The whole panel again.

So, I mean, it is no McConkie Ranch but it is still absolutely fascinating and cool to be able to something like this so close by.

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Looking down canyon.

We decided to keep going. The already somewhat difficult trail gets even more difficult from here.

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Crossing the creek.

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Couple of small cascades.

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The trail is really thin through here.

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Tall tree in a narrow canyon.

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Cool natural slide. We had a little trouble getting across here because the other side is super steep. However, we managed.

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More pretty color.

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We had a little trouble following the trail through here with all the leaves all over the ground.

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But there is some great color back here.

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What in the world?

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Oh, there is the rest of it. Looks like a mountain lion got a deer here. There isn’t any meat left so I am not terribly concerned, but, still keeping my eyes open just in case.

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The upper waterfall is a beautiful twin waterfall.

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Some more pretty color.

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Back to the waterfall.

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Little drip under the alcove.

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The trail continues up above the upper waterfall, but I am not sure how much further it goes. We decided to turn around here.

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Another pretty tree.

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Another littered hillside.

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Back to the waterfall.

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The creek.

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Waterfall and creek.

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Bright color.

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Thin trail along the hillside.

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Looking down canyon.

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Bright willows.

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Lower crossing.

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Bright tree.

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Back down to the pictographs. I felt like if we had hung around for another half hour or so the sun would have been on them, but we didn’t want to sit around doing nothing.

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The little waterfall below the rock art.

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Neat little wash. It reminded us of sandstone slot canyons like Jenny’s Canyon in Snow Canyon State Park.

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Big wasps nest.

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Nice color on the hillside.

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Nice color.

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Closeup on the leaves.

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Looking up.

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More leaves.

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More color.

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Back to the lower waterfall.

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Back down to the bridge on the BST.

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View from the bridge.

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Nice little tree tunnel.

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View down canyon.

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View down again.

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The trail split again. Right gets us back to the TH.

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View down.

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TH Parking.

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Centerville Peak.

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The narrow road leading to the parking lot (PSP). There are pull outs on the side, but there is really only room for 1 car on the road. We’ve never had a conflict and needed to use a pull out though.

This trail is a little tougher, and a little sketchier than I normally like but I really enjoy the sights it offers. 2 decent waterfalls, and a bonus small waterfall and the wonderful surprise of pictographs on a trail that isn’t too far from the city. Bonus great fall colors this time of year. It’s also not a popular trail. We only saw people along the BST, none up in the canyon. I will take one squirrel for overall thin and steep trail. Going with 9 out of 10 squirrels.

9 squirrels

As for difficulty, this trail is thin, and on steep slopes, rocky, and had some sketchy creek crossings. DR4.

Dogs are allowed but must remain on a leash. Please clean up after your furry friend.

Copy of Copy of dogsyes

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