Stone Creek

Stone Creek Canyon is a nice forested trail that follows a creek located in Bountiful. For the first 1.5 miles it is fairly easy going with a couple climbs, and then, well, it becomes a long hard climb. This is the 3rd time we have attempted this trail, and definitely the furthest along we have ever gone, and we still did not finish it. My current feelings on the canyon are that it is more work than the reward. Still, the lower section is kind of nice to enjoy. I guess the trail eventually leads to a mine, and connects to the dirt road system in Ward Canyon.



Quick Details:

Length: A guide I found put it at 6.4 miles out and back. We did about half of that at 3.2.
Trail Type: Out and Back with connector option.
Difficulty: DR5. Long sections of steep climbs. DR3 if you stop at the 2nd bridge.
Elevation Gain: 1782 ft. We did about 800
Restroom: No.
Dogs? Yes. Not sure about leash rules though.

To Get Here:

This one of those messy, convoluted through neighborhoods routes, but here is the route: Take exit 317 in Bountiful for 400 N. Head east. Keep right at fork to stay on 400 N. Turn slightly left to stay on 400 N. (yea, 4500 north is a weird mess).  Stay on 400 n for about a mile and turn left on 1300 E. Turn right on 600 N. Turn right onto Skyline Dr. Turn right on Eagle ridge Dr. There is a short segment of dirt road to a dirt parking lot. The trailhead is at the south west corner.
Note, it is right next to the Bountiful B.



The Bountiful B. (PSP (Passenger Seat Photography) album).



The famous Utah inversion is starting up already.

The Trail:



The trail starts up here at this old dam they built up here. Not sure if they were going to build a reservoir, or something else. But anyway, this means you start by hiking down, and have to come back up at the end.





The rough winter was not kind to the road here.



Keep an eye out for the trail right where the road starts to curve. You can take the road up, for about a half mile ish? But I prefer the trail.



Well, not much autumn color left.



Uh. I knew the recent storm snowed in the mountains, but this isn’t super high elevation, so I wasn’t really anticipating snow leftover. Hrm… We might be turning around.



Teensy bit of color left on the mountains.



Bullet riddled pipe. o.O



That is uh, quite a bit more ice than I expected.



Lots of ice.



However for the most part the trail is snow free.



Hillside above.



Ice formations on sticks. I call these ice skirts.



Naked trees.



At the top of the dirt road there is some kind of water system. Kind of hard to see through the trees.



One of the couple of big boulders you will see.



Trail through the woods.



Little washout.



Starting to hit some snow on the trail.



Oooh. A nice small section of, albeit faded, autumn color.



Then some dead leaves still hanging on.



Holy crap! It is a freaking winter wonderland below!



Thinner trail through here, but it’s not too bad.



Neat looking cliff.



We have officially reached the snow. Oi. So far it’s not so bad though.



Very icy creek.



Last time we did this trail, I think this is where we crossed the creek. But, uh. That is not going to happen today and there is another trail on this side.



We had to walk through it here, but it wasn't very deep, just a little crackly.



Air bubbles under the ice.



More ice skirts and other formations.



Side canyon.



I know it was a particular cold snap, but I still can’t believe all this ice is still here.



This canyon twists and turns a little bit so there are spots that get more sun and are dryer and snow free.



Not sure if this was cut out, or if years of people hiking by slowly worked out and opening in this tree.



Big icy mess next to this pipeline.



More ice.



More of the old pipeline. You don’t often find them hanging in the air like this. Most pipelines they tried to keep along the ground.



More of the frozen creek.



Back into the snow. I really was not expecting this! We are still in our summer hiking shoes! Luckily we do have our micro spikes if they become necessary.



I was not really sure about this bridge. We ended up crossing on that flat board to the left there and didn’t have any problems.



Downstream.



Here there is a long climb up. Oi.



We could hear what sounded like a pretty decent sized waterfall, but couldn’t see it clearly.



Interesting waterfall over a boulder.



Here the canyon splits into 2. The trail appears to follow the south fork so we went that way. If there is a trail up the north fork, we didn’t see it.



More fun ice formations.



Back into the snow.



The frozen creek again.



Fun ice bulbs.



This bridge looked even more sketchy than the other. Honestly, I should have just turned back here. However Landis crossed over and it wasn’t too slippery, so I gave it a try, it wasn’t too bad. Alright, Onward!



Looking down canyon.



Now there is a LONG, steep, hard climb.





It just keeps going.



Gnarly spider cave in a moss bed. That is kind of cool!



We played “Well, lets just push up to the next boulder/next corner and see if it gets better” about 3 times. This was our last one.



And it just keeps climbing. We decided we had enough. The canyon isn’t really scenic enough to endure the work we were putting in. Plus it was getting late so we officially called it.



View down from as far up as we got.



Well, I hate that we put all that work in and are turning around, but meh.



Uhg. I sometimes wonder if going down is worse than going up.





Fun moss.



The neat spider nest again. It kind of makes me think of Shelob from Lord Of The Rings.



The boulders along the trail are kind of neat.



Gnarly tree.



I didn’t take a picture on the way up, so here it is on the way down. A helpful ribbon to tell you witch way to go. There are actually a few of these up here.



Down canyon again.



The frozen creek again.





More fun ice.



Looking down canyon.



Autumn in Utah very often looks like this.



When the pines catch the falling leaves it looks like a Christmas tree.



Winter on the left, autumn on the right.



The neat boulder waterfall again.



Naked forest.



Looking out of the canyon.



Looking up canyon. You can see where the split is up there.



Gnarly burl.



Another leaf decorated Christmas tree.



The creek again.



The lower crossing.



More of the frozen creek.



Fun rock formations above.



Colorful carpet of leaves.



The whole trail is covered in them! Which, sometimes can be a problem, because it can obscure where the actual trail is. But today wasn’t an issue with that.



I have posted a similar photo a few times, but it still amuses me, the hazards of hiking with a hiking pole this time of year.





A lot of the leaves up here have these weird spots on them. Weird. I mean, it's probably just the process of them breaking down, but it just looks weird.



The cliff below looks like a face.



Another section with leaves still hanging on.



Then some more naked.





Some reds.



The old water utility below.



Some color on the hillside above.





Some more color.



Now we just have to climb back up the road to the trailhead.



Hillside on the other side of the canyon.



Nasty inversion again.



The Bountiful B again (PSP).

Well, we made it quite a bit further up along this trail than we have before, and I still just don’t love it. It would probably be excellent during prime autumn color, or maybe even in spring, but I don’t know, it’s just not my favorite hike. It is quiet though, not a lot of people on the trail. And the ice formations were pretty neat too. I think overall I am going to go with a 6 out out of 10 squirrels. It just seemed to be more work than reward.



As for difficulty, if you stay below the upper bridge, I would say it’s a good DR3. If you push up beyond the bridge I would bump it up to a DR5.

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