Farmington Creek: Upper Canyon to Halfway Canyon

Farmington Canyon is a pretty canyon located in Farmington. It features a creek, a few waterfalls, a cave, and some interesting car wrecks, including the really neat Bonnie and Clyde Car. The canyon is great for fall leaf peeping, but we were a little too early for that this year. We didn’t make it to the upper waterfall, or Bonnie and Clyde Car today, instead we explored the side canyon, Halfway Canyon. It was pretty neat. we have used this trail system quite a few times, but this is the first time we went up this side canyon.

Quick Details:

Length: About 2.3 miles out and back for what we did today. It’s about 1.3 miles to Bonnie and Clyde Car, 1.5 to the waterfall, and about 1.8 miles to the campground.
Trail Type: Out and back.
Difficulty: DR4 for the main trail. Its a constant climb, and for Halfway Canyon, that required a bit of scrambling and route finding.
Elevation Gain: We did about 750 today.
Restroom: No, but there is one by nearby Farmington Pond.
Dogs? Yes, leashed.
Other Info:

To Get Here:

Take the Park Ln exit from i15/hw89 and head east. Turn right on main street, turn left on 600 N (this is kind of weird, it is almost like going forward because main street curves here). Turn left on Farmington Canyon Rd. Keep right at the fork. From the fork it is about 1.4 miles up canyon to where the hairpin turn is. There is a parking lot at the elbow of that hairpin curve. Also, this is where the road goes from paved to dirt so if you find yourself driving on a dirt road, you went too far. Trail is at the NE corner of the parking lot.

Note: Farmington Canyon road is very, very narrow. Just be cautious of passing vehicles.

Heading up Farmington Canyon.  (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).

Starting to see some color (PSP).

Well, that was unexpected. A random rooster hanging out just below the trailhead.. Last time we were here there was a random bunny.

The Trail:

A couple of patches of color on the opposite hillside.

I love the striped rocks along the trail.

Short section that I really do not like. It’s a bit thinner through a sliding scree field on a steeper slope. But I have done it before, and I can do it again. I tend to just focus on the trail on try not to look down.

The other side of the canyon again.

Looking back down canyon.

Closer view of Antelope Island.

Other side of the canyon again.

Some nice splashes of color.

Little bit of down, which is where the trail gets a little bit better for a minute.

Looking up canyon.

Some more splashes of color on the other side.

Knocked over tree.

Weird little dammed pool.

The first little side stream crossing.

Pretty purple flowers.

Looking up canyon.

Some color.

Across canyon.

More flowers.

Nice patch of color.

Closer.

More color.

The little waterfall in Halfway Canyon.

Closer.

View down canyon.

Up canyon.

I have done this trail quite a few times, but for some reason today, I was struggling with the steep slope. I kept trying to tell myself, you’ve done this before, it’s fine, but, as I have mentioned to is no reasoning with the lizard brain. I could have tried taking a break, which usually helps. But, I decided to go back down to Halfway Canyon and explore it some more. I suspected there might be a bigger waterfall back there.

View down again.

Pretty flowers.

Fall colors.

Aww, a wee little snake!

Back to Halfway Canyon, after a short scramble up you can see the 5th car that I found along this trail system above a smaller waterfall. We are about to discover quite a few more.

That uh, graffiti is new.

From a little higher up.

Neat little tire waterfall.

Front of the car. This was a Jeep Cherokee.

Another small waterfall.

This side canyon is quite narrow, and rocky. Finding a route up was a bit of a challenge.

Some color.

Small cascade.

Small boulder field we had to traverse.

Another small cascade. This side canyon is quite overgrown.

Another tire.

I was having a lot of trouble trying to work out what we were looking at here, until Landis put together that it was a newspaper box.

More tires.

Pile of parts.

Two newly discovered cars and a random collection of tires.

So I tried to do some research about all the cars up here, and wasn’t having a ton of luck. So I was leaning towards people pushing old cars off of the cliffs above. A reader has since pointed me to some older news articles. Sadly, at least a few of these were horrific accidents, plunging from Skyline Drive above. When I was a teenager a friend drove me up that road. I was absolutely terrified the entire way. I don’t think I would ever do it again. Particularly knowing what I know now.

Closer.

This one is being retaken by nature.

Tire strewn waterfall.

Couple more cars.

Newly discovered car #5? This one looks a little more modern.

Another angle.

Scooter.

Another car. 6 I think.

A fridge? Yeah, I think a fridge.

Halfway Creek.

Note: be careful up here. A couple rocks started tumbling down the cliffs around us, which I later determined must be due to a car going up the road above. Thankfully it only happened the one time, but it was a little scary. A helmet might be recommended to explore this side canyon.

Well, this appears to be the end of the line. Never did find a larger waterfall that I was hoping would be back here. Maybe with some bushwhacking and more willingness to walk through the creek you might be able to go a little further, but I can’t imagine much further.

Back to car #6.

Car #5.

 4 and 3. Although now I think 4 and 6 might be the same car, just split.

#2 from the back.

#1 and #2 plus a pair of fridges.

As I mentioned, I have found a few articles that tell of some deadly accidents up here. But some of the other stuff up here is obviously just “pushing things over cliffs is funny” or something like that.

Car #1.

#2. I like how nature is reclaiming this one.

The creek again.

Root ball of a big fallen tree.

Couple of smaller waterfalls.

This rock kind of looks like a turtles head.

This car was not part of todays count, as it is part of the original 5 I already discovered. So today we discovered 5 or 6 additional cars which puts the total (so far) to 10 - 11. That is a lot of wrecked cars for a small canyon system! However, as I mentioned, the road above is super thin, windy, and scary.

Original car #5 again.

With the waterfall.

I’m a little torn on this. Obviously when there is a horrific accident they come in and recover the victims, but they don’t seem to use any resources to recover the vehicles (which obviously are just going to go to the scrap yard anyway). Farmington Creek is not watershed, so it isn’t hurting any drinking water, however it is still garbage. But, on the other hand, I find them fascinating so I donno. I definitely have a lot more respect for them knowing at least some of them were results of horrible accidents, but they are still neat.

If you like the random cars on trails, I can recommend Corner Canyon, and Middle Canyon for a couple more places to find them.

Back to the lower waterfall on the main Farmington Canyon Trail.

Fun cliff walls.

Starting to change.

Lovely forest.

More color.

Forest.

More pretty reds.

View across the canyon.

More forest.

View down canyon.

The first little side stream.

Ferns.

Across canyon again.

View out again.

With Farmington Cave.

The steeper landslide area. I hate it, but I can manage through.

I just love the twisted striping in the rocks up here.

Farmington Cave. It has changed quite a bit from the first time we visited with the front face and horns breaking off.

It’s a small cave, and an obvious teenager hangout.

Looking out.

Across canyon again.

Storm clouds.

The hairpin turn on the scary Skyline/Farmington Canyon Road.

I haven’t been above this in 20+ years, and don’t plan to change that anytime.

Heading down the canyon road (PSP).

Fun clouds above Antelope Island (PSP).

Swirl of clouds (PSP).

Well, we made some adjustments to our original plan, and sought a waterfall. Instead we found 5 - 6 additional car wrecks. The trail wasn’t too busy either. So it was a nice experience, just not as much fall color as I was hoping for. Still, it was a fun experience. Going with  9 out of 10 squirrels today.

As for difficulty, The main Farmington Canyon Trail is a long hard climb up, so DR4. The Halfway Canyon trail was a bit steeper with some scrambling, and waymarking. Also DR4.

Dogs are allowed, but must remain leashed.