Temple Quarry Trail

 
At the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon is a very short, paved trail system that has a bunch of informative signs to give you a little insight to the history. This is where they quarried the granite into the stones for the Salt Lake Temple.

A couple of weeks ago we hiked the Granite Trailhead to Lower Bell Reservoir and saw tons of split rocks and some with what appeared to be drill markings in them all over that trail. At first I was confused, but after thinking about it I remembered that the quarry was not far from there, and figured it was probably related. So I decided to come check it out to see if I was right.

Quick Details:

Length: .3 Miles
Difficulty: DR2 Easy Peasy. Paved
Elevation Gain: Negligible. 10 feet?

To get here head towards Little Cottonwood Canyon. If taking 90th, pass Wasatch BLVD, and continue up hill. Just before the stop sign that goes up in the canyon is a very small road on the right hand side. If you come from the other direction, turn right at the stop sign just before the canyon, and immediately turn left onto the small road. there is a small parking lot.

The first thing that strikes you is the towering cliffs above you. Normally, you are doing, oh what is the speed limit in the canyon, 35, 40ish? so not exactly best conditions for getting a picture.

Thin waterfall running down the cliffs.

Something caught my eye so I took a thin side trail and found this old spillway.

Okay, I know we had a lame winter, but seriously the creek shouldn’t be bone dry!

Some more of the spillway.

From above. A nearby sign informs us this was an old dam for an old power plant. It also explained the creek is dry here because it has been diverted up-stream for a newer power plant. Huh. Growing up not far from here you’d think I would know that.

Landis perched upon a large boulder, which has a drill hole.

I decided to join him up there and WOW! What a great view! Perfect U shaped canyon opening.

And a great view the other way up as well.

I decided to crawl down to see the other side of the old dam.

And the bottom of the giant boulder. Here is some evidence of quarrying finally! Some drill holes. Looks like they were unsuccessful with this big one, not for lack of trying.

Another look up canyon.

Towards the end of the paved loop there was a definitely beaten dirt trail. Not too far down we found this old building.

Open window on the side…

WHOA!!! Neat! and old turbine!

And here are the old buckets. This is pretty fascinating.

Old spillway.

Some wildflowers.

The other side of the canyon.

Well we headed back down the other side of the loop and didn’t see much more. Uhm.. what gives? Don’t get me wrong there were quite a few things of interest here, but, uh, it’s the Temple Quarry Trail, where is the quarry stuff?

Decided to look at the map a little closer. Ok, we missed that swoop in the middle at the bottom of the stairs, and the one on the right. And what is that back trail?

Ok. here we go. Starting to see some squared stones.

And some split stones, with signs of drilling.

Which was a bit more labor intensive than I originally imagined.

They didn’t have to go very deep, or probably didn’t want to.

Well I am glad to finally find some solid answers to my theory! Now we decided to check out the non paved back trail.

Nice shot of the empty stream bed.

Ok. The map said there was a bridge, there is no bridge. Not sure if it is out of date and they have since been torn down, or if that is a future plan?

After looking at the map again I have learned you should actually look at the legend and not assume.. haha. What I assumed was “non paved trail” was actually proposed trail. So, maybe there is an unpaved trail back there, maybe there isn’t but it is planned to be added one day. In my defense, there was a dirt trail across from the swoop, leading down to the river bed.

View down stream. We tried to stumble up the stream bed, looking for signs of the trail with no luck. So we decided to go down the other (western) arm of the paved trail.

View of the north side of the canyon again.

The main quarry monument. Doh!

A couple more rocks.

I feel like there are more examples of quarrying on the Granite Trail than there were on this one. I do appreciate the informative signs, but I was left feeling a little.. meh. Actually I was more interested in the old power stations than I was the stones. Perhaps there are more back in the proposed section. Either way, it is neat, short at 3/10th of a mile, very family friendly, interesting, and of course pretty. Worth checking out if you have an extra half hour or so. A solid 8 out of 10 squirrels. Learn from my mistake, ignore the middle entrance and the stairs, use either other entrance and exit the other side, and don’t miss the quick little side arm at the base of the stairs.

Difficulty: I’m going with a DR2. It’s short, completely paved. There are some stairs at the middle entrance, but I found you can bypass them by ignoring the middle entrance.

Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed, so dogs are not allowed. Yea, the water is diverted further up-stream so I suppose there is a slight chance there is an exception here, but I didn’t see any signs supporting that, and honestly wouldn’t risk it myself unless I found out for sure. So still marking it no.

Mule Hollow

Due to all of the rain recently, I started feeling a little cooped up. So with a break in the clouds I decided to just go do something. So, my plan today consisted of doing a couple quick stops in Big Cottonwood Canyon. And well, while trying to locate a particular vantage point I stumbled upon this unmarked trail. I only learned of it’s name after we got home and did some research. It is a steep, STEEP trail that crosses the stream quite a few times. Which I guess normally probably isn’t a big deal but we went after a large storm so it was pretty swollen. I’m not sure how far we went today, but I did learn there are several mines near the top between 2 and 3 miles up.

To get here drive 3.1 miles up Big Cottonwood Canyon, pass the Storm Mountain picnic area, and the cut in the rock right after it, and turn left into the small dirt parking lot.

Our first stop was the quartzite mound just above the Storm Mountain picnic area. Looking down canyon towards that.

Looking up canyon. You can see the pull out for Mule Hollow on the left there.

And the trail head. Like I mentioned I really just intended on running up a little ways to see what was up here, and well, we just kept going.

Nice little stream.

Which the trail follows for the most part.

First stream crossing, this one wasn’t too bad.

The first of a few primitive campsites.

Landslide section.

The stream is pretty.

Navigating another crossing.

Getting into the thick wilderness.

Another campsite.

I believe this is Storm Mountain.

Nice and green up here right now.

Really now? How am I supposed to cross here? Well.. we managed.

Little bit of water on this part of the trail. Another landslide on the right.

The stream again.

Vegetation getting pretty thick again.

Storm mountain again.

Pretty yellow flowers.

Some.. strange insect on these flowers.

Nice little cascade.

Eek. The trail is really wet here.

Nice and green.

Pretty flowering tree.

This part of the trail was flowing with water.

Oh, it’s a spring.

Pretty forest.

Another shot of the creek.

It’s really green up here.

Storm over.. Storm Mountain.

I didn’t know what might be up this trail and really didn’t like putting all that effort in for nothing, but it was starting to rain so we turned back.

Pretty forest.

Water flowing over a rock.

I learned today that is is a lot harder to go down a wet trail than up. It’s harder to judge a good sturdy place to step.

Some other obstacles to get around.

I like this view of the mountains.

Log dam.

Okay this one is my favorite shot of the day.

And I am fairy certain this is looking into Stairs Gulch. Another great hike.

Fairly long stream crossing.

This really makes me angry. Why do idiots feel the need to tag pretty areas?

More green woods.

Another primitive campsite.

Back to the larger landslide area. I just love the way the trails look through these as they all slowly flatten down and turn into almost a cobblestone path.

Storm Mountain behind a large rock ridge.

The stream rushing towards Big Cottonwood Creek.

And the parking lot sure cleared out.

That was a tough hike! Seriously UPhill with a lot of obstacles including several creek crossings. My pedometer app, which is usually seems pretty accurate put us at a half mile up today. I am certain we did more than that, however it was steep so maybe the extra work made it seem longer. Not sure. But we didn’t make it to the mines either. I’m not gaga over mines but it would have been nice to reach something. However the views of Storm mountain were spectacular! and there were not very many people on this trail either. Not going to rate it due to not completing it, but I would probably settle on a 7.

As for difficulty, well this is going up to a DR5 it was really steep, and my legs are still kind of barking at me. Plus with all the obstacles, it almost felt like the trail was doing everything it could to keep you from going up.

Big Cottonwood Canyon is Watershed so dogs are not allowed.