Things to Do In Ogden: Hidden Valley Trail

A couple weeks ago my father and mother flew into town from Texas to visit.  My father particularly wanted to go hiking.  Our initial plans called for a hike up Mt. Nebo in Utah County.  Snow levels were an issue so we decided on an unfamiliar local trail...The Hidden Valley Trail.

Our adventure began at the top of 22nd Street.  There is a parking lot and trail head that makes for an easy start.  Above is the trail marker and my father.  The trail to Hidden Valley is a turn off of the more popular Indian Trail.  Finding it is a trick though.  According to information I found on the web, the turn off is about a half mile up the trail and the turnoff is marked by a rock with the trail name on it.  Well, we found that rock.  The rock nor the trail was very obvious at all.  Somebody wrote on a non-descript rock with lipstick.  Just so you don't miss it,  I have taken this photo for you.  Click to enlarge.

Once we made the turn the trail got steep very quickly.  However, it was beautiful. The leaves were at the peak in color changes and the temperatures were perfect.

The trail turns up a canyon that doesn't look like much from the valley floor but once you are there you get a feel for the magnitude and scale of the mountain.  It was a highly vegetated trail which also made it interesting to hike.

Soon Mt. Ogden peak appeared.  Just the right mix of clouds, sky, rock and snow.

At the top of the trail is a very nice campground with an awesome view of Mt. Ogden and Taylor Canyon.  You see parts of Taylor Canyon that are hard to view from the city.

This is where our real adventure began.  My father and I thought that the trail continued in a loop down to Taylor Canyon and back to the city.  We were mistaken...but not before we got to far to turn back...

After wandering onto a game trail and then pushing through scrub oak for a quarter mile we came to this precipitous drop.  It's pretty much a sheer face of granite that drops into Taylor Canyon.  We didn't want to brave going down this so we pushed further east along the top of this rocky feature until we came to a creek bed at the upper reaches of Taylor Canyon.

The creek provided us with relief from the scrub oak since I lacerated most of my foreams and some of my face by pushing through the thick hardwood vegetation. 




One of the really weird features was that we kept finding deer hair in the creek.  It was everywhere and in big clumps.  We couldn't figure out what this was or how it got there.  Finally, as we headed down the creek bed we heard some noise.  There, lurking on the other side of a giant bolder we found this....

These two persistent fellahs shot this dear early in the morning at the top of the mountain and had been hauling it for over 8 hours down the same trail we had taken .  We need to give them an award for tenacity.  Notice the bald patches on the dear?

Eventually, we got on the main trail and headed out of Taylor Canyon back to the Bonneville Shoreline trail.  It was certainly an adventure.

The best part of these hikes is that they are just moments from the city.  In fact, housing is just a few hundred yards away from the shoreline trail.  Yet it feels like a separate place away from civilization.

Our final view was of the city in full fall colors and a great glimps of the skyline of Downtown.

Its Great to Live in Ogden!