Trails Before Dawn

The Trailhead: Take the 1600 N Orem/Lindon Exit and head east. Turn left on Skyline Drive and then right on Dry Canyon Road. 31 minutes from East Spanish Fork (my home). There are many trail options from this trailhead.  We chose a great one: Trail 051.  After a 3/4 mile steep climb turn right and switch back up to a beautiful view of Lindon/Orem.  This trail takes you South before heading further east for a spectacular view of Provo Canyon, Mount Baldy, and Timp. Trail 51 comes out at the Orem water towers.  Take the Bonneville Shoreline Trail back to Dry Canyon Trailhead. Here are some pics.  Watch the sky change as the sun comes up.

It was a beautiful morning for a run up Maple Canyon, trail 006.  This gradual uphill climb starts at the horse trailer parking lot at the mouth of Maple Canyon.  We followed the trail through Serviceberry Hollow, past Whiting Campground.  We turned around just before Dibbles Canyon.   We were privileged to have Taylor Nadauld join us this morning.  Brian led the way on the uphill, and Taylor took over on the way down.  I brought up the rear and just tried to hang on.

Getting There: Wardsworth Trailhead is 7.8 miles up Right Fork Hobble Creek Canyon. The road was closed .5 miles from the trailhead so we ran half a mile on pavement.   Shuttle: We dropped a car at Dry Fork Canyon, 1.7 miles below Wardsworth Trailhead.   Overlook Detour: We added 2.5 miles to this run by taking a detour at the top to a beautiful overlook.  It was well worth the extra distance. Starting the uphill climb!  Overlooking the back side of Maple Mountain (Spanish Fork Peak) Rusted Out Couch overlooking An old Cowboy Campfire Skull with antlers on the rusted out bench Heading down into Dry Fork - a very steep decent

I love this run.  There are many variations, with dirt roads and mountain bike trails everywhere.  We started just up the hill, north of Will's Pit Stop, ran to the top of the hill and and followed the dirt road to Pipeline trail.  We dropped down at Timpanogos Park and took the paved river trail back to the parking lot at the mouth of the canyon, East of Will's.

First Run of the Season.  It was a little slow, but a beautiful morning.  We scared a whole herd of elk who were hanging out on the Provo River Trail. They ran up a rocky mountainside, creating quite a ruckus with rocks rolling down the hill toward.  We also saw more deer than we could count. Sunrise across the valley was beautiful.