Rock Canyon to Campground Hike

Any questions as to why this canyon is called Rock Canyon? Not anymore!

When a climber yells “ROCK”, do you know what you should do? Go into the wall and that is not what I did. When my son was climbing and yelled “ROCK”, I looked UP. Yep! I felt like I was a safe distance from the rock wall and did not figure in the fact that when a rock is dislodged by a climber it bounces off the wall and the trajectory changes. In this case, it shot right towards me and hit me square between the eyes cutting my nose open. The moral of the story is to cover your head, go into the wall and do NOT look up when you hear someone yell “ROCK”.

Rock Canyon is known for the many easy to access climbing routes that are available a short distance from the city. It is a high use canyon as it sits just minutes from two local university campuses. But don’t let this deter you.

Living in the area since 2006 I had never before ventured past a mile or so up the canyon. What a mistake that was!

As we headed out to hike to the campground, I honestly had small expectations for this hike. We needed to get some miles in and this was a convenient hike so we chose it. I am so glad we did.

The hike starts up a road past the gate at Rock Canyon Trailhead Park. We like to stay to the right at the split on our way up to the second gate. As you approach the second gate, look to the right on the rock slab and you may see people crack climbing or climbing the face. It is impressive to watch.

Head through the second gate where the trail narrows. Please be aware that this trail is rocky 90% of the way. It starts out as scree, but turns to loose rocks for most of the 3.1 miles. As you continue up the trail you will find a drinking fountain at roughly .8 miles in. Feel free to drink the water and your pup can also drink at the bottom. Yes, this is a dog friendly hike so bring your pup along.

About a mile into the hike you will cross your first of five bridges. This is where the hike starts to shine. I am glad I had my hiking poles to help me navigate the rocky trail more sure-footedly (if that is even a word :).

This hike is also the beginning to the Squaw Peak trail and hikers get confused at this point. Right after the fifth bridge there is a spur trail to the left.  Just FYI, this is not the way to Squaw Peak. Keep hiking on the main trail to the next trail on your left. It will have a large cairn marker and just after turning left you will see someone has scribbled Squaw Peak on a large rock. For our hike today, do not turn left, but stay on the main trail. We will leave Squaw Peak for another day.

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At this point, evening showers began and it felt so refreshing and cool. We decided to continue hiking through the rain. We started our hike at 6:30 pm and missed much of the normal canyon traffic. Just as I was needing another drink, we rounded the corner and to our surprise, found a second water fountain at mile 2. We really didn’t NEED to carry as much water on this hike because of the drinking fountains installed along the way. Thank you Provo City!

The trail continues and eventually starts to wind to the left then back to the right. When it begins to turn back to the right you know that you are almost to a beautiful overlook.

You will know it when you get there. It is a beautiful view further up into the canyon and just before that is a beautiful view down canyon.

We were going to turn around at this point (due to having a child that insists he was ready to go back), but we marched onward. Not really knowing exactly where we were headed we continued. The trail was green and beautiful in the spring. We finally reached a point where we decided it was time to turn back. My watch read 3.1 miles at this point.

As we were headed back to the car a long distance runner stopped to visit and apparently he estimates we were only .05 miles from the campground when we turned around. He was from Chicago and told us it was the most beautiful view he had ever seen. But the sunset on the way down was beautiful too.

Ugh! Isn’t that how it goes sometimes? We decided it gives us an excuse to head back up to do this hike again. Moral? Don’t stop until you get to the large campground or you may miss out on gorgeous views.

This is a moderate hike that is 6.2 (or maybe a touch longer to the campground) round trip. the trail is loose rock most of the way. Take at least one water bottle and you can refill at mile .8 and 2. I highly recommend trekking poles for anyone with knee or stability problems. If raining, please know that the rock gets very slippery. This hike took us 2.5 hours at a pace of 2.1 miles per hour. The elevations gain was about 1709 feet.

As always, Happy Hiking!

Carri