Bull Valley Gorge/Willis Creek Loop

The variety of day trips one can do from Cedar City is incredible. A couple of weeks ago I was scrambling up one of the most prominent desert peaks in the Great Basin, this week I weaved my way through a couple of legendary slot canyons on the Colorado Plateau.
Finding the Bull Valley slot is easy: you drive right over it! Above: view down into the slot from the Bull Valley bridge. If you blink while driving by, you'll miss the entire canyon.
The upper part of the slot has some very nice textures in the Navajo Sandstone.

Navigation is simple, there are just a few tricky chokestones and log jams you have to climb down.

Above: the morning sun finding its way to the bottom of the canyon.
The Bull Valley Bridge is certainly one of the most unique bridges you will ever see. The arrows in these photos are pointing to a pickup truck lodged in the top of the slot beneath the bridge. The original Bull Valley bridge was constructed in the 1940s of logs and planks that spanned the 3- to 5-foot-wide gorge. Sometime on October 14th 1954, three men driving the pickup slid off of the narrow wooden bridge and fell nearly 50 feet before the gorge narrowed, crushing the cab and its occupants instantly. Two of the bodies remained in the cab while the third fell nearly 200 feet to the bottom of the chasm. Apparently, it was a pretty harrowing experience for the recovery team, dangling from ropes, to recover the bodies that remained in the vehicle. The sandwiched truck wasn't going anywhere and they needed to build a safer bridge, so the decision was made to simply bulldoze large boulders, logs, and dirt down into the slot on top of the truck for the new bridge.

Above: closeup of the smashed truck where 3 people died. Below: looking down at the narrow Bull Valley Bridge today.
Below: I don't know the story behind this motorcycle that has been washed down 100 yards from the bridge.

The best part of the canyon is near the bridge. Very deep, very narrow.
Above: there is no obvious exit at times in this twisty slot.

The lower portion of the canyon is no less spectacular, just different. The gorge deepens, opens up a bit and alpine fir trees make an appearance.


At the bottom of Bull Valley Gorge, you head north up Sheep Creek which has massive sheer cliffs of Navajo - sort of a mini Zion Canyon.
After a few miles of slogging up Sheep Creek, you take another turn up the watery Willis Creek.
The small stream was still icy in the shady spots.


Above: rocky sentinels guarding the way up Willis Creek

Willis Creek narrows are not quite as narrow and not nearly as deep as Bull Valley, but the sculpted, water-worn walls are quite photogenic.

A short, but mandatory bike ride closed out this fantastic loop. Final numbers: 13 mile hike, 2.5 mile bike ride. Total hike/bike time: 6 hours.

Notch Peak

The prominent half-peak or "notch" visible in the horizon in the above photo is recognizable from nearly anywhere in Utah's west-central desert near Delta. There are taller peaks in western Utah, but I can guarantee that none are as imposing as the north face of Notch Peak, the second highest peak in the House Range (Swasey Peak to the north beats it by about 23 feet).
In order to bike/climb to the top of Notch in one day, I had to get an early start. The sun was coming up just as I passed through Delta and was entering the heart of the Sevier Desert.

Wanting a little more of a challenge, I passed the traditional trailhead up Sawtooth Canyon and opted to park at the mouth of North Canyon and bike up through Amasa Valley. After about 5 miles of pedaling with a gain of nearly 2000 feet, the salty sage-covered flats of the desert gave way to a surprisingly alpine Amasa Valley.
The high point in the photo above is Pine Peak. This is where I ditched my bike and began to ridge walk toward Notch Peak. Amasa Valley is filled with cliffs and boulders of granite - part of a massive Jurassic-aged pluton.

Nearly anywhere you find a granitic magma intruding into limestone, you find mining districts, and Amasa Valley is no different. You can clearly see the light-colored mineralized vein that the miners were chasing after in the above photo. I would have liked to explore the adit a bit, but I had a Halloween party I had to get home to. Maybe next time.
NOTE: you have to click on the some of the pictures below to get a bigger image and to get a better idea of the scale of some of these cliffs.
The gently sloping east side of the house range gives little indication of the shockingly steep and rugged west side of the range that comes into view once you reach the summit ridge. You basically have to make your way for 3-4 miles along this ridge with a 2000-foot drop to one side.
Above: The full north face of Notch Peak first comes into view about 1/2 mile from the top.
Above: you're looking at nearly 3000 feet of Cambrian and Ordovician limestone that compose Notch Peak. This may be the biggest limestone cliff in the U.S.
Twisted bristlecone pines are a constant companion along the summit ridge.
View from the top of the 9654-foot-high summit.
Above: view to the SW into southern Tule Valley.
Above: Looking north along the rugged west side of the House Range.

Final numbers (round trip): 18 mile/3600' vertical gain bike; 4.3 mile 1500' hike. It took 4 hours to get to the top and about 6.5 hours round trip from the mouth of North Canyon.

The video below gives you an idea of how windy it was on top, and a view down the north face at the end.