Ashdown Gorge with Kids

I've now completed the entire 11.5-mile Rattlesnake Creek - Ashdown Gorge hike four times. There aren't many hikes I like to repeat, but this one is too good to resist and I want everyone to experience its wonders. I'm always amazed at how many southern Utahns have yet to step foot into the Ashdown Gorge Wilderness Area. Many have day-hiked up from the bottom (from HWY 14) a few miles, but you miss a lot of the great variety the entire top-down route (from Cedar Breaks) has to offer. High tundra-like meadows, aspen forests, sculpted watery narrows, waterfalls, this hike has it all.

I've longed for the day I could take my entire family through the gorge. With my youngest recently turning six, I was confident he could make it through if we took two days and hiked at an easy pace. Here are my favorite pics from the trip completed back in mid-August:

Ava (left) and Zoe at the Cedar Breaks overlook at 10,400 feet.

Open meadow at about 9500 feet. Although dark clouds threatened throughout much of day 1, we only got sprinkled on once for about 10 minutes.

Crossing Rattlesnake Creek.

First view into Ashdown Gorge from the trail.

Trail intersection at Ashdown Creek. We set up camp here just up out of the creek on a flat at 7500 feet.

Top of Ashdown Creek narrows. Within a few hundred yards of entering the gorge, walls of Cretaceous-age Straight Cliffs sandstone rise abruptly to block much of the sky.

Ava traverses a flood terrace below the largest of several impressive undercuts in the sandstone.

Walking sticks will help most with the challenging footing that exits throughout most of the gorge.

Spalling of thin sandstone plates occurs along many of the canyon walls in Ashdown Gorge. The spalling results from stress relief that arises as laterally confining sandstone is removed during the canyon-deepening process.

Here is a great example of how huge floods in narrow canyons can change things in an instant. I took the above photo in Lake Creek Canyon in 2009 where there used to be a wide, photogenic waterfall with a ladder that allowed you to proceed up the canyon. Below is how the canyon looks today. Sometime in the past few years, a large flood came rumbling down the canyon and completed filled the waterfall with debris! You now walk right over the waterfall as if it was never there.