Rock Garden Trail
It's been a moment since I posted. Life is busy at these times. However, I wanted to post this hike I did with my oldest son two weeks ago! This hike is in Utah county and is called Rock Garden Trail!
This trail is on the AllTrails app and is rated as "moderate" and it is about 3 miles out and back. However, although I agree with this rating, the first quarter of the hike could be considered moderate/hard. The first 1000 ft is a climb and pretty difficult. It's also open to the sun for the first part of the hike. The above photo is my son and myself as we started up the trail. The photo below is a better view of the trail start and how it's in direct sunlight. To do this, I'd suggest not starting mid day.
The trail is rocky most of the time. Some places have high step ups onto several boulders, but they aren't too crazy.
Shortly the trail becomes shaded and in the trees! It's definitely a nicer hike at this point as you get plenty of shade most of the way up to the rock garden. There are a couple of great stop and rest points that you hit along the way. They have fire pits and sitting logs. They are great spots for camping, with the biggest problem being the lack of a water source. This means you'd need to pack water in to stay overnight. The largest spot was huge and even had a makeshift cabin in the process of being made. It was pretty cool!
We saw dozens of lizards along the way as well. They were pretty cool. I got several pictures, but in this one, if you look in the top right corner, you'll find a second lizard on the side of the log.
There were several fallen trees along the trail which was interesting and cool. This one we had to climb across it as it spanned the trail.
As we neared the rock garden destination, we could see the cities from the mountains. It was such a cool view and I attempted to capture photos to do it justice, which I don't believe I succeeded with. 😆
Finally we made it to the Rock Garden. Now this was impressive. The main reason being that ALL of these rocks couldn't have already been here. The surrounding area wasn't as rocky as the previous parts of the trail. Which suggests that people packed these in! That's freaking awesome. It is so well laid out also! The following are some pictures (again justice not served) of the garden itself.
After spending time exploring the garden, we made our way back down. On our way down we veered off on this little trail that is kind of hidden. To our surprise we found a geo cache! This was my first geo cache find ever and it was pretty sweet! Unfortunately we didnt have anything to exchange so we just left it as is.
I also tried my hand at yet another close up flower picture with my Iphone. Although I believe this is a much better one than others I have taken, I still have much to learn and perhaps need a standalone camera to capture the photo with better quality and to be able to get closer, clearer photos.
All in all this was a fun hike. Definitely worth the trek although it is one of the harder ones we have done. I'd recommend at least trying this one at least once. I will say it isn't my favorite hike thus far, but definitely worth going on at some point. It was pretty sweet!
Looks like a pretty cool hike. We are going to have to try this one day.
It was! Once you get past that first climb its pretty easy going! Make sure you have plenty of water, and there is a point where you hit a rock slide. DO NOT GO UP THAT PART! The trail is actually hidden to the left. There may or may not still be rocks stacked on that part of the trail to indicate where it is.
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