Kayenta Gulch
near St. George
Hikers: Mark and Lecia
Easy, until you get to the boulders with a chain and steps cut into the stone. At that point it is more difficult.
We were in St. George and before coming home on Saturday we went on a hike my brother recommended. I haven't found this trail online and I don't know the name of it but we followed his directions and found the trailhead. In Ivins we pulled off on the north side of Kwavasa Drive on a dirt road on the east side of Kayenta gulch. We parked there near a water tower for construction trucks, and headed down the dirt road which turned into a trail.
The first part of the trail is mostly flat.
It runs along the empty wash bed and has lots of trees and vegetation so you don't always see the wash, but eventually you walk in the wash.
There is some interesting rock along the trail.
Then you come to a fence that forms kind of a gate.
Here's a peek at the empty wash.
Lots of different vegetation.
I was watching for rattlesnakes when a bird flew out from under the shade of a rock and really startled me! Better a bird than a rattlesnake!
There were ups and down in the trail, including these stone stairs.
At this point there was a little water in the wash.
After going underneath some pipes that run up high up at ground level there are some rocks you get to hike up. Steps are cut into the rocks and there is a chain to hang onto.
After that the trail forks. We chose left. It gets very rocky and there were a few obstacles. There were a couple of pools with water. There were lots of guppies of tadpoles swimming around in the shallower one. We had to go around the larger pool on a sandstone ledge. It was kind of tricky and made me wonder if we were on the right trail. Maybe we should have gone right at the fork.
Right after that we came to some large rocks we had to climb up. That is where I decided it might be a good idea to turn around. After all, we had to come back the same way and I was feeling like it was enough for me. Mark went up the rocks to scout it out but we decided stop there and turn around. Which meant we had to go on the sandstone ledge again to get past the pool of water. We went back the same way we came and since it wasn't a really hot day for St. George it was a pleasant hike even though we were hiking in the afternoon. We didn't see a soul the entire time!
This hike started out very easy. But eventually it became more difficult as we ran into boulders and obstacles. My brother hikes it with his family, which includes grandchildren, and they go one way and leave a car on the road at the other end. We did it out and back and since we didn't go all the way to the road we may have take a different fork than they do!
