Red Ledges, Diamond Fork - Utah Rocks! Episode 3
Right in my metaphorical backyard,
behind the mountain I look at from my back door, and a mere 20 minute drive up paved roads, is an amazing red rock canyon chock full of adventure.Utah Rocks! back episodes: Ep. 1: Goblins and Jasper Geodes; Ep. 2: Hoodoo you think you are
Red Ledges picnic area is located on the north side of Diamond Fork Road, off US 6/ 89 just outside of Spanish Fork, UT. There is a bathroom next to the parking lot. Each picnic site includes a table with benches on a cement pad with barbecue grills. The area is day use only, NO FEE REQUIRED :)
Looking down at the parking lot from half way up the canyon
200 Million Years Old...
The mind boggles but the red sandstone exposed here (Ankareh formation) is from the upper Triassic (237 - 201 mya). Similar to the Entrada sandstone that resulted in the crazy shapes of Goblin Valley (see episode 1), the Ankareh sandstone in this area was originally deposited in a tidal flat system.
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Twisted Trees
Along with the red rocks, the other dominant landscape features are twisted Utah juniper trees.
The juniper trees are dramatic exclamation points on the skyline, somehow clinging to smooth sandstone with serpentine trunks and roots.
Keep your eyes out for prickly pear cactus, they poke out from the red dirt here and there and it is easy to miss them as you are scrambling up or down the steep trails.
Hiking
Small seeps and trickles of water have carved out a number of small side canyons, and you can hike up almost all of them. The well defined trails that lead off from the main parking lot and each of the picnic areas quickly dissolve into a jumble of paths that more or less go straight up and over the rocks.
It doesn't matter too much which trail you take, they all lead up. In a few places side trails are accessible if you have the upper body strength to hold onto straps that are dangling down and make a short scramble up a vertical smooth rock wall.
All of the trails quickly get steep. My four year old son was able to reach the top unassisted, but he is a veteran hiker and all around mountain goat - I wouldn't call these trails easy by any stretch of the imagination. You will almost certainly have to use your hands and scramble in places.
The views are worth it!
If you think you are physically capable of a short but very steep scramble, the vistas that open up almost immediately as you begin climbing are amazing!
Sandstone terraces on the bluff across from the red ledges:
Looking up Diamond Fork canyon:
@yeti-the-dog approves
Steep, you say?
I went off trail and and followed a water seep up a couple of sections of near vertical sandstone:
Near the top I had a great view straight down to the picnic table where @dillemma and @thingtwo were taking a break. Yeah, this was steep:
I followed the water seep all the way up before cutting over and descending back down one of the trails.
On this descent the trail passed through a cave / tunnel section under several huge sandstone blocks. Inside the tunnel, looking up at a window:
More to see...
Despite basically running up and down the canyon side for hours I feel like I didn't even see half the trails. There were so many lesser worn side trails branching off, and all of them led somewhere cool I am sure. We will definitely be back to keep on exploring, I am incredibly excited that it is so close to my house!
Geology sources:
http://utahgeology.com/bin/roadguides.php?hw=hw6
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0c42/614489550d82fa448c81fcf488170e8be3ea.pdf
[//]:# (!steemitworldmap 40.080391 lat -111.403243 long Red Ledges Picnic Area d3scr)
How beautiful and amazing! Thanks for taking us along!
This is going to be a regular playground for us I think, it is so close to our place and actually pretty kid friendly when you have mountain goats for children :)
reminds me of the grand canyon a bit - the twisted trees and high peaks. that lovely red sandstone hole and rooted crevice, i can just imagine how many people and critters who have crawled thru there over the centuries, maybe looking for a bit of shelter. quite evocative!
I have only flown over grand canyon (which was cool) but this was certainly amazingly evocative landscape. The hardest part about this post was narrowing down photos to post. I feel like I posted a ton and I still have a lot of "keepers" in a folder that didn't make it. Will probably do a follow up photodump post. I took some video of crawling around through some of the caves and tunnels as well (and like an idiot I tried to hold my phone in my hand while I filmed jumping down out of a cave mouth that was a higher drop than I was thinking it was, and my phone flew out of my hand... I barely managed to redirect it as it was falling to land on a dirt slope instead of just careening out over the rocks) :)
what an adventure! i'm happy you weren't stuck in a cave and that said phone didn't break! definitely do a photo dump, i know that feeling. i went on a tour and took 150 photos, and i dread trying to weed them down for a post. the vid sounds awesome, pls post!
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I love these pics Carl.
A landscape of vibrant colour, contrasting from green to red. It looks like a great place to explore, lose yourself in imaginings of fantasy plots, lost kingdoms and civilization buried in time.
I used to hike a lot as a child and that was my favourite pasttime on long walks; to turn the landscape I saw around me into stories or campaign ideas in my mind.
Nice! It's always more satisfying when you go off trail and find your own path 🙂
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RE finding your own trail - Yup :) This spot was great for that. While the fam was eating snacks at the table I was running all over the hillside, and @yeti-the-dog was doing laps up and down the hill checking in on me then running back down to check on fam :)
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Beautiful post, interesting reportage with good photographs, it conveys totally the atmosphere of this place ... and what a great landscape ... great work ...
Thanks @borjan :) If I had an actual camera there were amazing photo ops that day, two thunderstorms rolled over us with sun breaks between so we had every kind of light and clouds and blue sky and rainbows and anything else you could have wanted as a photographer
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