Ashdown Gorge Adventure

While in the Cedar City, Utah area we found plenty of adventures to keep us busy! One of our favorite places that we were able to experience was a hike in the Ashdown Gorge Wilderness. We’re a big fan of gorges and canyons so we were excited to explore! If you’re looking for a hike with some stream hopping, towering canyon walls, cool geology and new scenery around every bend then hiking Ashdown Gorge is a must!

Quick Info: Hiking Ashdown Gorge

Distance: About 6 miles

Difficulty: Moderate; lots of stream crossings and rocky areas

Directions: From Cedar City, follow Route 14 E for about 8 miles and park at the large dirt turn out. Follow an easement down into the gorge. 

Our Experience Hiking Ashdown Gorge

From Cedar City, we drove east on Route 14 for about 8 miles and parked at a large dirt turnout. We found something like an easement to get us down from the road into the gorge. Once we were down in it, we found two or three dam structures and headed east alongside the stream. This hike was not on a defined trail, but rather involved following the stream through the gorge.

And by following, I mean criss-crossing it countless times throughout the entire hike. Initially, we decided it was hard to not get your feet wet so we took our boots off and walked through the stream.

The water was so cold and we weren’t getting anywhere fast that way, so we decided to put our boots back on.

From there, we decided to carefully choose our routes and our hops back and forth across the stream. Another method we observed a couple hikers doing was just walking through the water not trying to avoid wet feet. We weren’t that brave, the water in late October was not the good kind of refreshing.

All of the leaping, balancing and strategizing made the hike that much more unique and memorable!

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Getting creative with our route was fun and congratulating each other on a jump well executed was also a fun aspect.

We found a few vehicles that had tumbled all the way down the canyon into the gorge from the highway above.

There was a large old lumber truck, a car that was so mangled we couldn’t tell what it was, as well as an old VW van.

The gorge itself was breathtaking! The walls towered above us and the stream running through was beautiful. There seemed to always be a new obstacle, opportunity or beautiful sight at every curve of the gorge.

Eventually, the canyon started to narrow. The walls got closer together and the erosion at the bottoms of them got more apparent as the tops tapered out over our heads.

Then, the canyon opened back up and we saw a stunning monolith called “Tom’s Thumb”. Pretty neat formation!

Continuing Left at the Junction

Here marks a junction. To go right is to follow Ashdown Gorge and left is Rattlesnake Creek. This is where we went left.

From here, the creek narrows again and winds through the canyon. Then, the canyon splits again. Left is Lake Creek and right is Rattlesnake Creek. We went left here as well. After a few minutes, the stream dead ends at a waterfall! It was beautiful and created icicles on the log which the water was falling onto.

Then we turned back the way we came. The first junction that you reach on the way back that goes toward Rattlesnake Creek also leads you to a waterfall. But we did not have time because we wanted to get back before dark. We followed the stream back and got back to our vehicle right as dusk was falling.

Hiking Ashdown Gorge was an amazing adventure with a lot of excitement! The trail kept the hike engaging and the scenery along the way was stunning. If you have any questions or comments about this hike or about this area please leave them in the comment section below!

Thanks for Keeping Up With The Lost Longboarder!

If you’d like to read about some of our other adventurous experiences check out the articles below:

• Exploring the Wind Caves
• Adventure through Ding and Dang Canyons
• Hiking Picacho Peak 

Or if you’d like to read about some of the longboarding in the area check out Coal Creek, an awesome longboarding trail running the length of the city!

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