Longboarding Coal Creek | Cedar City Path and Skatepark
While travelling west we spent some time in Cedar City, Utah. This was a fun area to spend some time in and is a gateway to many recreational opportunities! Cedar City also has a nice paved path that runs the entire length of the city that passes several parks and leads to a skatepark so naturally, longboarding Coal Creek Trail was a must do.
Quick Info for Longboarding Coal Creek Trail
Distance: 3.4 miles one way
Surface Type: Asphalt
Directions: The trail starts on E Center St (SR 14) 1 mile north of Canyon Park West Side. There is a parking area along the south side of the road. If you made it to the Red Hollow Hike then you went too far. (But for those of you who also enjoy hiking, the Red Hollow Hike is a great hike, too)
Cross the foot bridge and take the trail left. This trail is headed slightly uphill past the bathrooms and to the top of the hill, where the pavement ends into dirt.
This is the top of the hill and the start of the entire length of the path.
And It Begins: Longboarding Coal Creek Trail
We began this trail at the top of the hill, the very start of the trail. The hill is not huge, but there is a sign indicating that the slope does exceeds 5%. The narrowness of the paved path allows you to build up a decent amount of speed down the path.
As you’re longboarding Coal Creek Trail don’t forget to enjoy the beautiful surrounding mountain and canyon views. From the beginning, the trail runs parallel with Coal Creek for a little while.
The path is mostly smooth asphalt with some cement sections. There are a number of cracks in the asphalt that have been repaired with tar. You won’t have a problem coasting over most of them, but there may be 1 or 2 that can stop a longboard.
While longboarding on Coal Creek Trail you’ll most likely see some other people enjoying the path, but the traffic was far and few on our cruise.
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There are several workout stations along this trail as well as multiple playground/parks. We took advantage of the workout stations and playgrounds along the way!
The path is both up hill, downhill, and flat so there is plenty of kicking and cruising.
The first park is about a mile in. There is a downhill transition to the park which connects to the sidewalk via a small intersection. Following the hill into the turn was pretty fun but the transition to the sidewalk was a bit sketchy.
There are several parks and playgrounds along the trail. But we noticed that the first park we encountered has the largest playground of them all.
After this first park, the path crosses the river and makes a big loop that takes you under the bridge so you can avoid traffic on the roads.
This loop takes you past a separate park and the second playground, before you enter a tunnel and go under the bridge.
The path continues and eventually makes it to yet another park. The trail splits at this park and we went right towards a large looking playground but the trail ends in the grass. It looked like the playground had a zip-line, but it was broke when we were here.
We headed back to the fork and continued along the main path. We passed a couple more parks along the way. Some had baseball fields and playgrounds and some had workout stations.
And The Skatepark At The End!
We ended our session at the Cedar City Exit 59 Skate Park. Which was awesome because we didn’t even know there was a skate park near here! We had some fun cruising around at the skate park and met some cool people.
The Coal Creek Trail continued even further into Cedar City but this is where we headed back. From where we started to this point was just over 3 miles. And then we longboarded back to the beginning of the trail, making it about 6.5 miles roundtrip.
I really like how the city put this path in allowing you to longboard/commute around the city while avoiding most traffic and streets. This path is fun because of the variation; uphill and down, turns, tunnels and fun places to stop along the way.
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2 Comments
Monty Fielding
I see it’s been a few years since this entry. I’m not sure if you are aware, but there is much more to the trail than what you rode. If you turn south at the Canyon Park fork (left turn just before the first playground) the trail goes about 2.5 miles south. If you start at the south end of this trail, you can ride a little over 4.5 miles to the skatepark. It’s mostly downhill from south to north. Some parts of the trail are steep enough to hit well over 30 mph, even though the trail has a 20 mph speed limit sign. 😀 The trailhead is east across the street from the Maverik at the south end of town.
There is also another ~1 mile stretch west of Walmart on Cross Hollow Rd. This one is almost entirely mellow downhill.
On top of that, The old skatepark was replaced with a new ARC prefab park in October of 2023.
Hope you get another chance to visit.
Lost Coast Longboarding
Hey Monty,
Thanks for the comment and for the info, That extra bit will surely add to the adventure! We’ll have to check out the new prefab park and the rest of the trail next time we’re in Cedar City. We don’t have any plans to head that way in the near future, but maybe I can send you an email and we can skate together next time we’re in town!