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This year a new trail was added to Providence Canyon, Providence UT. We walked it earlier in the week and today I mountain biked it. The trail is fantastic for hiking or mountain biking. It has multiple wooden bridges and the first half of the trail follows the stream. It is very windy and has many scenic views. There is about 1200 elevation climb and the trail mostly sticks to the north facing (shady) side of the canyon. My GPS recorded 5.4 miles on the round trip (for the single track part). For mountain biking it is probably medium to difficult (in a few sections) in terms of technical difficulty. It is a fun descent with a number of places to duck under a tree or twist around a rock.
I don't know who did the design layout of the trail, but they did a good job in planning the designated pathway. The Utah CC did a good job in constructing the trail by preserving the vegetation on both the sides of the trail and removing major rocks from the soil.
Up higher you will notice severe erosion which occurred on the Spring Creek drainage spring/summer 2011. In a number of places the creek jumped the bank or severely cut it. The erosion was due to extreme snow-pack (almost double normal).
The canyon road can be busy at times with motorcycles, hunters, atvs, and trucks, thus making a separate hiking/biking trail valuable and increasing safety. The trail will be a great resource to the local community as it matures.
Erosion up higher |