Logan Temple Quarry

Green Canyon is a great place for lots of recreation. It is only 5 minutes from the Utah State University Campus. There are several major trailheads here that will take you to Preston Valley, Logan Canyon, Beirdneau Peak, Mount Elmer, Mount Jardine, Water Canyon, and Cottonwood Canyon. Green Canyon has a Mountain Bike trail that follows the entire canyon road and is a great singletrack ride. There are lots of decent campsites in the canyon. This is a great place to spend the night or even just have a fire. The whole canyon is thin and steep surrounded by large limestone cliffs. It is very scenic. As you enter the canyon there is a paved road until you hit the nature park and pond. Once past the nature park it turns into a pretty easy gravel road. Any car could make it with care. There is a large parking area with toilets where this particular walk begins. There is also a large sign with information regarding the canyon. From the sign, hike along the dirt road. Both the cave and quarry can be almost reached by car in the summer. I went in winter when the gate was closed. It is a scenic, nice walk anyway so I would recommend walking it anyways. This would be a great hike or bike for kids as well. You will soon pass by Scout Cave on your left. It is almost impossible to miss. It is worth the very short side trip to get to. The cave is only a large cavern. The walls are covered in soot because people often have fires in the cave. Sadly there is a lot of graffiti here. The view from the cave is gorgeous. Continue on the road again until you will see the Quarry sign on the left side of the road. Leave the road here and walk above the sign on the well trod path to the quarry. This quarry is also in a really gorgeous area. There are two quarry areas. The bottom one has no slabs left. Just a whole lot of rubble. Continue up to the upper quarry. Here you can still see some stone slabs which are what they were after up here. But still there is a whole lot of rubble. To get the rock off of these huge slabs they would drill a hole and fill it with powder and then blow it until the slabs broke loose then it would be taken by oxen to be used on buildings in town. For the Logan Temple alone, 20,000 tons of stone was taken. You can see the large slabs that would break off and be taken for use. Return back the same way you came. It is a little more than a mile each way.