Spawn Creek Trail Out and Back

This trail starts at the parking area right off the highway. There is a vault toilet area in the parking area. For good parts of the year the gravel road is closed with a gate to prevent motorized travel. When motorized travel is permitted, you can drive right to the trailhead and get to singletrack, otherwise you are on a gravel road for the first 1.25 and last 1.25 miles of the route.You start by heading past the trailhead for Temple Fork Sawmill, which is another good trail, and you'll see the trailhead for Spawn Creek past another parking area with a vault toilet. This trail quickly turns to singletrack which can become quite muddy at times. After hiking a total of 2 miles, you get to a point where you have to cross the creek. This can be accomplished with a quick splash through the water which is usually shallow in this area or you can go right and come across a small bridge. After this point, the trail becomes a bit trickier. The trail begins to climb and the last half mile is filled with rocks, downed trees, and several very muddy sections.There are several beaver ponds in the area, which account for the downed trees. Depending on the time of year there are great views of fall colors or wildflowers. There is always a nice view of the mountains as you hike.After about 3 miles in or so the trail can become a little harder to follow and might be overgrown. I usually turn around at this point, but for those more adventurous you can continue. The more people that continue the better the trail will become past this point.

This area has a lot of history. You can hike to the old temple fork sawmill site, which is the site where much of the lumber used to construct the Logan Temple was acquired. You can also drive or run/hike to Old Ephraim's grave. This is the grave sight of the last known grizzly in the Bear River Range. His skull currently resides in the Smithsonian.