Willard Canyon Hike

Willard Canyon is a really fun hike that can be done in less than two hours. It is a very pretty canyon with tons of water to see and really pretty rugged terrain. The trail is traveled but I would not say well traveled. There are areas with rock hopping/scrambling, and bushwhacking so I would not recommend it for young kids. It is also fairly steep. There is a small parking lot below the Willard gravel pit. Their turn is right by the Willard Cemetery. There is room for several cars to park. The canyon and peaks around the parking lot look very impressive. The trail I took was right next to the cars and had markings on a rock. About twenty yards in front of the trucks is another path that is far easier but far less scenic gravel path. I took that path on the way down which made for a nice little loop. The route I took was a bit of a bushwhack with a very light trail in some spots but had lots of pretty little waterfalls throughout. It follows right by the creek for quite a while before very steeply climbing up the ravine to the main gravel trail. Once back on the main trail you will gently climb towards the canyon. The views back toward Willard Bay are very pretty. If you notice the two large scars in the rock you will see that in the late spring and summer there are two large waterfalls here. There are small side trails to each of these as they are popular with ice climbers. Once in the canyon there are some makeshift bridges that help you not have to get wet if you don't want to. Be careful as they weren't all that stable. Pretty much the whole trail is covered with small waterfalls and cascades with some very scenic spots. The mountains looming above are crazy rugged. The trail is for the most part evident but some bush whacking is inevitable. You will eventually come to a fairly large fall that is near the city spring. This is a beautiful spot where two creeks meet and make two falls. You can continue on past this point as there is a very large cascade above these falls. Just scramble up the rocks to the north of the creek. Make sure to look back down the canyon as the scenery is spectacular. I sat down here to take a rest and eat a snack and two large Mountain Goats jumped up right at my feet and ran straight up the cliffside where they sat and watched me for about ten minutes. It was awesome to see these beautiful animals and it was a great way to cap a great little hike. I suppose you could go higher but it gets very steep. I chose to take the main trail all the way down and it is a nice gravel path most of the way. This hike is really fun. It is a bit of an adventure with the creek crossings and really is very striking terrain. The chance of Mountain Goats is enough alone to bring me back but all the water works here make it a very amazing hike.