Cooper canyon is a very easy canyon to walk and offers a taste of the narrow canyons that can be found in Southern Utah. The window offers an added attraction. The hike is much much easier than any other in this book but is included to honor a Park employee who hiked this area before being killed in a plane crash while on duty.
| TIME: | 30 minutes to the end of the canyon. |
| ELEVATION GAIN: | 150 feet. |
| DIFFICULTY: | Easy walking with easy scrambling at the end. |
| MAPS: | The Post |
| GEOLOGY: | An erosional mystery. |
| PLANTS: | Varied. |
| CIRCLE TRIP: | No. |
| ACCESS: | From the Visitor Center drive 9.2 miles east on Utah Highway 24 to the signed Notom Road. Turn right (south) and drive 13.6 miles to the signed Sandy Ranch Junction. Bear right and drive 19 miles to the signed Burr Trail Junction. From there continue straight (south) 2.3 miles to a junction by a Headquarters Canyon trail sign. Turn right (southwest) and go to the end of the road (a mile) (S). |
At the parking area walk south a few yards to the hike's route through the fence. Walk through and go right (west) along the fence. At the large wash go left (south) a short distance to an easier place to cross the wash. Continue following the fence.
The tan rock ahead is the Navajo Sandstone and the red layer that jogs up, then back down the Navajo slope is part of the Carmel Formation.
The shrubs along the flats are almost all Greasewood. Just before the fence gets to a Juniper tree the lower, compact, shrubs on that last hill are Blackbrush. From the Juniper (A) that the fence is tied to, angle left (south) around the dense Oak trees, then turn right (west) and go up the sandy wash (B) into (PN) Cooper Canyon.
The easiest place to get under the barbed wire fence that crosses the canyon is in the wash. On the left (south) side there are Singleleaf Ash trees twenty feet before and twenty feet beyond the fence. On the right side, starting twenty-five feet up from the fence, there are a number of Apache Plume bushes. The canyon will narrow and after about five minutes of walking will widen just a bit for a short distance. At that point, above the wash on the left there is a bush with blue green holly shaped leaves called Fremont Barberry. On the downstream side of the Barberry there is a silvery green leafed plant, Buffaloberry, and on the upstream side is a green plant without visible leaves that is Mormon Tea.
Near the end of the canyon the rocky/sandy wash turns to a boulder field and the walking becomes more difficult though still not too bad (E). Almost all the trees in that boulder field are Boxelder.
|
| ||
23June2017
|
Email: | |
