JPaul
Member
- Location
- West Valley, UT
I went up Ward Canyon today for a quick snow run. It was pretty good, since I was by myself and not familiar at all with the conditions, let alone the trail itself, I went up Ward Canyon road first, then chose to come back down Old Ward Canyon road.
Up at Buckland Flats:
Turned at the lookout point. I made the mistake of stopping in the deeper snow. I was stuck for a little bit, but some shovel action to clear out the snow from in front of and behind the tires was all I needed to get moving.
While I was hanging around checking out the area, I saw a helicopter fly past, not sure if it was the Forest Service or what, but I was glad to have chosen to not risk going past the gate.
I instead chose to go back down via the Old Ward Canyon road. Going back down the newer road would've been too boring.
Judging by the tracks on the trail, the only vehicles on it recently were a snow cat and some snowmobiles.
Broke out of the trees after a while.
The trail started getting a little more technical, at this point here I got pretty tippy.
While going downhill made it very unlikely I'd be getting stuck, but it also increased the risk of sliding off the trail. There were several spots that made my rather anxious, but I was able to get through them OK.
I got down to near the bottom and stopped to check out the view. In the lower left you can see a Land Cruiser some one was so kind to have left across the trail. From where I was I couldn't tell that there wasn't any room to pass it. When I got down to it I was loathe to find that out, in addition the road was pretty much nothing but ice. I barely managed to stop in time to avoid hitting it. Fortunately I did, and was able to driver over the berm of the road and down the side of the hill to get down to the parking lot.
All in all it was a good trip.
Up at Buckland Flats:
Turned at the lookout point. I made the mistake of stopping in the deeper snow. I was stuck for a little bit, but some shovel action to clear out the snow from in front of and behind the tires was all I needed to get moving.
While I was hanging around checking out the area, I saw a helicopter fly past, not sure if it was the Forest Service or what, but I was glad to have chosen to not risk going past the gate.
I instead chose to go back down via the Old Ward Canyon road. Going back down the newer road would've been too boring.
Judging by the tracks on the trail, the only vehicles on it recently were a snow cat and some snowmobiles.
Broke out of the trees after a while.
The trail started getting a little more technical, at this point here I got pretty tippy.
While going downhill made it very unlikely I'd be getting stuck, but it also increased the risk of sliding off the trail. There were several spots that made my rather anxious, but I was able to get through them OK.
I got down to near the bottom and stopped to check out the view. In the lower left you can see a Land Cruiser some one was so kind to have left across the trail. From where I was I couldn't tell that there wasn't any room to pass it. When I got down to it I was loathe to find that out, in addition the road was pretty much nothing but ice. I barely managed to stop in time to avoid hitting it. Fortunately I did, and was able to driver over the berm of the road and down the side of the hill to get down to the parking lot.
All in all it was a good trip.
