The mountain New Harmony
The east side of Pine Valley Mountain, from the end of Trailhead Road
The Comanche Trail, out of town on a pioneer ditch.
Twelve and a half miles and 2,554 feet from a car park at the west end of New Harmony to the Summit Trail on the crest, and the first flat mile of it follows an irrigation ditch somebody cut in the 1860s. The other trail from the same lot goes into the wilderness toward Mount Baldy. Neither of them charges anything.
Start here
A trail that leaves town along a ditch somebody dug in the 1860s.
Drive west through New Harmony, past the last houses, and Trailhead Road ends at a Forest Service parking area with a large lot, an outhouse, a picnic table and an information board. Two trails leave it. This page is mostly about the first one, because the Comanche Trail is the reason a town of two hundred people has a car park with signage in it.
The trail starts on an old dirt road, and then it does something no other trail on this companion does: it picks up a pioneer irrigation ditch and follows it. The ditch runs level into the canyon under maples, past seasonal pools, for something over a mile before the ground starts to tilt. That first stretch is flat, shaded and easy, and it is the best hour in the valley in the first half of October.
Then the tread changes. Somewhere above the last of the pools the ditch line ends and the path becomes a proper mountain trail, and from there it is 2,554 feet of climbing spread over six miles to a junction on the crest. Almost all of that is in the upper half. A named spring, a cabin from the grazing era and a stock reservoir called Big Water are the three fixed points on the way, and there is no signage worth the name between any of them.
The Comanche Trail, at a glance
31011
the Dixie National Forest trail number
12.3 mi
out and back to the Summit Trail junction
2,554 ft
of gain over the full route
Free
no fee, no permit, no quota
The first mile
You are walking on somebody's water project.
The level ditch line the trail follows out of the parking area is not a coincidence of terrain. It is a constructed irrigation work from the era when this valley was being made farmable, and it is recorded as an archaeological site. The Comanche Ditch and the Comanche Dam both carry state site numbers and were documented in a formal archaeological report alongside the Main Canyon Ditch and the Town Ditch back in 2005.
That gives the walk a texture most trails do not have. A ditch has to hold a grade, so it goes where water can go rather than where a hiker would go, and the result is a mile of flat, contouring path in a canyon that has no business having one. When you notice that the trail is refusing to climb even though the canyon walls are rising beside you, that is the ditch doing its job a century and a half after it was cut.
The wider water story, including the six mile canal the town built in 1865 and the militia camp it was partly built to supply, is on the Town Ditch page. What matters on the trail is simply that the flat part is engineering and the steep part is the mountain.
A trail that starts as an irrigation ditch and ends on the crest of the range is the whole history of this valley in twelve miles.
Which side of the mountain
New Harmony is on the east, and that is not the well known side.
Washington County's own general plan for this valley puts it plainly: the Pine Valley Wilderness Area is adjacent to the valley on the west. That single sentence settles a lot of confusion. The Pine Valley Mountains rise on the western skyline from here, which puts New Harmony on the eastern approach to the range, not on its south face and not anywhere near the village of Pine Valley.
That matters because the famous routes up this mountain are on the other side. Whipple leaves from the campgrounds above Pine Valley village, Browns Point leaves from outside the same village, and both climb to the Summit Trail from the north and west. From New Harmony you are coming at the crest from the quiet side, and the two trails that do it are the Comanche and the Anderson Valley.
The range is worth understanding as a single object. It is described as one of the largest laccoliths in the world, a body of molten rock that pushed up under the surface and lifted it into a dome rather than erupting through it. Signal Peak, at about 10,370 feet, is the high point, and the Summit Trail runs roughly eighteen miles along the crest with at least eight trails climbing to join it. The Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness was designated in 1984 and covers about fifty thousand acres of it.
| From New Harmony, east | From Pine Valley, north and west | |
|---|---|---|
| Main trails | Comanche 31011 and Anderson Valley 3022 | Whipple, Browns Point and the Forsyth |
| Trailhead | End of Trailhead Road, in town | Above Pine Valley village |
| Wilderness | Comanche stays outside it, Anderson Valley enters | Inside it almost immediately |
| Traffic | Rarely anybody | The busy side of the range |
| Current status | Open, check conditions | Recreation area closed since the 2025 fire |
Both sides reach the same Summit Trail on the crest. The village of Pine Valley and its own routes are covered from that town rather than from here.
The other trail from the same lot
Anderson Valley and the long way to Mount Baldy.
The Anderson Valley Trail, Dixie National Forest trail 3022, leaves the same parking area and heads straight into the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness. The route to Mount Baldy runs about 11.1 miles out and back with 3,641 feet of gain, which is a full day with a real altitude profile: the trailhead sits around 5,500 feet and the destination is well over nine thousand.
Because it is designated wilderness, the rules change the moment you cross the boundary. No bicycles, no motorised equipment, group size limits, and a trail maintained to a much lighter standard than a front country path. There is no cell coverage on most of it and none at all up against the mountain.
The season is short and the shoulders are where people get caught. Snow lingers on the upper mountain into June in an ordinary year and comes back in October, and afternoon thunderstorms are a genuine hazard on an exposed crest in July and August. Ask the Pine Valley Ranger District what the snowline is actually doing rather than working from a trip report written in a different month.
The Forest Service's own page for the Comanche Trail lists a trailhead that is currently closed. The agency's trail listing gives the Pine Valley Recreation Area as the access, and that area has been shut since the June 2025 Forsyth Fire and is expected to stay shut through the whole 2026 season. That is the far end of the same trail. The New Harmony trailhead on Trailhead Road is a separate access on the other side of the range. Confirm what is open with the Pine Valley Ranger District, on 435-688-3200, before you plan either end.
The year on this trail
October is the month and everybody local knows it.
The maple canyon on the lower Comanche Trail turns in the first half of October in a normal year, and because the trail contours rather than climbs through that stretch, you walk under the colour instead of past it. That is a genuinely different experience from driving a canyon road to look at leaves, and it is the reason the picnic table at the trailhead exists.
Spring is runoff and mud. The seasonal pools along the ditch fill, the creeks run, and the upper trail holds snow well after the valley has dried out. Summer works early in the day and is unpleasant late, and the water sources you might be counting on are the ones most likely to be dry. Winter closes the upper half and leaves the flat mile walkable most weeks.
One practical note that applies year round: this is a Forest Service trail with a Forest Service level of signage, which is to say not much. The junction where the Comanche meets the Summit Trail at Big Water is the natural turning point for a long day, and the two routes out of the trailhead diverge shortly after the car park, so read the sign at the start rather than following whichever boot track looks most used.
Keep reading
More of New Harmony on The Local.
Things to do
The top 8, ranked
Eight picks, ranked, from a creek walk past two 1930 cabins to a valley with nothing in the sky.
Read the guideZion's other door
Kolob Canyons
Zion's other entrance, ten minutes away, with this town's address on the visitor center.
Read the guideThe first town
Fort Harmony
The adobe fort that held the county seat, and the twenty eight days of rain that ended it.
Read the guideThe water
The Town Ditch
Six miles of canal cut in 1865, four water companies now, and a reservoir that leaks.
Read the guideMoving here
Five acres and a well
Two rulebooks, two lines on the map, and 294 lots that were sold and never built on.
Read the guideThe companion
New Harmony, from a local
The park entrance, the trail, the fort and the water, in one place.
Read the pageQuick answers
The trail, answered.
It runs 12.3 miles out and back with 2,554 feet of elevation gain, and the Forest Service rates it moderately difficult. It is Dixie National Forest trail 31011 and it terminates where it meets the Summit Trail at the Big Water stock reservoir on the crest of the range. Most people walking it from New Harmony do only the flat first mile or two along the ditch line and turn round.
At the end of Trailhead Road on the west side of New Harmony, where there is a large parking lot, an outhouse, a picnic area and an information board with a sign reading Comanche Trail users park here. Note that the Forest Service's own trail page gives the Pine Valley Recreation Area as the trailhead. That is the far end of the same trail, on the other side of the range, and it has been closed since the 2025 Forsyth Fire.
No. There is no fee, no permit and no quota. It is a Dixie National Forest trail open to hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding, with motorised use prohibited. Bikes are legal specifically because the Comanche Trail does not enter the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness, though the Forest Service does not recommend it for riding given the roughness of the tread.
The route follows an old pioneer irrigation ditch through a canyon with maples and seasonal pools, then steepens past Comanche Spring where the canyon narrows. Where it comes out of the canyon the historic Comanche cabin appears, with views back over the New Harmony valley and across to the Kolob cliffs. The ditch and its dam are both recorded archaeological sites, documented in a formal report in 2005.
No, it is on the east side. Washington County's own general plan for this valley states that the Pine Valley Wilderness Area is adjacent to the valley on the west, which places New Harmony on the eastern approach to the range. The well known routes up the mountain, including Whipple and Browns Point, leave from the village of Pine Valley on the north and west sides and are a different trip entirely.
By the Anderson Valley Trail, Dixie National Forest trail 3022, which leaves the same trailhead as the Comanche Trail and climbs into the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness. The route runs about 11.1 miles out and back with 3,641 feet of gain, starting near 5,500 feet and finishing well over nine thousand. It is a full day and the season runs roughly June to October depending on snow.
May through October for the full route, and the first half of October for the lower canyon, when the maples along the ditch line turn. Because that stretch contours rather than climbs, you walk under the colour rather than past it. Spring brings runoff and mud with snow lingering on the upper half, summer works only early in the day, and winter closes the top while leaving the flat mile walkable most weeks.
Only seasonally, and the Forest Service says plainly that the creeks along the route are unreliable and that hikers must bring potable water. Comanche Spring is a named feature on the trail but it is not a dependable supply for planning purposes, and in the months when the trail is most pleasant to walk the water is least likely to be running. Carry everything you intend to drink.
In principle yes, because the Comanche Trail crosses the range to meet the Summit Trail and the network continues down the far side, but this is a serious backcountry undertaking rather than a walk between two towns. It is also complicated at present by the Forsyth Fire closure on the Pine Valley side. Talk to the Pine Valley Ranger District about current conditions on both ends before planning any crossing.
A trailhead at the end of the street.
Living where a national forest trail starts inside the town limits changes what a parcel is worth and what owning it involves, from defensible space to what the road does in March. Those are the things I would walk through with you before an offer.