The mountain
By Scott Buehler, New Harmony localUpdated October 2026
The Comanche Trail, out of town on a pioneer ditch
Twelve and a half miles out and back, with 2,554 feet of gain, from a parking lot at the west end of New Harmony to the Summit Trail on the crest (about six miles each way), 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.
Through the years
The east side of Pine Valley Mountain, from the end of Trailhead Road
The short answer
The Comanche Trail is a Forest Service trail that leaves the west end of New Harmony, on the east side of Pine Valley Mountain, and climbs to the Summit Trail on the crest of the range. The Forest Service lists it as trail 31011, 12.3 miles out and back with 2,554 feet of gain, rated moderately difficult, and the first flat mile follows an irrigation ditch that was cut in the 1860s. It is free, with no permit and no quota. The trail runs out to the Summit Trail at the Big Water stock reservoir. It stays outside the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness and is closed to motor vehicles. The Forest Service trail page lists hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking. Most people from town walk only the shaded first mile or two along the ditch and turn around. The same parking lot also starts the Anderson Valley Trail, the long climb into the wilderness toward Mount Baldy. One thing to know before you go: the Forest Service has closed the Pine Valley Recreation Area on the other side of the range, but its closure order does not name the Comanche Trail. Park at the New Harmony trailhead at the end of Trailhead Road and confirm conditions with the Pine Valley Ranger District.
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 parking lot with signage in it.
The trail starts on an old dirt road, and then it does something no other trail around here 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, sits on our 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 10,365 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 31022 | Whipple, Browns Point and the Forsyth |
| Trailhead | End of Trailhead Road, in town | Above Pine Valley village |
| Wilderness | The Comanche Trail stays outside it; the Anderson Valley Trail goes in | 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 31022, 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 5,300 feet and the summit is about 8,890 feet.
Because it is designated wilderness, the rules change the moment you cross the boundary. No bicycles, no motorized 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 has closed the Pine Valley Recreation Area, but its order does not name the Comanche Trail. That area has been shut since the June 2025 Forsyth Fire, under Forest Service order 0407-26-01, which runs from January 15, 2026 to January 15, 2027. The order names other trails on the Pine Valley side. The Comanche Trail ends on the crest, where it meets the Summit Trail at Big Water, and the New Harmony trailhead on Trailhead Road is on the east side of the range. Confirm what is open with the Pine Valley Ranger District, at (435) 652-3100, before you plan the trip.
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 color 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 parking lot, so read the sign at the start rather than following whichever boot track looks most used.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
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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 around.
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. The Pine Valley Recreation Area on the other side of the range has been closed since the 2025 Forsyth Fire, but the Forest Service closure order does not name the Comanche Trail.
No. There is no fee, no permit and no quota. It is a Dixie National Forest trail open to hiking and horseback riding, with motorized use prohibited. The Forest Service trail page lists hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking. The trail stays outside the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness.
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 31022, 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 5,300 feet and finishing at the summit, about 8,890 feet. 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 color 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.
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