Fishhook to Upper Graveyard, the way in
Tukupetsi trailhead · About 0.7 miles one way · Easiest here
The reserve does not announce itself. You leave Santa Clara Drive about half a mile past the Jacob Hamblin Home, turn onto West 1700 North at Graveyard Wash, and four tenths of a mile of dirt later you are parked at the Tukupetsi trailhead with the whole of Land Hill standing in front of you.
Fishhook is the first trail in. Three tenths of a mile of singletrack that curls back on itself, which is where the name comes from, and hands you to Upper Graveyard. Upper Graveyard is smooth dirt for another four tenths and it is the main way into the Santa Clara and Land Hill area of critical environmental concern. It takes its name from the big wash visible off its northeastern edge.
Walk that out and back and you have a first outing well under two miles that tells you what this country is. Riders on horseback are asked to enter on Upper Graveyard rather than Fishhook, because the soil on Fishhook is soft enough to damage.
Een'oog, the rim of Land Hill
Off the four way junction · 0.3 miles one way · Steep exposure at the west end
Een'oog means old ones in Southern Paiute, and the trail earns it by running the rim of Land Hill itself. Three tenths of a mile, and for most of that you are walking the edge of the formation with the river bottom laid out underneath you.
Petroglyphs are visible from the trail. The full account of the rock art up here, and of how to behave around it, is on the petroglyph guide. The short version is look, photograph, touch nothing, and stay off every surface that carries a mark.
The west end is the part to know before you go rather than after. It narrows, it turns rocky, and the drop along the rim is steep enough that the BLM flags it as unsuitable for young children. Take that as a description rather than a formality.
Cholla and Lower Graveyard, the desert loop
From the four way junction · About two miles of trail · Easy
Both of these are old roads rather than built trail, which makes them the easiest walking in the reserve and the right pick when you want distance without route finding. Lower Graveyard runs about a mile along sections of Graveyard Wash. Cholla runs about another mile off the same junction.
Put the two together and you get a loop through open desert that stays pleasant at a talking pace, which is not something you can say about most of what is out here.
One caution at the north end of Cholla. There is no established trailhead up there and the gate leads onto private ground, so do not cross it. Turn back and walk out the way you came.
U'waiv down to Enepitsi, the ghost trail
Tukupetsi trailhead · 1.7 miles of trail, nearer 2.5 from the car · The longest day on this side
This is the best walk on the Santa Clara side and it takes some getting to. From the junction you cross briefly onto Tempi'po'op, drop south on Een'oog, then take U'waiv, which means valley, two tenths of a mile downhill off the mesa.
What you land on is Enepitsi. The name means ghost, and the trail is an old pioneer road running a mile and a half along the Santa Clara River between the banks and the cliffs of Land Hill. Prehistoric petroglyphs and pioneer graffiti both turn up along it, which is a strange and specific pairing to walk through in one afternoon.
Figure on something like two and a half miles each way from the car once you have linked it all. The river bottom is where the cottonwoods are, so this is also the one route out here with any real shade on it.
A pioneer wagon road, rock art a thousand years older than the wagons, and cottonwoods standing over both. That is a mile and a half of trail.
Black Brush, the mesa edge
Cove Wash trailhead · About 3.4 miles · Moderate
The second trailhead sits at the other end of town. You turn onto Gates Lane off Santa Clara Drive before the Hamblin Home, cross the river, and climb about a mile and a half of dirt steep and rocky enough that the BLM says outright it does not suit every vehicle. Believe that in a low car.
Black Brush is the reward for the drive. It is singletrack across washes that are rocky rather than sandy, which walks far better than sand does, and the views down the Santa Clara River corridor from the mesa edge are the best on this side of the water.
It is listed for walkers and horses, and the brush along it is rattlesnake country. Watch where you put your feet, watch where you put your hands on the ledges, and give any snake you meet the whole trail.
Cove Wash West, up the gravel
Cove Wash trailhead · About 4 miles · Moderate
Cove Wash West is not really a trail. It is a route up the gravel bottom of a wash, firm enough underfoot that bikes use it too, and for now it ends at a mesa rim rather than connecting onward. The BLM has plans to tie it into the Stucki Springs system eventually. Today it is an out and back.
Walking a wash bottom is its own kind of outing. The walls do the navigating for you, the grade is close to nothing, and four miles pass quicker than the number reads. Pick it on a day when you want to move rather than to stop and look.
The rim at the end is worth the walk out, and it is also the point where turning around is the plan rather than an admission.
Cove Wash East, the long one
Cove Wash trailhead · About 5.4 miles round trip · Hardest here
The long one. Cove Wash East follows the main cove through the reserve, starting in between close rock walls and opening out into wide desert with formations standing up out of it. Sand, gravel and slickrock all take a turn underfoot, and that mix is what pushes it past the others for effort rather than the mileage does.
Two things to know first. There is a drop of roughly nine feet in the wash shortly before it crosses Stucki Springs Road, so scout it rather than stepping off it, and you may hear target shooting near that road. Neither is a reason to skip the walk. Both are reasons to know before you go.
Off road vehicles and bikes use the wash as well. Step aside early when you hear one, because a wash bottom gives everybody less room and less warning than a trail does.
This side of the river is drier than it looks. Nothing out here carries water and almost nothing stands tall enough to sit under once you leave the cottonwoods. The walking season runs from the middle of October into May; in June, July, August and the first half of September it is first light or nothing. Coverage comes and goes on the mesa, so leave your route with somebody before you drive out.
What this list leaves out, and why
- Snow Canyon. Every trail in the park is approached from the Ivins side of the bench, so the ranked version of that country lives on the Ivins hiking guide rather than here. This page stays south of the river on purpose.
- Tempi'po'op. The three and a half mile route across Land Hill is the trail most people drive out here for, and it gets its own guide instead of a line in a ranking. You will cross it anyway on the way to Enepitsi.
- Barrel Roll, Sidewinder, Precipice and Suicidal Tendencies. Walkers are welcome on all four, but they were built for bikes and they walk like it. They are covered on the riding guide.
