The 7 best hikes in Santa Clara.

Een'oog means old ones in Southern Paiute, and the trail earns the name by running the rim of Land Hill itself. It is only 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 part to know before you go rather than after is the far end. Beyond the junction where U'waiv leaves toward the river, the tread narrows and turns rocky and runs close along a steep drop, which is why this is not a good place to take young children. Take that as the honest version rather than a formality.

Both of these are old two track 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 stretches of Graveyard Wash. Cholla runs about a mile off the same junction. Link the two and you have a loop through open desert that stays pleasant at a talking pace, which is more than you can say for most of what is out here.

One caution at the north end of Cholla. There is no trailhead there, and the gate opens onto private ground, so do not cross it. Turn back and walk out the way you came.

This is the most interesting walk on the Santa Clara side, and it takes a little getting to. From the Tukupetsi trailhead the route links Fishhook, Upper Graveyard and a short stretch of Tempi'po'op before U'waiv, which means valley, drops you two tenths of a mile downhill off the mesa to the river. Reach it the proper way, on foot from the trailhead, rather than driving up the road past the parking; the ground up there is protected and partly private.

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, a strange and specific pairing to walk through in one afternoon. Stay on the two track; the ground beyond it is private.

Figure on about two and a half miles each way from the car once the pieces are linked. The river bottom is where the cottonwoods stand, which is why this is the one route out here with shade to speak of.

Black Brush sits at the other end of town. Turn onto Gates Lane off Santa Clara Drive just before the Jacob Hamblin Home, cross the river, and climb about a mile and a half of dirt that is steep and rocky enough to ask for some clearance. It does not suit a low car, so take that seriously before you start.

The reward is the walk. Black Brush 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 open to walkers and horses, and the brush along it is rattlesnake country. Watch where you put your feet and where you put your hands on the ledges, and give any snake you meet the whole trail.

Cove Wash West is not really a trail. It is a route up the gravel bed of a wash, firm enough underfoot that mountain bikes use it too, and it ends at a mesa rim rather than connecting onward, so treat it as an out and back.

A wash bottom is its own kind of walk. 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.

The long one. Cove Wash East follows the main wash east from the trailhead, starting between close rock walls and opening out into wide desert with formations standing up out of it. Sand, gravel and a short stretch of slickrock all take a turn underfoot, and that mix is what pushes it past the others for effort rather than the mileage alone.

Two things to know before you go. About a mile and a quarter in, shortly before the wash crosses Stucki Springs Road, the bottom drops roughly ten feet; scout it rather than stepping off it, because the route detours up and around. And the walk ends where the wash meets a large wall of fill near the St. George city line, so treat the whole thing as an out and back rather than a loop. Neither is a reason to skip it. Both are reasons to know the plan before you start.