The Dry Creek walk Alpine
The most walked trail in Alpine, and the most misquoted
Horsetail Falls, up Dry Creek from Grove Drive.
Roughly 4.4 to 4.6 miles out and back with about 1,500 to 1,617 feet of climbing, from a dirt car park at the top of a residential street that holds around twenty vehicles and has no restroom, no water and no overflow. The honest distance, the shaded middle canyon, the Marine Corps plaque at the cascade, the wilderness boundary you cross on the way, and what the year does to all of it.
Southern Utah is my home turf. Alpine is not, so these pages are researched rather than lived: checked against city, county and venue sources, and dated so you can see how fresh they are. For the on-the-ground work here I lean on a Utah County partner agent.
Start here
A dirt lot at the top of an ordinary residential street.
Grove Drive climbs north out of Alpine, past the turning for the Lambert Park rodeo grounds, and finishes at a dirt car park holding around twenty vehicles. That is the Dry Creek trailhead. It is signed variously as Dry Creek, as Deer Creek and as North Mountain depending on which sign and which map you are reading, and all three names refer to the same piece of ground.
From it a single trail climbs the Dry Creek drainage. The grade is steady and steep without ever being technical, the lower canyon carries enough tree cover to stay comfortable in weather that makes the valley floor unpleasant, and after a bit over two miles the canyon walls close in and a tall horsetail cascade drops off the rock at the head of it. There is a memorial plaque to the United States Marine Corps set into the rock at the falls, and turning away from the plaque gives you the water.
The trail crosses into the Lone Peak Wilderness on the way up. That is a legal boundary rather than a scenic one: bicycles stop there, motorised and mechanised equipment is not permitted beyond it, and the ground above is managed by the Pleasant Grove Ranger District of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. No day use permit is issued and none is needed. Dogs are allowed, which is not true of the Salt Lake County canyons on the other side of the same range.
The walk in numbers
4.4 to 4.6 mi
out and back, published range
1,500 to 1,617 ft
of climbing, depending on source
~20
parking spaces at the trailhead
3 to 4 hrs
for most walkers, car to car
The walk itself
Two and a bit miles up, and almost all of it in shade.
The first stretch out of the car park sets the tone: it goes up, and it keeps going up. There is no warm up section and no flat mile, which is worth knowing if you are walking with somebody who has been promised an easy morning. What compensates almost immediately is the cover. Dry Creek is a north facing drainage with real tree canopy through the lower and middle sections, and on a July morning that turns a hard walk into a pleasant one.
The middle of the route is where the canyon becomes interesting. The walls draw in, the creek runs closer to the trail, and the ground underfoot changes from packed dirt to rock and root in places. None of it needs hands, but it does need attention on the way down, which is where most turned ankles here happen. The gradient never really relents until you are at the head of the drainage.
The falls themselves are a horsetail form, which is the technical name for water that stays in contact with the rock as it drops rather than free falling from a lip. It is a tall thin ribbon rather than a curtain. The rock at the base is often wet and the boulders below it are loose, and the sensible viewing is from the trail and the flat ground at the plaque rather than from the wettest rock somebody has scrambled onto for a photograph.
The way back is faster than people expect and harder on the knees than they expect too. Most walkers are back at the car in about ninety minutes from the falls. Add time in spring, when snowmelt puts more water across the trail, and add rather more in early season, when the upper section can still be holding snow while the car park is dry and warm.
There is no easy first mile on Dry Creek. The trail starts climbing at the car park and does not stop until the canyon does.
The year in this canyon
One trail, four different walks, depending on the month you pick.
The single most useful thing to understand about Dry Creek is that the car park and the head of the canyon are not in the same season as each other. There is a fifteen hundred foot difference between them and it shows up as snow, as water and as heat at different points in the year.
| When | What the trail is like | What to plan for |
|---|---|---|
| Early spring | Dry and warm at the lot, snow and mud in the upper canyon | Traction underfoot, an early turnaround, and a willingness to come back |
| Late spring | The best water of the year, and the busiest weekends | Wet rock at the falls, full car parks, and crossings that carry more than they look |
| Summer | Shaded through the lower and middle canyon, hot at both ends | An early start for the parking as much as for the heat; carry all your water |
| Autumn | The cleanest conditions of the year, and colour on the lower slopes | Shorter daylight, cold air in the canyon bottom, and a quieter trailhead midweek |
| Winter | A different undertaking; ice on the steep middle section | Proper traction, honest experience, and no expectation the lot is cleared |
Seasonal character described from the published route data and from the geography rather than from any single year's conditions, checked 14 August 2026. Fire restrictions on the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest change through the season and are posted on the forest's alerts page rather than at this trailhead, and the Pleasant Grove Ranger District is the office that carries this side of the range.
About twenty parking spaces serve the busiest walk in Alpine, and there is no overflow, no restroom and no water. The Dry Creek lot is dirt, small and at the top of a residential street, and on a summer Saturday it is full well before the middle of the morning. There is nowhere else to put a car: the streets below the trailhead are people's homes, not an overflow area, and parking on them is neither neighbourly nor reliable. There is also nothing at the trailhead in the way of facilities, no restroom, no water and no bin, and nothing above it either, so everything you need for four and a half miles and fifteen hundred feet of climbing has to come out of the boot with you.
The boundary you cross
A sign on a trail that changes what the rules are.
The Lone Peak Wilderness covers 30,088 acres, was designated in 1978 under the Endangered American Wilderness Act, and was the first wilderness area in Utah. For six years it was the only one. That history is not decoration: it explains why the ground immediately above a residential street in Alpine is managed to a stricter standard than most national forest land in the state.
In practice the designation means three things on this walk. Bicycles stop at the boundary, which is on the way up rather than at the falls. No motorised or mechanised equipment goes past it, which includes some things people do not expect, such as a wheeled cart. And group size and campfire rules can tighten with the season, which is why the forest's alerts page matters more here than a trailhead sign does.
What the designation does not mean is a permit. The Forest Service lists no day use permit for the Lone Peak Wilderness, so nothing has to be booked, paid for or printed before a walk up Dry Creek. That is a genuine difference from the canyon at Alpine's north edge, where a recreation fee applies and one trailhead now requires a reservation bought in advance.
The office that manages this side of the range is the Pleasant Grove Ranger District, and it is the right telephone number for a question about conditions, closures or restrictions in the canyon above Alpine. American Fork Canyon and everything up it belongs to American Fork's canyon page, which carries the fee card and the reservation rules in full.
This page stops at the falls, on purpose. The trail carries on above the cascade and it leads to two much larger days out. The summit reached from this same car park is on the Box Elder Peak page, which covers the routes, the loose final mile and the turnaround clock. The long approach toward Lone Peak starts somewhere else entirely, above the Alpine Cove neighbourhood, and it carries a live access question, which is why it has a page of its own.
Straight on up
Box Elder Peak
The summit from this same car park: about five thousand feet of climbing and a loose final mile.
Read the pageThe other trailhead
The Hamongog route
The Alpine side of Lone Peak, two meadows and a gravel road that three parties disagree about.
Read the pageOver the ridge
American Fork Canyon
The paying canyon at the north edge of town, with a gate, a fee card and one booked trailhead.
Read the guideWhere this sits
One trailhead, three very different days.
Grove Drive delivers a two hour walk, a full mountain day and a city open space within about a mile of each other. These are the pages that carry the other two.
Downhill from here
Lambert Park
Two hundred and fifty five city owned acres and sixteen miles of volunteer built singletrack, free at any hour.
Read the pageWhere it ranks
Second on the list
The walk takes second place on the ranked eight, behind the park and ahead of the town's week in August.
The ranked listThe companion
Alpine, in full
Seven pages on the town under Lone Peak, including the two big summits above this canyon.
Read the pageKeep reading
More of Alpine on The Local.
Things to do
The top 8, ranked
Eight entries, ranked, each with the body that runs it and the season it keeps.
Read the guide255 acres
Lambert Park
Sixteen miles of volunteer singletrack, a rodeo ground inside it, and no motors at all.
Read the guideToward Lone Peak
The Hamongog route
Two meadows, a lake, a summit ridge, and a gravel road nobody agrees about.
Read the guide11,101 feet
Box Elder Peak
A long day to 11,101 feet, with the last mile loose, steep and fully in the sun.
Read the guideMoving here
The end of the road
What it takes to own a lot where the highway stops and the fuel starts.
Read the guideThe companion
Alpine, in full
The open space, the two trailheads, the tower, the week in August and the wilderness line.
Read the pageQuick answers
The falls, answered.
Roughly 4.4 to 4.6 miles out and back from the Dry Creek trailhead at the top of Grove Drive in Alpine, with between about 1,500 and 1,617 feet of climbing depending on which published source you use. Several popular listings carry a figure of around 2.6 to 2.9 miles and that number is wrong. Plan on three to four hours car to car for most walkers, and treat the shorter figure as a copying error that has been repeated across listing sites for years.
At the top of Grove Drive, above the turning for the Lambert Park rodeo grounds, where the pavement gives out at a dirt car park. It is signed variously as Dry Creek, Deer Creek and North Mountain, and all three names describe the same place. There is no second approach and no alternative car park. The lot holds around twenty vehicles, it has no restroom and no water, and the streets below it are residential rather than overflow parking.
Moderately hard rather than technical. The grade is steady and steep from the car park with no flat warm up section, and it does not really relent until the head of the drainage. The footing changes from packed dirt to rock and root through the middle canyon, which is where most turned ankles happen on the way down. Nothing on the route to the falls requires hands. What makes it manageable in summer is the tree cover through the lower and middle sections, which is genuinely substantial.
Yes. This is the Utah County side of the Wasatch range rather than a Salt Lake City watershed canyon, so the dog prohibition that applies in several canyons on the other side of the mountains does not apply here. What does apply above the boundary sign is the Lone Peak Wilderness rule set, and there is no water and no shade at the trailhead itself, so a dog needs its own supply carried up along with yours for four and a half miles of climbing.
No. The route crosses into the Lone Peak Wilderness on the way up and the Forest Service lists no day use permit for it, so nothing has to be booked, paid for or printed. That is different from American Fork Canyon at the north edge of Alpine, where a recreation fee applies and one trailhead now needs a reservation bought in advance. What the wilderness designation does change is behaviour: no bicycles and no mechanised equipment past the boundary sign.
Only as far as the Lone Peak Wilderness boundary, which sits on the trail below the falls rather than at them. Bicycles are not permitted beyond that sign, along with anything else motorised or mechanised, because that is what a wilderness designation means in law rather than in description. Riders who want singletrack in Alpine are better served by Lambert Park lower down, which carries more than sixteen miles of it and is city ground rather than federal wilderness.
Autumn for conditions and late spring for water. The cleanest walking of the year comes in September and early October, when the snow is long gone, the heat is off and there is colour on the lower slopes. Late spring gives the most impressive flow at the cascade and also the busiest weekends and the wettest rock. Summer works well because of the tree cover through the middle canyon, but the car park fills early. Early spring and winter turn the steep middle section into a different undertaking.
About twenty spaces on dirt, and that is the whole of it. There is no overflow area and the residential streets below the trailhead are not one. On a summer Saturday the lot is full well before the middle of the morning, so an early start here is about parking as much as about heat. A weekday morning is a completely different experience. There is no restroom, no water and no bin at the trailhead, and nothing above it either.
There is a plaque to the United States Marine Corps set into the rock at the falls, and turning away from it gives you the view of the cascade. The rock at the base of the falls is often wet and the boulders below it are loose, so the sensible place to look at the water is from the trail and the flat ground near the plaque rather than from the wettest rock available. The falls take a horsetail form, meaning the water stays in contact with the rock as it drops.
Four and a half miles, and about twenty places to leave a car.
The most useful thing about this walk is what it tells you about Alpine: the good ground starts at the top of an ordinary street, the infrastructure serving it is tiny, and nobody is going to build any more of it because the boundary above is designated wilderness. That is the trade an address here carries, and it is worth understanding before you go looking at parcels. Tell me what you are weighing and I will put you with a Utah County partner agent who works this end of the valley, and stay on the file for the financing side.
Referral disclosure. Outside Southern Utah, I connect home sellers and buyers with partner agents I trust in their area. If you choose to work with an agent I refer, that agent's brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee. The fee comes out of the agent's compensation; it is not an added cost to you. You are always free to choose any agent you wish, and using a referred agent is never required.