The short canyon Pleasant Grove
The easiest big waterfall in this half of the county
Battle Creek Falls, and what it turns into in winter.
Roughly 1.2 to 1.5 miles round trip and about 400 to 450 feet of climbing from the end of 200 South to a fall of about fifty feet at 5,671 feet. In July it is a shaded family walk with dogs on it. In February the same water is a frozen column with seven catalogued ice lines around it. The parking, the season, the hazard, and the documented events of March 1849 that gave this town its first name.
Southern Utah is my home turf. Pleasant Grove 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 fall of fifty feet, about three quarters of a mile from a residential street.
The trail begins where 200 South stops being a road. Follow it east through the last blocks of houses, past Kiwanis Park, and the tarmac ends against the hillside at a lot above the water tank. From there the path runs up the north side of the creek on a steady grade, crosses to the south side, and delivers you to the base of a fall of about fifty feet in roughly three quarters of a mile. Round trip that is about 1.2 to 1.5 miles with something in the region of 400 to 450 feet of climbing.
The proportion is what makes it famous. Most waterfalls of that size in the Wasatch cost an hour or more of climbing to reach; this one costs about thirty five minutes at an unhurried pace, and the canyon walls shade a decent share of the route through the middle of a July afternoon. The creek is beside you almost the whole way, running from a spring higher in the drainage rather than off snowmelt alone, which is why it keeps water in it through a dry August when other Wasatch creeks have gone quiet.
It is not, however, a smooth path. The tread is rock and root through most of its length, there are steps and short scrambles near the top, and a pushchair is a mistake that announces itself inside two hundred yards. Dogs are ordinary here and so are small children on their own feet. The fall itself sits at roughly 5,671 feet on the western skirt of Mount Timpanogos, in the second drainage north of Provo Canyon.
The short canyon, in numbers
1.2 to 1.5
miles round trip to the fall
50 ft
the height of the fall, roughly
5,671 ft
the elevation at the fall
7
catalogued ice lines in this canyon
The parking, which is the actual problem
The trail is easy. Getting a space at the bottom of it is not.
Pleasant Grove has spent 2026 rebuilding the trailhead parking area at the top of 200 South, with a temporary lot below the water towers doing duty while the work runs. That temporary arrangement adds walking to both ends of the day and it holds fewer cars than the permanent lot it replaced. The city's own trails page is the place to check what is open on the morning you are going, and it is worth doing, because this is the single most out of date fact in every hiking guide written about this canyon before this year.
Even finished, the lot is small. This is a trailhead at the end of a residential street in a city of about 37,700 people, sitting under a mountain that a great many more than that drive to at weekends. On a Saturday morning in June the honest answer is that the lot fills before eight, and that the streets below it are somebody's front garden rather than overflow parking. A weekday, or the first hour of light, changes the whole character of the walk.
The trail itself needs almost nothing from you in the warm half of the year. It is signed, it is obvious, it is busy enough that you will not be alone on it, and there is no fee at any point. What it does not have is water at the trailhead, a toilet you should count on, or any shade at all in the first few hundred yards before the canyon closes in.
The trailhead is a starting point for far more than the fall. Above the waterfall the path keeps climbing, and it eventually connects to the ridge traverse that links this canyon with Grove Creek to the north. That loop is about eight miles with roughly 2,600 feet of climbing and it takes most walkers five and a half to six hours, which is a completely different day from the one most people come here for. It is written up on the Grove Creek Canyon page, which owns the traverse, the trail numbers and the long turnarounds.
What happens to it in February
The same walk in winter is a rope, a harness and a set of screws.
This is the fact about Battle Creek that separates it from every other easy waterfall walk in Utah County, and almost nothing written for visitors mentions it. When the fall freezes, this canyon becomes a working ice venue, and it holds a catalogue of routes to prove it.
Seven climbs are catalogued in Battle Creek Canyon and six of them are ice. The best regarded is Pure Fun at WI3 to WI4. The fall itself goes at about WI3 plus. Battle Drip is graded WI4 plus, Battle Ram WI4, Lady Strange WI4 minus, and there is a WI3 line and one mixed route at M4 plus with a serious protection rating on it. The rock in this canyon is poor enough that the climbing community treats the ice as the only reason to be there, which tells you exactly what season this place is catalogued for.
Alongside the climbing, the fall is a regular winter rappelling objective, reached on foot in something over half a mile with microspikes on. That combination, a short approach and a genuine ice pitch, is why you can arrive on a February Saturday and find rope teams working the flow while families in trainers slide about below them. Both groups are entitled to be there and neither is expecting the other.
The hazard worth naming plainly is the cone that spray builds at the base of a freezing fall. It looks like solid ground, it is often hollow, and it fails without warning. Standing under a frozen fall is the specific thing not to do here, whatever the photographs on the internet show. Add falling ice from above, a tread that ices where the summer path is merely rocky, and a canyon that loses the sun early, and the winter version of this walk asks for equipment the summer version does not.
| Battle Creek in summer | Battle Creek in winter | |
|---|---|---|
| What the walk is | A shaded creekside path to a fall, on rock and root | The same line under snow and ice, with a hard surface under it |
| What you need on your feet | Trainers will do; boots are better on the steps | Microspikes at a minimum, roughly December into March |
| What the fall is doing | Running, fed from a spring above it | Frozen into a column, at its lowest flow of the year |
| Who else is there | Families, dogs, runners, and a full car park by eight | Rope teams on the ice and rappelling groups at the base |
| The specific hazard | Loose rock and a rolled ankle on the tread | A hollow spray cone at the base and falling ice from above |
| How long it takes | An hour to ninety minutes round trip | Longer, and the daylight in the canyon runs out early |
Ice grades as catalogued by the climbing community rather than published by any agency, checked 14 August 2026; conditions in an ice canyon change week to week and no grade survives a warm spell. Nothing here is a recommendation to climb. If you are walking rather than climbing, the useful version is short: microspikes on, and do not stand underneath it.
Do not stand at the base of the frozen fall, whatever the photographs show. Spray from a freezing waterfall builds a cone of ice at its foot that looks like solid, walkable ground and is frequently hollow underneath. It collapses without warning and it does so with a person standing on it. Add the ice that releases off the flow above in a thaw, and the base of this fall in winter is the one place in this canyon with a genuine mechanism for hurting somebody. The walk in is short, the reward is a fifty foot column of ice, and both of those are entirely available from twenty feet back. Microspikes from roughly December to March, and keep off the cone.
Why the creek carries the name it does
March 1849, at the mouth of this canyon.
The town was called Battle Creek before it was called Pleasant Grove, and the creek was called Battle Creek before the town existed. The reason is a documented event at this canyon mouth in 1849, and a companion that sends people up this trail every week should be able to say what it was.
On 5 March 1849 a detachment of about thirty five men from the Mormon settlements at Salt Lake attacked a Timpanogos camp at the mouth of this canyon while the camp was asleep. At least four Timpanogos men were killed. It is recorded as the first violent engagement between the settlers and the Timpanogos Utes in Utah Valley, and the sources that treat it at length, including Intermountain Histories and the encyclopaedic accounts, title it a massacre rather than a battle.
The name attached itself immediately and it stuck to the ground. The creek, the canyon and the falls all took it, and when a settlement was established on the flat below the following year it was called Battle Creek too. The renaming to Pleasant Grove came from a stand of cottonwoods between this drainage and the next one north, and the city's own history page carries both names and the event behind the first one.
One thing frequently attached to this story does not stand up as fact and should be handled as what it is. The tradition that the Ute leader later known as Black Hawk was present here as a boy is reported rather than established, and it is repeated more confidently in visitor writing than the sources support. Treat it as tradition. The dated, sourced part of this is the event itself, its date, and the name it left on every sign at this trailhead.
A trail sign, a creek, a canyon and a fall all carry a name given for one morning in March 1849, and the city changed its own name away from it.
Where this sits
One canyon of two, under a mountain that belongs to nineteen towns.
This page covers one drainage from the road to the fall. The canyon a mile north has its own page, and the mountain the pair of them cut into is a valley subject with its own.
The other one
Grove Creek Canyon
Forest Service trail 048, about 1,500 feet in two miles, and the ridge traverse that joins this canyon to that one.
Read the pageWhat else is here
The top 10, ranked
Ten entries in order, with the operator, the fee and the published season named against each one.
Read the pageThe companion
Pleasant Grove, in full
The two canyons, the June week, the park built twice and the fruit era that ended, in one place.
Read the pageThe mountain above
Timpanogos and the Loop
The summit this drainage is carved out of, its gated byway, its ticketed cave and its two ascent routes.
Read the guideThe flat option
The Murdock Canal Trail
Level tarmac across the bench below, signed near this canyon mouth, for the days without a climb.
Read the guideThe valley
Utah Valley on The Local
Nineteen towns and the seven subjects none of them owns on its own.
Open the hubKeep reading
More of Pleasant Grove on The Local.
Things to do
The top 10, ranked
Ten entries in order, each with its operator, its fee and its season named.
Read the guideThe long climb
Grove Creek Canyon
Forest trail 048, grades to thirty five percent, and the ridge loop to the next canyon.
Read the guideNine days in June
Strawberry Days
Nine days in June, a rodeo running since 1921, and free strawberries and cream.
Read the guideBuilt twice
Discovery Park
Built by volunteers in nine days in 1996, torn out and rebuilt in eight days in 2019.
Read the guideMoving here
The orchards that were
What replaced the strawberry fields, and four dates attached to an address here.
Read the guideThe companion
Pleasant Grove, in full
Two canyons, a June week from 1921, and the fruit era that ended.
Read the pageQuick answers
Battle Creek Falls, answered.
Roughly 1.2 to 1.5 miles round trip with about 400 to 450 feet of climbing, which works out at something like thirty five minutes each way at an unhurried pace. The trail leaves the end of 200 South next to Kiwanis Park, runs up beside the creek, crosses it, and arrives at the base of a fall of about fifty feet sitting at roughly 5,671 feet on the western skirt of Mount Timpanogos. It is short for a waterfall that size, which is exactly why it is busy.
It is easy by effort and awkward by surface. The grade is steady rather than steep and the distance is short, so almost anyone on their own feet manages it, dogs included. What catches people out is the tread, which is rock and root for most of its length with steps and short scrambles near the top. A pushchair will not go up it. Trainers are enough in summer and boots are better on the steps, and between roughly December and March microspikes stop being optional.
At the east end of 200 South, above the water tank next to Kiwanis Park, and in 2026 that answer comes with a caveat. Pleasant Grove has been rebuilding the trailhead parking area, with a temporary lot below the water towers standing in during the work, which adds walking and holds fewer cars. Check the city's trails page for the current arrangement before you drive out. Either way the lot is small and it fills before eight on a June Saturday, so an early start or a weekday is the real answer.
No. There is no trailhead fee, no parking charge and no permit for the walk to the fall, which is unusual for a canyon this close to a major mountain and is worth appreciating. The neighbouring canyon to the north is free as well. What is not free is American Fork Canyon one drainage further north, which runs a Forest Service fee station and is a different jurisdiction with its own rules. Confirm the current position at the trailhead after the parking rebuild finishes.
Yes, and the canyon carries a catalogue of routes rather than a single line. Seven climbs are recorded there and six of them are ice: Pure Fun at WI3 to WI4 is the best regarded, the fall itself goes at about WI3 plus, and Battle Drip, Battle Ram and Lady Strange sit at WI4 plus, WI4 and WI4 minus, with one WI3 line and a mixed route at M4 plus. The rock is poor, so the ice is the reason anyone climbs here. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to get on it.
The walk is, with microspikes and some judgement. The specific hazard is the cone of ice that spray builds at the foot of the frozen fall, which looks like solid ground, is often hollow, and collapses without warning. Add ice releasing off the flow above during a thaw and a tread that freezes hard where it is merely rocky in summer. Stay twenty feet back from the base, put traction on your feet from about December through March, and remember the canyon loses the sun early in the afternoon.
Because of a documented event at the mouth of this canyon on 5 March 1849, when a detachment of about thirty five men from the Mormon settlements attacked a Timpanogos camp while it slept. At least four Timpanogos men were killed, and it is recorded as the first violent engagement between the settlers and the Timpanogos Utes in Utah Valley. The creek, the canyon and the falls took the name, the settlement founded on the flat below in 1850 took it too, and the town later renamed itself Pleasant Grove.
There is a pool at the base and people get into it, but it is a cold, shallow, rock bottomed plunge in a shaded canyon rather than a swimming hole in any useful sense, and it is a poor idea when the flow is high with spring runoff. The creek runs from a spring above the fall rather than purely from snowmelt, which keeps water in it later in the season than you would expect, and also keeps it cold. Treat it as a place to put your feet in rather than a place to swim.
Yes, and they are ordinary on this trail. It is one of the reasons the canyon is as busy as it is: a short, shaded, watered route with a waterfall at the end of it is close to the ideal dog walk, and there is no fee at the gate to think about. The tread is rock and root rather than soft ground, so it is hard on paws over repeated visits, and the trailhead has no water. In winter the ice on the steps is as much of a problem for a dog as it is for you.
One canyon, two completely different seasons.
The same three quarters of a mile that reads as a family walk with dogs on it in July is a rope and screws venue in February, and the parking at the bottom of it has been a building site for most of 2026. If a Pleasant Grove address with a trailhead at the end of the street is what you are weighing, the questions that matter are which side of the bench you are on, what the streets do on a June Saturday, and how the city boundary runs at the north and south edges. Tell me what you are circling and I will put you with a Utah County partner agent, 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.