Return to Taylor Creek Trail

We had hiked the pretty Taylor Creek Trail just last October and hadn’t been planning on returning but we thought we’d take advantage of Abby not being able to hike (she’s not allowed in Zion National Park) and do the trail again. We decided to do this trail too because it’s an easy 5 mile out and back – perfect because I injured myself about 10 days after Abby’s accident and was still recovering.

The trail follows the middle fork of Taylor Creek up one of the canyons in the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park to Double Arch Alcove. Though we hiked the trail the exact same week last year the cottonwood and maple leaves were largely gone this time around, particularly in the first mile and a half of the hike. As we passed the second pioneer cabin and entered the more protected areas of the canyon however many of the yellow and red leaves were found to be still be clinging to the tree branches. Unfortunately this section of the canyon is entirely shaded so the pictures aren’t all that spectacular.

At two and half miles we reached the alcove, but instead of turning around we kept walking up the wash for an additional third of a mile until we ran into a 40 foot waterfall, though now just a trickle. We immediately went to turn back when I saw a path up the canyon around the falls which we decided to investigate. Reaching the top after a steep scramble we saw we could easily descend on the other side and keep to the wash at least until the point when it entered a narrows, but at this point Tom reminded me it was supposed to be an easy day and that we were already going to be doing a total of 6 miles in order to return to the trailhead from here. He tends to be more sensible than I.

Our return hike in midday was delightfully sunny and warmed our hands, stiffened from the cold of the shaded back half of the canyon. We passed numerous people along the popular trail but we were stopped when a woman eating a snack on one of the rocks shouted as we walked past. Seeing us turn back she asked if we were tourists and hearing that we were not, asked us to identify the large spider which had appeared next to her. The large, furry spider was confirmed to be a tarantula, which made her thankful she had seen it in time.