Leaving Salina, the trail passes through rolling red hills. These red
rocks are much older than those exposed at the other side of the valley
in the Pahvant Range. At places, such as northeast of Sigurd, these
rocks contain enough gypsum to make wallboard. On the map this area is
marked by the word "Mines" and the crossed-picks symbol.
Several wallboard manufacturing plants are located in Sigurd.
After passing through the hills, the trail breaks out onto the floor
of the Sevier River Valley. Here, irrigated fields of alfalfa flank the
trail on both sides. After making a sharp right turn at a grove of
cottonwood trees, the trail heads west across the valley and crosses the
Sevier River at the trail's lowest point, 5,140 feet. Then, after
crossing old Highway 89, the trail enters the town of Aurora.
West of Aurora the trail climbs the foothills of the Pahvant Range.
It is a good trail, but rocky in places. Vegetation is sagebrush and
grass with scattered clumps of pinyon and juniper There are good views
of the Sevier Valley, Musina Peak, Monroe Mountain, and the Sevier
Plateau from several of the ridgecrests. Northward there are views of
the Gunnison Plateau, while to the south are the Tushars, often
snow-capped. A treeless depression in these foothills is called Frogs
Flat, but without water it is difficult to understand how it was named.
From Frogs Flat to the mouth of the canyon of Willow Creek the trail
passes through scattered clumps of pinyon and juniper alternating with
openings of sagebrush and grass. The red cliffs southwest of the trail
are composed of material shed from an ancient mountain range that
preceded the present Pahvant Range. The cliffs are part of the fault
scarp that raised the Pahvants above the surrounding valleys. Recent
movement along this fault is shown by bare, white lines visible at the
base of the slope. The lake to the northwest is Scipio Lake, a reservoir
supplying irrigation water to the town of Scipio. This section of the
trail is hot in the summer; but good for spring and fall riding.
The trail meets the Willow Creek Road, Forest Road 102, near the
Forest boundary. On the flats below the canyon it is a good road, rising
through a mosaic of sagebrush and pinyon-juniper. On entering the canyon
the road becomes a bit rougher but is still good. Here there are
cottonwood, oak, and maple along the stream with pinyon and juniper on
the drier hillsides. Soon spruce and fir join in. Within the canyon
there are several good spots near the creek for overnight camping. Cool
air drainage makes the canyon cool in the daytime but nippy at night.
Near the top of the switchbacks there is a pull-off on the east side
of the road that provides a sweeping view of the surrounding country. To
the northwest is Jacks Peak. Then there is Round Valley and, on a clear
day, Mount Nebo can be seen over the Valley Mountains. To the southeast
is Beehive Peak and the Sevier River Valley.
A short distance north of the pull-off the trail passes a rain gage
that is a vital link in stream-flow forecasting in this arid country.
The Pahvant Range is tied to the water economy of central Utah in other
ways, as demonstrated by the contour trenches visible on the west side
of the trail. These are remedial measures constructed to retard runoff,
allowing it to seep into the ground. These trenches are a monument to a
vital portion of Fishlake Forest history.
Around the turn of the century there was no management of grazing.
Sheep bands raced to get the most grass before others ate it. Neither
the absentee sheep owners nor the government, which intended to dispose
of the land in homesteads, worried about the future. The result was
severe overgrazing which deprived locals of summer forage for their
domestic stock and led to destructive flooding of the valley towns. The
surrounding communities petitioned the Federal Government to correct
these problems. Eventually this led to the establishment of the Fishlake
and other National Forests in southern Utah. In addition to reducing
grazing by as much as 700 percent in some places, the Forest Service
constructed contour trenches to retard runoff. These trenches stop soil
erosion on steep lands and allow vegetation to regain a hold on the
soil.
Both spring runoff and summer thunderstorms can make the trail across
the entire length of the Pahvant Range extremely slippery. The clay
soils are also highly prone to rutting, which leads to a rough road when
they dry out.
This portion of the trail provides stunning overlooks of steep
timbered canyons to the west and red rock canyons to the east. Even
though both sides of the range have steep, narrow canyons, the Pahvant
Range really does have a split personality.
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