Backpacking suggestions? 1 night

[Stephanie]

Hey everyone!

Me and a friend are looking for a short, overnight backpacking trip to get away from the city this weekend. We live in Salt Lake City and are willing to drive up to 4 hours away to go somewhere. Any suggestions?
Also, my friend was thinking Pleasant Creek?? but we cant find anything online about whether or not you can camp there. Does anyone know?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

[WasatchWill]

Hey everyone!

Me and a friend are looking for a short, overnight backpacking trip to get away from the city this weekend. We live in Salt Lake City and are willing to drive up to 4 hours away to go somewhere. Any suggestions?
Also, my friend was thinking Pleasant Creek?? but we cant find anything online about whether or not you can camp there. Does anyone know?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Pleasant Creek in Capitol Reef? Yeah, you can camp along it with a backcountry permit from the Visitor Center, but on a weekend, you'd probably have a decent amount of day hikers going through there with all the visitors the park gets this time of year. It's a pretty short canyon and it'd probably be difficult to secure a nice secluded spot unless you're willing to scramble way up above the canyon. Other options down that way include Upper Muley Twist or Spring Canyon. Either one would require the same kind of permit from the Visitor Center. For Spring Canyon, if you wanted to keep it short and not worry about a shuttle, you could do an out an back via Chimney Canyon and camp not far up in Upper Spring Canyon. Lots of options abound around Escalante as well. Or...if you want to keep it closer to home, you could come down to Utah County and there is a fantastic little loop that connects Grove Creek with Battle Creek above Pleasant Grove that would be pretty free of snow. Heaps of nice camp sites abound around the Grove Creek Indian Spring area and Chris Flat and lot of waterfalls to see along both Grove Creek and Battle Creek. Here's a TR from taking my daughter up on that loop a couple years ago: https://backcountrypost.com/threads/daddy-daughter-grove-creek-battle-creek-loop.4810/

Edit: One more option I just thought of...you could also go up to Ogden and go up Taylor Canyon, over Malans Peak (a low peak at about 6k feet) and then camp up in Malans Basin. That was one of my favorite hikes as a teen living in Roy. You also have Waterfall Canyon right there from the same trailhead with a big waterfall that is worth the short hike as a secondary day hike. Like Grove Creek and Chris Flat, it's lower elevation, and what little snow it would have gotten this week will all be melted out by the sunny weekend.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Pleasant Creek in Capitol Reef? Yeah, you can camp along it with a backcountry permit from the Visitor Center, but on a weekend, you'd probably have a decent amount of day hikers going through there with all the visitors the park gets this time of year. It's a pretty short canyon and it'd probably be difficult to secure a nice secluded spot unless you're willing to scramble way up above the canyon.

I was just in Pleasant Creek last Saturday afternoon on what seemed like a pretty busy weekend in the Park. When we arrived at the trailhead there was no one else there. We had lunch there and then spent a few hours in the canyon. We did see two other groups while we were there, but both of them went to the rock art panel and then turned around. We saw a nice campsite a little further down on on the other side of the canyon from that point that no one else seemed to go past and I don't think would be too busy, even on a weekend.