Sawtooth Canyon Trail

Dogs Unknown

Features Views

A passenger car can make it to the parking area marked on the map where there is a small parking area next to an old miner's cabin (although you'll have to drive carefully, because it's not a great dirt road in places), but someone with higher clearance can easily make it to the actual trailhead, where the trail starts on the map.

From the trailhead, the trail dips down into the old wash and continues a while through loose gravel on a pretty gradual incline until, after about another 3/4 mile you reach a fork in the canyon. Take the left fork instead of going straight (there is a pretty obvious cairn and even an arrow on the ground made of rocks showing the way into the right canyon) and follow this wash that has a distinct trail most of the way through it (and if you lose the trail, the wash is still very easy to follow). As you make your way through the wash, the elevation gain is very gradual and manageable, and the route is made even better by the spectacular cliffs, rock formations, and foliage that can be seen. We were able to see flowering cacti and lots of greenery in spite of the trail being in the desert.

As the trail gets closer to the head of the canyon, it goes over a few small rock steps that require some easy scrambling and eventually it reaches the top of the wash, where the route to the top leaves the wash and climbs up a steep ridge to get to the saddle just below Notch Peak. The summit is obviously to the left (west) of this saddle, and from this point you just take whatever route seems easiest to get to the top, where you can enjoy amazing views down into the canyon below (over 2000 feet below), and all around as well. Great Basin National Park's great peaks can be seen, as well as Sevier Lake (if there is water in it), and the many surrounding mountain ranges.