Rick's Canyon Trail #127

Dogs Unknown

Features Birding · Fall Colors · Views · Wildflowers · Wildlife

To get to Rick's Canyon, you need to go to the Right Hand Fork Trail, follow it for almost half of a mile, and look for a split in the trails. Take the fork to the right and through the small gate and you'll be on the Rick's Canyon Trail.

From the gate, the trail starts to ascend slowly through some grasses and small, scattered junipers. On the right-hand side of the canyon, there are some truly spectacular rock formations forming the mouth of this canyon and they continue for the first few hundred yards near the trail.

After about another half mile from the fork, there is another fork off (on your left) to the Steel Hollow Trail (another great singletrack from the Right Hand Fork area). From this fork, go to the right and the trail starts to get into Rick's Canyon. The trail follows along the bottom with gradually sloping canyon ridges to either side, and passes in and out of forests and small rock outcroppings. Compared to other canyons around the area, this canyon has very few rock outcroppings but there are some still.

Soon after the Steel Hollow fork, there is another fork to go to Little Rick's Canyon, although that trail has apparently been abandoned by the forest service after a large avalanche destroyed part of the trail, or at least so I've heard. The trail continues from here toward the head of Rick's Canyon, where the trail starts to steepen and pass through more dense forests and then starts to switchback up towards the top of the canyon where it meets up with the Marie Spring Road.