Casto Canyon Hike

On our way home from our camping trip, we went for a walk in Casto Canyon. The National Forest Service trailhead is here. Scroll in to see it. It's a ~5 mile drive in from Highway 89, first road south of Panguitch.

What a beautiful canyon. It appears as if its major use is atv's, unfortunately, but there were none on that Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful warm sunny day with bright blue sky and beautiful orange rock spires all around. The trail follows the stream, and there are many stream crossings. The stream is not nearly as large as it appears to be on the satellite image - I got through the stream crossings with dry feet. John did not, as he was smart and not willing to jump across with Ian on his back. So he got wet feet. But that's no big deal. We usually wear shoes and socks that dry quickly.

It said "no camping" at the trailhead, but I'm not sure if it meant no camping in the canyon or at the trailhead. I can't imagine what kind of damage a bunch of teenage 3.2 drinking atv marauders would do to this place, though, and I can see that as a big reason that they might not want campers.

Check out the terrain feature on google maps - you can see that those spires are over 400 feet tall!! This trail description talks of another nearby canyon (Losee Canyon) that may not be used by atv's - that may be a good option for busy weekends or for just avoiding the atv's and their effects. One of the effects of the atv's in this canyon is that the trail often goes through the stream for long stretches. However, it's not too hard to just find your own trail. It's easy to follow the stream (especially on the way back to the car, as that is downstream), and it shouldn't be too hard on the landscape to traipse off trail in this location. You can see that the water will rise and wash over your footprints and nourish the plantlife there at some point. (Many places in the southern Utah desert have cryptobiotic crust that you want to avoid, but this stream bottom did not appear to be one of those places.)

(Tango is very alert when Ian has a snack. And Ian is wisely wary. Then tosses him a cracker.)

We brought snacks and Ian got to check out the interesting fine sand on the dry streambed. It was a beautiful hike, and we all loved it. It was well worth waking up from his car-nap for this!

ETA: Neat!