Spring City (White Hill) Wildlife Management (WMA)

 

(Updated April 13, 2024) When the upper trails are mostly muddy and snowy, this Wildlife Management Area (WMA) near us is a good choice. As of April, 2024, there are some great horse trails here, well marked with signs. The trails are all suitable for barefoot horses in reasonably good condition.  A few somewhat rocky/gravelly spots, but mostly soft sandy dirt. It pays to study a map first and get an idea of where to ride.  Please stay off the bike/hike only trails. All in all an enjoyable ride.  Very dry and no water feature.  Would not recommend in the summer heat.  Definitely a late fall or spring ride.  (as always, click on a photo to open larger images.) 

Reference map of trails https://www.trailforks.com/trails/the-master-loop-mtn-bike-trail/. (some of the map information is not completely correct or complete, but it's one reference.)

Parking

UPDATE!  The parking has been expanded and gated off.(locked access for motorized vehicles Dec. 1-April 15.)  Thank you Back Country Horsemen of Central Utah! This shows the new parking area as of April 19, 2023.

View from the parking area on May 4, 2023.

Tracks

May 13, 2024--interesting 4.8 mile ride--basically down the North Badger trail, the complete Bitterbrush and then on down to the West Jack Rabbit.  Our intention was to find the Far West Jack Rabbit, which we eventually did, but it was very faint in places and we missed the turn up.  We ended up south of the Rattlesnake just bushwhacking, then came to the East Jack Rabbit and on back.

May 2, 2024 track.  3.1 miles.  Nice short ride.  The red line is a new trail for us--Rattlesnake.  I hope that name is a mis-nomer!   It branched off of the south-west Jack Rabbit. No photos yet.  It is an option to come off the ridge down to Pigeon Hollow trail.  It is basically riding through juniper forest--no views.  A little rocky in spots.

  April 25, 2024. 3.3 mile, nice short loop for barefoot horses. Included Bitterbrush and Jack Rabbit trails..

 

Our track on April 19, 2024--(the red line--we didn't get a GPS track. This is approximate). A nice 4.2 mile loop.  Parts of Badger, Elk Horn, Sego lily, Bitterbrush, Eagle, Jack Rabbit & Pigeon Hollow.

Our track on November, 13, 2023, which included the Eagle Trail shown in Yellow. 2.5 miles total coming back on the Jack Rabbit and Pigeon Hollow.

 April 19, 2023. We stayed on the roads and visited the south quarry--About 3.8 miles.

Track on November 1, 2023

All "Horse Trails" ride on May 4, 2023.  Starting out counter-clockwise at the top (coded in MAGENTA sprinkles) is what is now called Elk Horn Trail.  It joins what I call the North Quarry Road (coded in SEA FOAM GREEN. ) We rode this road west and curved back east on the South Quarry Road.(coded in TEAL) There was plenty of room to ride in the grass on the side of this road until we intersected the Quarry Hills which is for bikes only.  Photos below of what to watch for.  We were pointed out the horse trail with the tentative name of Sego Lily. (coded in STRAWBERRY RED).  We went UP this kind of steep hill and intersected Keslo Loop Road. (coded in HONEYDEW--LIGHT GREEN). We rode this up a few dozen yards until we spotted some trails leading south.  We wound our way through the trees, staying away from the bike trails and eventually found what I call the Pigeon Hollow Ridge Road  and Jack Rabbit and Pigeon Hollow trails (available for horses and bikes.). That brought us back to the parking area. 5 mile Loop.  Highest point 6,120'.  Ascent=1,014'.  Trail conditions:  70% dirt, 15% gravelly and 15% rocky.  Fine for barefoot horses in good condition.

  April 20, 2022.  Basically, just rode from one road to the other.  Photos below of that ride. We call this route "North Quarry". The top part of the "lollipop" is now called the Badger trail.

 Oct. 31, 2020.   About 7.2 miles.  We made some incorrect turns and ended up WAY too far west, which required us to do some bushwhacking and zig zagging down a steep hill to get back down to the road.  I used my phone to toggle back and forth which showed kind of where we should have gone.  Oh, well, it was still a good ride and there is so much left to explore.  It kind of reminds me of Antelope Island without the lake. 😊

The part we rode was mostly dirt, some soft and some hard; many rocky areas, but nothing a barefoot horse in good condition cannot handle.  Some two tracks and some single tracks and some no tracks.  We didn't see anyone else even though it was a Saturday.  We saw bike tracks, OHV tracks and horse tracks. (This track did not involve any of the "MASTER LOOP"--Now called "Quarry Hills")

Trails—Jack Rabbit/Eagle

 Jack Rabbit, April 25, 2024, heading west

West Jack Rabbit, April 25, 2024--where it intersects with the bike trail.

View from South Eagle trail (which has great views of both valleys), April 19, 2024

West Jack Rabbit, April 25, 2024

Sign for Jack Rabbit from the ridge going west.

Far West Jack Rabbit, May 13, 2024

Trails—Sego Lily/Bitterbrush

Bitterbrush trail, April 19, 2024

May 4, 2023, Here is the beginning of what is tentatively called Sego Lily Trail.  It is faint and veers off to the left from the well worn bike trail.

Should be looking like this. May 4, 2023 

...And this.  Trail can also be accessed from the south quarry here.

Sego Lily Trail, May 12, 2023

"Top" of the Bitterbrush trail.  At this point you can either turn west for the Jack Rabbit, or...east up the road to the Eagle trail.

Trails—Pigeon Hollow

May 12, 2021.  Lots of sheep in the meadow on the Pigeon Hollow. Can avoid by staying on the upper trails. (As of 2023, I don't believe sheep are allowed there anymore.)

"Fork" where the Pigeon Hollow trail splits up with the horse trail going to the left (South Loop) and the bike trail to the right.  Taken November 1, 2023.

Pigeon Hollow--Lower South Loop Trail on November 1, 2023--not much traffic on this one

 

April 19, 2024, headed back to parking on the Pigeon Hollow

Trails—Elk Horn/Badger

View from the Elk Horn as it heads down the hill on the west side of the north quarry.

Further down from the Elk Horn as it heads down the hill on the west side of the north quarry.

Where the Elk Horn intersects with the North Quarry Road

. At this point turn right for one option.  Turn left for another option and ride up the road for about a half mile.  There, a new trail called the Bitter Brush takes off up the hillside. (that ends up being a "short cut".)  Yet, still ANOTHER option is to ride across the road for the continuation of the Elk Horn.  As of our ride on April 19, 2024, it is marked with yellow/blue ribbons and connects over the hillside to the South Quarry Road.

South Badger Trail, April 19, 2024

Roads

Photo above shows the "south quarry", April 19, 2023.

 

Heading west on the North Quarry Road. There is a corral of sorts.  You can ride to the left of it cross country to avoid the road if desired.  But, the road is soft dirt...

Turned back east on the South Quarry Road.

You don't have to ride ON the South Quarry road.  Plenty of room in the valley bottom.

April 7, 2022, view of Mt. Nebo. This is the North Quarry Road.

April 7, 2022, the "Ridge Road" which goes up between the North and South quarry roads.

On the North Quarry road almost to HWY 89.

Photo taken on April 19, 2023.  Part of the road coming in from HWY 89 to the south quarry.

Great view, October 31, 2020

Heading west on the North Quarry Road.  

Nebo Loop~~Jones Ranch

 

This delightful trail we found "by accident."  Actually, I had done research enough to know it was a trail I would like to try.  Our goal on October 12 was to do the "Summit" trail on the highest point of the Nebo Loop. We drove up the steep side from State Road 132.  However, the small parking area was full.  So, we drove on down to the Payson Lakes area looking for an option.  I spotted the Jones Ranch trailhead with plenty of parking, so....we decided to try it.  If it got too bad, we could always turn back.

This was our track for the day.  8 miles total.  We did the entire Jones Ranch trail plus two side trips--one up what we now know is called Done Ridge (for about 100 yards)    The other up to Box Lake.  HOWEVER, do not recommend that one because we got to the edge of a campground which became off limits to horses, so we didn't even see the lake and turned back to the main trail. The elevation was 7,398-8,212' with 1,150' ascent/descent.     The only thing I didn't like was that it is open to motor bikes/cycles and we encountered two that had no awareness of trail etiquette. Other than one other non-motorized cycle, we had the trail to ourselves.  (Update as of June 16, 2021:  The trail is 60% soft dirt, 20% hard dirt and 20% somewhat rocky.)

This is the trail as shown on All Trails.

(As usual, click on any photo to open enlarged images.)

This is the Jones Ranch trailhead.  It is about a mile past the Payson Lakes Campground if you come up that way.  Recommend coming up from Payson and parking at the "Double Falls" trail head.

This is a google maps search for Double Falls Trailhead from our place.     Although coming over the Nebo Loop shows 2 miles shorter, it used about 10 more gallons of gas because of the climb and took closer to 1 hour, 50 mins. The third option is coming up through Nephi.  For us that one is a few miles longer, but "seems" shorter and I think I like it better.

This is a view of the Double Falls trailhead from the end of the Jones Ranch trail. No one was parked there on Oct. 12.   

The trail sign is in the far background on the opposite side of the road. The trail on the right is Done Ridge. (see that post for more information.)

The following photos show some of the trail taken either Oct. 12 or June 16.  It is full of aspen, evergreens, open meadows and a few springs where horses and dogs can get a drink.

This is the turn off to Box Lake. (not recommended)

Looking at the Trailhead parking on June 16.  We were the only rig parked there, but it WAS a week-day morning.

For more information and photos, search these trail names on All Trails.  I'll keep this blog updated as we ride more in that area.