1 Markagunt Plateau

Printable Trail Map

This is the longest route on the district at almost 82 miles (not including spur routes).  It travels south through Bear Valley, Horse Valley then along the shores of Panguitch Lake. Then this route turns west and ascends Clear Creek to the summit at which point the route turns to OHV-only trail (62”) for about 2 miles to Yankee Meadows. Then it turns south and climbs out of the basin and tops out at Sidney Valley. This provides a spectacular vista overlooking the great basin and the valleys to the west. After descending through Sidney Valley, it crosses Highway 143 into the Red Desert area.  At this point, it travels through some high elevation meadows and the top of the Tommy Creek drainage. As the trail keeps heading south, it will travels through Tippets Valley and Dry Valley. After this, comes a portion of the trail that crosses a lava field. It gets a little rowdy and is nearly impassible to full size vehicles.  Not far beyond this the trail  passes through  Duck Creek Village. From here the trailheads to the east and passes through the Uinta Flat area, crosses over Strawberry and Swains Creeks then crosses Highway 14 at Ike’s Valley. After crossing highway 14 and traveling south, the trail drops down into  the Stout Canyon area of the District. The trail heads south for approximately four miles through the bottom of Stout Canyon and ends at the Forest boundary. It is about another mile to the Junction of Highway 89 just north of Orderville. 

This trail contains a number of spur routes including:

11 Cottonwood
This spur is just under 6 miles in length and can be accessed about four miles in from the trail head off of Highway 20. The spur tracks back toward I-15.

12 Little Creek
This spur is about 9 miles in from the trailhead, and is a little under 2.5 miles in length. It connects the main trail to the Forest boundary about 4 miles northeast of the town of Paragonah as the crow flies.

13 Red Creek
This is a 4 mile spur that heads past Red Creek Reservoir and ends at the Forest boundary about 4 miles east of the town of Paragonah.

14 Second Left Hand
This is about a 5.5 mile spur that connects the main trail to the Forest boundary and essentially ties in to Highway 143 in Parowan Canyon. 

15 Red Desert
This 4 mile spur trail is a bit more of direct route from red desert to spur trail 16 and sage valley. It traverses a long open meadow on the north end of this trail.

16 Sage Valley
This spur is an 11 mile section of trail that connects to Highway 14 near Long Valley Creek and continues on paralleling Highway 14 for a bit before it turns north toward Cedar Breaks National Monument. At the west end of this spur is a loop that circles back down to the south toward Highway 14 an then wraps around back to the east before tying back into itself about ½ mile north of Highway 14.

17 Turkey Track Loop
This 10 mile spur takes off from the main trail just east of Strawberry Creek and circles down to Swains Creek before tying back into the mail trail. It crosses the main trail and continues to parallel Swains Creek to the confluence of Strawberry Creek and Swains Creek drainages, at which point it circles back to the west and turns south paralleling Strawberry Creek until it once again ties into the main trail.

18 Ike’s Valley Overlook
This spur is just over 2.5 miles long. It starts out heading down through Ike’s Valley and then winds its way west and terminates on a point overlooking Swains Creek.
 

At a Glance