Deaf Smith Canyon

This was a "Hike of the Week" in the Salt Lake Tribune on 8/14/14.  It is a fun little hike, but  it is not heavily travelled and there is not much of a trail for a lot  of the way. I did not see a single piece of litter on this hike, and that is very rare!  The trail is  less than 2 miles each way, but seems a little longer! You have to go over/under several fallen trees, and you will swear  that you have lost the trail, but as there is no other option, you keep going, then find remnants of a trail again.  If you are too preoccupied  trying to follow the trail, you may forget to look up at the gorgeous huge, towering pines and aspen.  If you bring small children, you will be helping them much of the way.
     To get to the trail head, from the stop light at the bottom of Big Cottonwood Canyon, head toward Little Cottonwood Canyon along Wasatch Boulevard.  After about 1 1/2 miles, you will see a fire station on the left.  Just past the station, turn left onto Kings Hill Drive. Drive 1/2 mile, then turn left onto  Golden Oak Drive.  Park along the road, and go through the gate at the end of the road.  There are "No Trespassing " signs all over, but the trail is open to the public, so don't let that deter you, just stay on the trail.  After a few minutes of trail, you will come to another neighborhood.  I guess somebody in this neighborhood had some influence to have the trail start in the other neighborhood!  Turn left up the paved road for a short distance, and you will again be on dirt trail, headed up the canyon.  A short way up the canyon, the trail splits. Stay to the right to go up the South fork.  Part way up, maybe 3/4 mile mark, I saw a lone apple tree with a nice crop of apples.  They looked very tempting, but they were just out of reach, even with my trusty trekking poles.  I wonder if some miner many years ago stopped to eat his lunch and threw his apple core there!  You will cross a couple of rock piles, again thinking you have lost the trail, but keep going, you are almost there.  When you come to a small bridge, you have made it.  There is a fire pit, wood bench, a place where the stream is dammed up to form a tiny pond, and a  cave with a rock wall to shelter it.  When you head back the way you came, you will see a trail off to your right that takes you to a nice view of the valley. Then you have to make your way back down to the trail.
     The rest of this blog is not about the hike, but here is an interesting story:  As I was about to return to my car, I heard a voice reading the description of the hike in the previous day's Tribune.  So I waited for them to arrive, and had a nice visit with  a retired pediatrician and his daughter.  When he told me his name, I asked if he knew anyone with his last name, and first name Rich.  He told me Rich was his brother.  It turns out that 23 years ago, during the Gulf War, I was stationed in the Army in a small town in Germany.  On Christmas Eve, I went to to the base to check my mail.  The place was locked up, and there was a soldier looking lonely and cold, sitting on his bags. I asked him what he was doing there, and he said he was a Reservist from Utah, activated for the war, and a bus had dropped him off, and left before he realized the place was locked up for the holiday!  So I took him home with me, and he spent Christmas with our family, staying two nights with us. We became good friends for the few months he was there, hiking to castles and doing Volksmarches on weekends. We lost contact with him when he went back home, and I was amazed to run into his brother on a remote hike in Utah!
     One cannot help but wonder where the name "Deaf Smith" came from.  I did a little research. In an excellent book by Charles L. Keller, called The Lady in the Ore Bucket, he says that nobody knows for sure, but the name was changed from Little Willow Canyon to Deaf Smith Canyon between 1952 and 1962. There is a Deaf Smith County in Texas, named after a deaf man that played an important role in the Texas Revolution.  There were many pioneers with the name Smith; maybe one of them was deaf.

The tempting apple tree

On the way up

Almost there

Bench and fire ring

Rock wall

Left by the person who built the bench?

View from detour on the way down

A beautiful hike!