Things To Do In Utah: Hiking to Scout Cave
Published On: November 23, 2015 Posted by: Jeremy Peterson
Our family recently took a trip to St. George to decompress before the busy holiday season. While we were in the area, we decided to explore some of the trails in the nearby wilderness. Our quest took us to the Scout Cave and Johnson Canyon Arch trailhead just south of the entrance to Snow Canyon State Park.
While the trail is pretty obvious at the early onset, the trail becomes more difficult to navigate moving forward.
As usual, southern Utah has an ‘other worldly’ appeal that is unique to anywhere in the U.S. On this trail, the red sandstone and sandy trail are permeated by ancient lava flows that create a distinct contrast.
Eventually, the lava flow ends and gives a great view below into Johnson Canyon which runs north-south.
The foliage was in the midst of changing to fall colors.
An inconspicuous switchback took us into the wash below.
After the descent, the trail follows the wash for quite a distance to a junction.
At a junction between two washes, the trail takes a left up another wash. There are a couple 4-foot ledges that need to be overcome along the way. Near the head of the wash is this set of stairs leading to the ledge above and to Scout Cave and beyond.
We happened to hike a little too far to the south along the ledge.
Just south of Scout Cave is this interesting cave feature. We called it Nostril Cave. There was a 7 foot ledge to overcome in order to access the nostrils. We pledged to return home injury-free and so kept moving.
Scout Cave is quite sizable and has an interesting ceiling vent along with other unique features.
Here is a view of the ceiling vent.
The top of the cave has an interesting swept clef ceiling. The sky is visible through portions of it.
The vantage point of the mouth of the cave did provide some spectacular views of the surrounding area.
The walk back was more difficult as we spent a lot of time wandering around searching for our trail. However the light change of the afternoon provided some great photogenic moments as we wandered.
My girls are real troopers. I am glad they enjoy the outdoors as much as their father.
And finally, no trip would be complete without a shameless selfie.
The next time you are in St. George, make sure you check out The Scout Cave Trail. It’s a memory maker!
