Adams Canyon Hike - WINTER EDITION
Adams Canyon in Layton is easily the most popular hike in the city, possibly the county. And for good reason. Two beautiful waterfalls! The lower falls is 20 feet and only 20 minutes from the trailhead. The upper fall has a 40 ft waterfall and is about 2 hrs from trailhead. Its a good incline up the canyon, but totally doable with kids. (more details at the end of this post)
I love hiking this trail with my kids, but it was super fun to meet up with my friends Caroline and Sherice for a girls hike!
- Free
- No bathrooms
- Using this Kelty Child Carrier.
- Dogs allowed
- Take water and a hat! The trail is in full sun until you reach the falls
DIRECTIONS to lower falls: Very important. There are NO trail markers. To find the lower falls, go up 10 switch backs, the trail will flatten out a bit and you will see the 11th switch back ahead. Don't take the 11th switch back. There will be 3 trails on the right, before the 11th switchback. The first 2 are the same trail. They merge and will take you straight to the falls, just veer to the left (heading toward the canyon) at the fork. This trail has a bit of a steep part before the fork. The 3rd right is the trail we took in, we took the 2nd one on the way back. Just follow it straight to the falls. There is no fork. If you get to the 11th switch back you have gone to far, it will lead you to the main Adams Canyon trail.
- 2 miles round trip
- 20 minutes to water fall
- Gain 164 ft
- Parking lot 4827 ft
- Peak elevation 5084 ft
Main Adams Canyon Trail with 40ft waterfall
DIRECTIONS to upper falls: Up 10 switchbacks and keep heading East into the canyon, up two more switchbacks and then follow the river the rest of the way up.
- Distance – 3.8 miles roundtrip
- Approximate hiking time – 3 to 4 hours
- Elevation at trailhead – 4823 feet
- Elevation at highest point – 6186 feet
- Elevation gain – 1363 feet
- Difficulty – Moderate – Switchbacks for the first 0.5 miles, no shade. Shade for last half of the hike.
- Trail – well maintained trail of dirt, sand, some gravel and rock, will require rock hopping through stream bed.
