Car Graveyard Hike

One of our favorite hikes in the fall is the Car Graveyard Hike in Farmington. We go every fall because it's a little spooky with all the old crashed cars that have fallen off the canyon road above. Check out a video and more photos here.  We have never been in the spring, so this year we went in April, as soon as the snow was melted. The gate was closed to the canyon road so we had to park at the bottom and walk a mile up to the trail head.

When we got to the second river, the water was crazy high in the river and I didn't feel like it was safe to pass with 5 kids. So we turned back. I went the next week with just my oldest son because I heard there is a HUGE waterfall on this hike. I couldn't believe I had been on this hike so many times but never saw the waterfall. But I have always gone with kids so we always ended up turning around after spotting the cars. 

As in the previous post, I thought there were 3 cars on this hike, but going in the spring you can spot more because the leaves haven't all grown in yet. I was shocked to not only find more cars but also repel down a steep cliff to find a GIANT waterfall! 

You definitely want to take this hike in the spring to catch the spring run off to get the full effect of the waterfall, but any time is going to be beautiful.

This is the view about a half mile in. Such a beautiful canyon.

This is still car #1, it is located above the waterfall at the 2nd river crossing. (word on the street is that there is another car or two above this first car, we will go again and confirm and update).

After crossing the river with the first car head east into the canyon following the main trail. You will be walking along a ledge and when you reach the trees keep an eye out to the right where you will find car #2 which is an old VW Bug! This was our first time seeing this car and we were SO excited!

A little way up further you will find what we thought was car #2, but has now been named #3 since we found the bug.

This car is cool because it has suicide doors. It's super old and full of bullet holes.

Car #4 will be a little further up on your left. It looks like a truck that has been folded in half.

Continue up the trail and you will see another small river. On the left of the river you will see car #5.

At this point we could see several other things to the right of this car that looked to be more cars and also a blue tarp. My son and I got a super creeped out feeling and felt like we needed to leave this area immediately. For what ever reason I don't know. We felt very safe on this hike although we didn't see any other hikers. But at that point in the hike we decided to follow our instincts (that still small voice of warning) and high tale in out of there! (we will go back and confirm the other cars and update here).

cross over the small river and continue on the path. At this point you will be able to hear the waterfall. The decent to reach the falls is very steep. Depending on you kid, they could make it down with assistance. I would say 5 and under might need to be carried or helped. 

Thanks to whoever put this rope up for us!

This hike went from being one of my favorites to possible my all time favorite "local" hike. Because we all know southern Utah takes the cake for having the best hikes.

The waterfall was ROARING! It was so insane! Just standing next to it we can completely soaked!

Such beautiful views.

Look at the light peeking in. I could have stayed there all night.

We also found this bridge on the way back to the parking lot. We have never seen it before, but since the canyon road was closed and we had to walk it, we found this beautiful bridge. There is also a trail along the river but it was getting dark so we will have to try that next time.