On Labor Day itself, we slept in just a little and then drove over to Millcreek Canyon to hike its main (and less popular) fork. Even so far into the summer there was still plenty of water flowing all through the canyon and it felt refreshing - but not at all cold - to walk in it.
Sun coming up over the canyon walls
Milton got to be off-leash and proved that he really likes creek hiking: he was getting his crazy on, leaping and plunging into the water. As the sun rose in the sky, we walked upstream as the canyon changed from narrow and tree-choked, to wide open and sandy, to cottonwood-shaded grassy meadows. We saw only a couple of people but the trail was clear and easy to follow.
Downstream
We walked until we came to a fence marking passage through private property, where we could have continued on to the Steel Bender jeep road. There were some petroglyphs on the canyon wall here, which we were alerted to by the sign on the hitching post: Leave horses here when looking at rock art. We also met a couple with a dog who had come via jeep; the woman called Milton handsome.
Upstream
As we headed back down the canyon, we hiked back along the cliffs for a ways instead of sticking to the creek. It was up against the canyon walls that we found caves and an archeological site/native burial ground. We hadn't even realized it was there when we walked by the first time.
Absolutely enjoying himself
The sun was pretty much overhead at this point and our all-black dog was starting to overheat. The trail was staying near the cliffs and in the sun so at the first drainage we found, we went back down to the creek and just walked in the water until everyone cooled off.
The course of the water has carved out soaking pools
We even found a couple of deep (over my waist) holes where I waded in to see if Milton knew how to swim. He doesn't, quite, so that's something to work on. He still enjoyed wading and jumping in shallower sections, though.
The only deer we saw
We knew we were getting back to to the mouth of the canyon when we started to run into other people enjoying the creek's deeper pools. Milton wanted to meet all of them and it was tough to convince him to keep walking with us when there were so many other people to pet him.
Ancient native site
When we got back, we had lunch, cleaned up and got on the road around 3:30 p.m., with no little trepidation about what the holiday traffic might be like. It was actually fine most of the way but with only ten miles to go in Spanish Fork canyon, it came to a near standstill. We were only really delayed about forty minutes and things loosened up again once we got on I-15. It's always worth getting away, even if you do have to deal with holiday traffic.
Gorgeous day to finish the long weekend
Hike stats: 8.61 miles; 3:11 / 2.7 m.p.h. moving; 3:44 / 2.3 m.p.h. overall; 960' of climbinb
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