The
Green Hollow trail (also known as Greens Lake, 310 East, or Lichen It
Extension) joins the top of Licken It and Lava Flow to a trailhead on the
gravel road Greens Lake
Drive. The Highlands trail runs from the Greens Lake trailhead to the C
Trail. See below for the Highlands trail.
The trail's twists and turns are hard to see here,
but it's a fun ride. First photos and review by Bruce on November 19, 2016.
Updated May 3, 2017.
Green Hollow!
Green Hollow was completed in November 2016 as an addition to
the Iron Hills trail system. It extends from
the top of Lichen It to the Greens Lake trailhead further uphill. This section is
2.5 miles long and early-intermediate in technical difficulty. Green
Hollow will gain about 500 feet of elevation before ending at the Greens
Lake trailhead.
Improved and fenced Southview trailhead parking area at the end
of Shurtz Canyon Drive. There's now a bathroom here (closed in winter).
To climb Green Hollow, you'll first need to climb Lichen
It. On Lichen It you'll climb
from 5950 feet elevation to 6450 on fairly easy but fun singletrack. Start at the Southview trailhead in south Cedar City. At the top of Lichen It, fork left uphill when you see the
entry to Lava Flow.
(In May 2017, there isn't a trail sign yet, and the turn to Green Hollow -- through
a rock garden -- is anything but obvious.) Just know, if you're about to
roll over the rocks into Lava Flow, Green Hollow is about 20 feet behind you.
My Rocky Mountain Blizzard fat bike, leaning against
the gatepost at the singletrack entry at the top of the trail. I climbed
the trail. In the snow. No shuttle for this guy.
If you're a shuttle monkey DHer, you can start at the top --
either the big DH via the C Trail and Highlands, or from the Greens Lake
trailhead. Greens
Lake Drive forks off Old 91 just before Shurtz Canyon Drive (the street
that takes you to the trailhead). The pavement will turn to a gravel road
and climb up toward some homes on the hill. About two miles uphill, turn
into the Greens Lake trailhead. The trail starts as doubletrack on the
east side of parking, going south 100 yards. The gate
through the fence straight ahead is the start of the singletrack.
The new Boulder Dash trail is on your
left at mile 1.7 from the top, 0.8 miles uphill from the junction of Green
Hollow with Lichen
It. Boulder Dash shortcuts to Lava Flow for a one-way trip to the
bottom. Boulder Dash is highly
technical and for true experts only.
Bruce
rails a turn in May 2017.
For climbers, Green Hollow is significantly more strenuous than
lower Lichen It. While a lot of the trail is mellow and flattish, the climbs
following the little dips are steeper. Turns are a bit tighter. I didn't notice any tricky rock
stuff.
You'll lose some elevation on downhills, then have to grunt
to get it back. The singletrack ends at almost 7000 feet elevation at a corral
just off the gravel Greens Lake road. The whole climb from
Southview trailhead to the trail's end yielded 1100 total vertical feet of
climbing, with a total distance of 5.2 miles.
The trail has almost constant shallow dips.
There are a couple of S-turn descents into washes.
At the top of Green Hollow, you can continue uphill on the
gravel Greens Lake Drive to reach the top of the C
Trail. After a DH run on the C Trail, you can catch the paved East
Bench Trail back to Old 91 near the freeway. From here, it's a short
pedal to retrace your car's path to the trailhead parking.
Looking west.
Views are rare, but occasionally there will be a break in
the trees allowing you to see the Cedar City area to the west. Not
high-voltage views by Utah standards.
The terrain is a mixture of pinion pine and juniper. The
understory is mostly bare dirt and rock cobble with an occasional manzanita or pitiful
weed.
We're about a half-mile from the top. The terrain has
flattened and the trees have thinned out.
As a downhill, Green Hollow is a lot of fun. But it's not
all down. You'll need to climb a few steepish pitches and a couple of
S-turns when you plunge through ravines.
Similar
to Licken It, this trail could make a good snow ride. But don't count on
riders from Cedar to pack it down for you. For local residents, there's
dry dirt in winter just down the freeway. I made the first tracks on the trail's announced
Grand Opening day, a Saturday, two days
after the snowstorm. I saw no one, uphill or down.
A turn in the snow.
Bottom Line:
Good stuff. In the six months since this trail was finished, I've done it
three times. And not just to get some
non-snow photos. It's a good uphill ride and a riot to ride downhill.
Looking
north near the top of the ride.
Green Hollow Trail
as an uphill...
If the above video does not appear on your
browser/device, you can watch it on YouTube by clicking
here.
Update July 2017
The Highlands Trail (C Connector)
The Highlands Trail opened July 2017
connecting the C
Trail to the Greens Lake (Green Hollow) trailhead. With the completion
of this trail, there's a continuous singletrack route from the C Overlook
down to the Southview Trailhead. The Highlands trail can be used as a
climber or a downhill.
Climbing east on the Highlands trail, with about 1/4 mile to
go before reaching the C Trail.
The Highlands trail begins as singletrack on the east side
of the Greens Lake trailhead. After crossing Greens Lake road, it climbs
1.6 miles to join the C Trail at N37 38.702 W113 02.777. This junction is
1.8 miles downhill from the origin of the C Trail at the Overlook.
Layout
of the Greens Lake trailhead, looking east. Either the singletrack or the gravel road
will take you to the Highlands trail where it crosses Greens Lake Drive.
As a downhill route from the C Trail, Highlands and Green
Hollow will have less foot traffic than the lower C Trail. It also rides
better.
To climb to the C Overlook, take Lichen It uphill, then Green Hollow to
the Greens Lake trailhead, then Highlands to C for the last bit of uphill
to 8200 feet elevation at the C Overlook.
(Although the C Trail has a reputation as a downhiller trail, it rides
pretty well in the uphill direction.)
At mile 1.8 from the C Overlook, keep left for
Highlands.
The Highlands trail creates loop options using the C Trail.
The loop rides either direction. The loop consists of either Lichen It or
Lava Flow (depending on which direction you ride), Green Hollow,
Highlands, C Trail, and the East Bench paved trail, a bit of road and ATV
track and Southview paved trail. (The East Bench trail
ends on Old 91 just north of Greens Lake Drive, about 1/3 mile from the
Southview trailhead. See the Cedar City Paved
Trails page for details on making the connection to Southview.)
Rolling through pinion pine and rabbitbrush just
downhill from the C Trail fork.
It's possible to drop to the C trail from the northwest
corner of the Highlands subdivision. This 80-foot hike-a-bike connector is not
officially marked. To reach it, fork to the left after entering the
Highlands subdivision from below and left again at the next road fork to N37 38.680 W113 02.804.
The connector drops steeply from the gravel road down to the C
trail about 100 yards uphill from the Highlands trail fork.
Looking northwest as the trail passes a rock outcrop.
Bottom Line:
Great addition to the Iron Hills trail system, offering a long downhill, a
scenic and fun climbing route, and new loop options.
Turns are generous in radius and flow well either
uphill or downhill.
Highlands Trail as
a downhill...
If the above video does not appear on your
browser/device, you can watch it on YouTube by clicking
here.
Riding notes, climb to the C Overlook:
0.0 Through gate east of parking
N37 38.699 W113 04.894
Left on Lichen It
0.1 Keep L (R = Lava Flow)
N37 38.677 W113 04.811
2.8 Fork L uphill on Greens Lake
(Straight ahead = Lava Flow)
N37 38.342 W113 04.626
5.0 Gate, straight ahead to DT
N37 38.306 W113 03.518
5.1 At Greens Lake trailhead
N37 38.355 W113 03.524
Fork R on Highlands
5.2 R uphill on DT, 30 feet, then L on ST
at N37 38.390 W113 03.479
6.7 Straight onto C Trail
N37 38.730 W113 02.884
8.5 At C Overlook
N37 38.544 W113 02.083
Getting there, Southview:
At the southern I-15 Cedar City exit (Exit 57 to Cross Hollow Road
and Highway 130), turn east onto Highway 130. Immediately turn right
(south) from 130 onto Old Highway 91. Drive 0.3 miles. Watch for the sign
for Southview Trailhead and turn left on
Shurtz Canyon Drive. Now stay on Shurtz Canyon Drive to the trailhead and
find a spot to park. The Lichen It Trail is to the east (uphill) from
where you entered the parking lot. Once you're through the gate, turn left N37 38.699 W113 04.894. Greens Lake:
On old 91 as above, at mile 0.1 turn left on Greens Lake Drive. Keep going
uphill after the road turns to gravel. The trail head is on your right,
about 2.3 miles uphill from 91.
Bathrooms: Southview Trailhead
Water: None at trailhead
Camping: None at trailhead (recommend Three
Peaks)
