Lichen It, Iron Giant, and Lava Flow
Iron Hills Trail System in Cedar City
Work on the Iron Hills Trail
System began in 2015. Fifty miles of trails are planned on the mountain
slopes east of Cedar City. This page will discuss the lower trails: Lichen
It (climbing), plus Lava Flow and Iron Giant (descending). The starting altitude is 6050
feet. (See the separate trail page for information on
the Green Hollow trail, an extension from the top of
Lichen It uphill to the Greens Lake drive trailhead, and Turnpike,
an easier contour out-and-back trail.)
View down an undulating section
of Lava Flow. Photos and trail reviews by Bruce
starting December 5, 2015. Latest update July 2019.
Lichen It
Lichen It is a broad smooth trail with a gentle rate of
climb. It's suitable for beginning riders. The trail was formerly two-way
traffic for bikes, but is now a climbing-only trail. (Hikers may continue
to go both directions.)
Note: You'll note some snow and frozen mud in a few of these photos. During the
late fall and winter months, only ride early in the morning after a hard freeze. To be off the
mountain before things get muddy, start by 8 to 9 a.m. (depending on your
riding speed).
The typical terrain is a mix of juniper and pinion,
with lichen-covered boulders alongside the trail.
The trail surface has firmed up nicely to form a broad and
forgiving riding surface. When climbing, the trail feels like a highway.
The trail is very forgiving, and with the exception of a few rock
rollovers near the top, it's a very easy trail for beginners to tackle.
View near the bottom of Lichen It in
the crisp pre-sun hours. Typical trail view shows a smooth
trail of red dirt with surrounding juniper, cedar, and pinion.
Start on the paved Southview trail. After you cross the bridge, the first trail
on your right is Turnpike.
Next, Lava Flow joins on your right, then Iron Giant. Stay on the wide
paved path. (Note that Lava Flow and Iron
Giant are one-direction downhill flow trails.
Do not enter from downhill.)
Around 200 feet from the bridge, fork to the
right off the paved path onto Lichen It. Lichen it will be your path to upper-mountain
riding.
Lichen covers the exposed boulders
along the trail as we continue climbing.
Lichen It will meander back and forth across the face of the
mountain as it climbs the west-facing slope. The rate of climb is
consistently easy. The first fork is labeled "Junior Giant" with
a short connector over to the Iron Giant downhill trail. Stay left to
climb. The next fork, Jolly Giant, also joins Iron Giant part-way down.
Again, stay left to climb.
The surface is 100% dirt with
no tricky stuff. The juniper trees are spaced widely enough to allow
frequent views to the west.
View northwest. The little sawtooth
mountains in the middle distance are the Three Peaks.
Nice bike trails there.
At mile 2.8 from the trailhead, at an altitude of 6550 feet,
Lichen It officially ends. To loop back to the trailhead, you have the
option of the advanced-level Lava Flow trail (straight ahead), or the
easier Iron Giant trail. Kids and beginners should definitely choose Iron
Giant.
At the Lichen It - Lava Flow junction, the Green Hollow
trail forks uphill to the left. This trail
is harder than Lichen It if you want to climb higher. I'd rate it intermediate in difficulty. It climbs another
500 vertical feet to the Greens Lake trailhead on the gravel road, with
connection further uphill via the Highlands trail to the C
Trail.
Getting near the top of Lichen It. The climbing rate
is very pleasant, with undulating trail to keep the riding interesting.
A video of a climb up Lichen
It and downhill via Lava Flow...
If the above video does not appear on your
browser/device, you can watch it on YouTube by clicking
here.
Iron Giant (includes Junior Giant)
Iron Giant is a downhill-only flow trail that starts at the
top of Lichen It. It is an easier ride, early-intermediate in technical
requirement. Beginners who are strong enough to make it up Lichen It will
do fine on Iron Giant.
Iron Giant is 2 miles long, descending from an elevation of 6450 feet
to the trailhead at 6000. Lower on the mountain, there are two connectors
from Lichen It to Iron Giant that allow for a shorter ride.
Bruce descends Iron Giant in April 2019.
Iron Giant can be reached by climbing Lichen It from the
Southview trailhead, or by descending the Green Hollow trail from the
upper mountain.
When climbing Lichen It, there will be a connector called "Junior
Giant" at mile 1.3 from the origin of Lichen It on the doubletrack.
This connector is only 1/10th mile long, delivering you to the middle of
Iron Giant, 1 mile from the bottom. Keep left and uphill if you're headed
for the top.
Handlebar view of the trail fork for Junior Giant. If
you fork to the right onto Junior Giant, you can't go back up. Everything
is downhill-only once you enter Junior Giant.
A second connector called "Jolly Giant" is at mile
1.7. A loop of Iron Giant lies right alongside Lichen It, with a short
connector. If you elect to fork onto Iron Giant here, your descent will be
1.2 miles.
The top of Iron Giant is at the intersection where Lichen It ends, and
Lava Flow begins. (Green Hollow is uphill to your left if you're climbing
higher.) Drop down to your right into the first turn and begin your
descent.
The 4-way trail intersection. On the left (straight
ahead from Lichen It) is Lava Flow. To the right is Iron Giant.
Turns are highly banked with a generous turning radius.
While there are some more-technical alternate lines alongside the main
trail, the trail itself is smooth and wide, with very little that's scary.
Typical banked turn.
Iron Giant is a one-way downhill trail. Your only option to
NOT go all the way to the bottom is to hook over onto Lichen It at the
Jolly Giant connector, one mile from the top. (Junior Giant is also a
one-way downhill path. If you pass Jolly giant, you're destined to wind up
back at the trailhead.)
Descending. This a rare spot where there's actually a
view. For most of the descent, you're in tall trees.
The descent down Iron
Giant from Lichen It...
If the above video does not appear on your
browser/device, you can watch it on YouTube by clicking
here.
Lava Flow
The Lava Flow downhill trail is a direct straight-ahead continuation from Lichen It at N37 38.342 W113 04.626, 2.8 miles
uphill from the trailhead. (To your left is Green Hollow, and to the right
is the Iron Giant downhill trail.) Two miles long,
Lava Flow will return you to the bottom of Lichen It.
The beginning of Lava Flow is marked by a sign and a rock rollover that
alerts you to tech stuff coming up. The trail surface immediately becomes more
technical with rock slabs of sandstone, basalt, and granite.
A roll-over shortly after the
beginning of Lava Flow in the early-morning hours before the thaw. Not tough; but quite different than the
butter-smooth dirt we climbed to get here.
There's still a bit of climbing during the first part of
Lava Flow. You'll notice the pitches are a bit more taxing than Lichen It,
but still not too tough. After a quarter mile, the trail will reach a top
altitude of 6550 feet before turning downhill.
About 0.4 miles onto Lava Flow, the new Boulder
Dash trail will join on your left. This is a highly technical
downhill-only trail, reached via Green Hollow.
Do not enter. Slightly to the left is Lava Link,
which extends a couple of miles south to the top of Elevate
and Black Ops. To stay on Lava Flow, keep right.
Most of
Lava Flow is broad smooth trail with a wide riding line. Periodically,
there are areas of embedded boulders that give a bit of challenge.
Lava Flow will now drop 500 vertical feet in 1.8 miles. The
pitch is never spooky. There's a bit of bouncy rock here and there, but
much of the descent is on smooth dirt. Although rated as an advanced
trail, tech sections are short and seem very do-able by an experienced
intermediate rider.
A rolling and slightly twisty descent
through the rocks, followed by a tiny climb.
After the first half-mile bound southwest, Lava Flow turns
to the northwest and descends fairly directly without much winding back
and forth. The trail has a bit of gentle undulation, some of which has
been put to use for tabletop jumps. (For those who don't know, tabletops
are broad bumps with a flat top, and are easily rolled over by lower-speed
riders.)
Bare dirt on a south-facing slope,
with rollers inviting a bit of air.
Turns have a high berm for fast riding. Depending on the
weather and riders, many of the berms will have loose dirt and chunks. Not
a problem if you know what to expect. For out-of-towners, realize that the
trail and its turns are not as "grippy" as the downhill flow
trails you'll find in brown-dirt regions of Utah.
Nicely bermed turn as we look south.
There are some A/B lines on the descent. Most are easily
scout-able on the fly as you approach them from uphill. None of the stunts required going airborne,
although you could if you wanted.
The tech line to the left looks like
it's going to be a monster rock-drop, but it's actually just a playful
rollover. If you decide to launch it, note the quick right turn just
downhill.
Bottom Line:
Lichen It is an easy trail suitable for kids and beginners. Iron Giant is a
very fun and non-terrifying downhill, well-planned and well-built. Lava
Flow is a big harder, but with a few walk-overs, is easy enough. Definitely worth a visit. Do a couple of laps.
If you're into downhilling,
the combination of the upper C trail, Highland
trail, Green Hollow and Lava Flow
makes great riding that you can reach with a shuttle.
A center-squeeze riding line versus a rock-garden
line on the right. Right is way more fun!
Riding notes, clockwise loop:
0.0 Straight from road through gate
N37 38.699 W113 04.894
Left on Lichen It
0.1 Keep L (R = return route)
N37 38.677 W113 04.811
2.8 End Lichen It, start Lava Flow
(Pass entry to Greens Lake on L)
N37 38.342 W113 04.626
4.7 At fork, L to TH
N37 38.677 W113 04.811
4.8 Back at parking
Getting there:
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. Start out on the paved Southview trail. After the
bridge, go past the Turnpike trail and the one-way return trails from Lava
Flow and Iron Giant. Turn right onto Lichen It at N37 38.699 W113 04.894.
For a map that shows the relationship of these trails to the C trail
and the Highland trail, click the topo map link below.
Bathrooms: Southview Trailhead
Repair stand at trailhead
Water: Sink in bathroom
Camping: None at trailhead (recommend Three
Peaks)
