Mill Creek Canyon
Personal Notes
This page presents our personal notes on camp sites and hiking trails accessible from Mill Creek Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah.
Sunday, August 26, 2001: Murdock Peak Area
There is an entrance fee of $2.25 to enter Mill Creek Canyon. There are many trails throughout the canyon, as well as picnic areas. There is no camping. We drove the 9.5 miles to the end of the paved road and parked in a nice paved parking lot, with a good number of parking spaces. There are pit toilets available near the parking area.
Little Water and Great Western Trails
We intended to go up the Mill Creek Canyon Trail to Murdock Peak. However, we did not see the junction of that with the Little Water Trail. We thought it was just a path through the tall growth to the stream. We climbed the steep Little Water Trail to its junction with the Great Western Trail, about one mile. The trail was in good condition, but very steep. At 9:00 a.m. the temperature was still cold, in the 40s, in the shadows of the tall pines.
From the junction with the Great Western Trail we headed east along a well maintained, fairly even trail. This made for easy walking. There were lots of mountain bikers along this portion of the trail.
After we passed the upper junction with the Mill Creek Trail, the trail climbed some to a junction where the Great Western Trail headed off toward the south, toward Desolation Lake. At this saddle we continued east, down slightly, along the side of Murdock Peak, to the top of a ski lift on the eastern slope of the range. Although the area is not signed, it is surely private property, so if you visit the area please respect their rights. There are great views toward Park City and Deer Valley. I-80 is also visible, as are several other ski runs in the area.
Mill Creek Trail
We could not find the trail to Murdock Peak, so headed back down the Great Western Trail to what we suspected was the junction with the Mill Creek Trail. We hiked down this rough, steep trail, glad that we did not come up that way. There are lots of rocks and bad trail conditions almost the entire distance. In the lower parts of the trail there are rivulets from the stream running right along and across the trail. In some areas new trails have been "blazed" to avoid difficult crossings. The trail finally crosses the stream one last time and connects with the Little Water Trail just a short way from the parking area. If you didn't know what you were looking for you would probably miss it, like we did.
The trails, other than the Mill Creek Trail, are in good condition, but poorly marked.
We figured that we hiked about 8 miles round-trip, and would rate our route as moderate to strenuous, to easy along the Great Western Trail portion of the hike. There was about 1400 feet in elevation change, from 7,600 feet to 9,000 feet above sea level.
There are beautiful mountain views, lots of running water, and insects. We found a dead shrew on the way back to the trailhead.
