Round Trip Distance: 1 mile
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 5881 - 6094 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 45 mins.
Trailhead: Visitor Center
Fee: $3/person or $6/vehicle
Attractions: petroglyphs
The Canyon Overlook trail is in the Fremont Indian State Park in Sevier County, Utah. The trail begins at the Visitor Center and makes a moderate climb along a nearby hillside where it affords hikers a scenic view of Clear Creek Canyon. Along the route there are several panels of petroglyphs to see. The trail comes to an end at a junction with the Hidden Secrets and Alma Christensen trail.
The trail begins at the Visitor Center near the picnic area in the southeast corner of the parking lot.
There are about 3 trails that all come together at the trailhead. The Canyon Overlook follows the middle fork toward the large boulders in this picture.
The trail is a little faint as it starts out but it becomes much more distinct as it angles along the ridge.
As the trail comes close to the cliffs keep your eye out for petroglyphs. Most of them are very faint. We outlined some of them on the computer in the above picture and left a few as they were.
The Canyon Overlook trail has a couple hundred feet of elevation gain but for the most part the change comes about gradually over the entire length of the trail.
With the petroglyphs being as faded as they are it is hard for us to tell how close our tracings on the computer come to the original images.
After climbing past the cliffs the trail levels off a bit.
At this point there is a large spiral of rocks on the west side of the trail. Obviously the logs have all been cut by a saw and placed here in modern times. Whether the same can be said of the rocks that make up the spiral we don't know.
The trail comes to an end at a rocky outcrop where it meets up with the Alma Christensen/Hidden Valley trail. If you follow the trail to the left you can get to the Court of Ceremonies trail and follow it back to the Visitor Center. For this post we turned around at this point and returned the same way we came.
On the trip back you can look down at Interstate 70, the Clear Creek Canyon Road, and the Centennial and Cave of 100 Hands trails.
The Canyon Overlook trail by itself is good for stretching your legs and getting a quick bit of exercise. The trail probably dates back hundreds, and maybe even thousands, of years so besides the faded petroglyphs and the view of Clear Creek Canyon there is the aspect that you are following in the footsteps of the ancient inhabitants of the land. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.