I’ve mentioned the Elephant Rock trail before, but Colton and I were looking for a new trail nearby. After some googling, we found a trail directly across from Elephant Rock that was rarely used and seemed like it would be a good workout. We’d never even heard of it before, so we were excited to search for the miner’s cabin toward the top of the trail. We took my parents’ dog, Autumn, as well as Colton’s sister and brother-in-law Bree and Ben, along with us.
As soon as we started, the trail went up fairly steep. And it continued to be steep. I believe the total elevation gain was over 4,000 ft. in three miles if you go all the way to the top. So it was fairly strenuous for me and my poor dog. We ended up carrying her part of the way because she was so angry with us for making her climb straight up a mountain that she just sat down.
The reports we found online about the trail stated that they had never seen another person on the trail before, and while there was a clear trail leading to the cabin, it might be slightly overgrown. We only saw two other people the entire time, and the whole way up we were being scratched to death by the branches that had grown slightly into the trail. Poor little Autumn’s face was directly at the height of the sticks, so that was partly why she hated it.
The hiking trail goes by the pipeline trail they dug a few years ago. Basically the entire mountain has a hiking trail made for a giant running all across it. About a half hour into our hike we were able to see Elephant Rock on the opposite ridge. Elephant Rock takes about an hour and half to get to, so we were surprised we were so far above it already. After many stops for pictures, a lot of grumblings from all except Ben, (and mostly from Autumn), we finally made it to the miner’s cabin.
Following the hiker we researched online who posted about this trail, we decided to climb to the top of the ridge (because the trail sort of dwindles after the cabin) and hike down the pipeline trail. It was starting to get dark so we thought that would be faster. To our surprise, there were some resilient trees growing at the top of the ridge.
By this time Autumn was so done with the hike, she tried to make a bed out of Colton’s backpack on the ground. As it got darker, we tried to hurry down the pipeline trail. But it was MUCH steeper than the trail coming up, and there was no trail whatsoever, and it was basically a precarious fall down the mountain. It took much longer than anticipated, but was probably still faster than going down the marked trail.
It was a beautiful sunset, however.
That first line of white rocks was where we needed to be to get back on the trail. It was a LONG ways away.
Overall it was a beautiful hike, though more strenuous than I’d anticipated. It was also lovely because there were no people on it, compared to Elephant Rock which is quite populated all the time.
A much angrier Autumn than at the beginning.
Tips for this Hike
- There is a $6 fee for picnic and camping areas within Mueller Park. However if you just want to hike the trails, you can park outside of the gates and walk to both Elephant Rock (which has a small parking lot next to it) or go three more minutes up the road to Kenney Creek.
- Since this is a sparsely populated trail, be alert to possible rattlesnakes
- It is steep, be prepared for that!
