Garns Mtn, Burns Creek, Prospect Peak, Red Butte, Moody Meadows.
Level of Difficulty: 8 Advanced Intermediate - 10- Expert
Elevations: 5049' to 9075'
Starting Point Coordinates:
Length of Trail: 52 miles
Approximate time: 8 1/2 hours
Date of Ride: 7/1/08
Directions to Trail Head: From Kelly Canyon Ski Area take FSR #218 11.3 miles to FSR# 226. I didn't see a sign for the road, but it is off to the right of #218. It is about 1.8 miles to the trail head from there. We unloaded at Kelly Canyon because i didn't want to drive my van on the gravel Rd.
Description: I have wanted to ride up to Garns Mountain every since I read about it on
Dave's Blog last winter. I also wanted to check out Burns Creek and I scoped out where it comes out on the South Fork of the Snake River with Marcella a few weeks ago. It turned out to be quite a ride, but I will save the details for
my blog. Suffice it to say, riding to Garns was a good challenging ride, coming down Burns Canyon was suicide! Actually most of the ride to Garns is Advanced Beginner to Intermediate, but there are a few sections I would label Advanced Intermediate. About 3 miles into the trail the trail drops and is severely washed out with some pretty deep ruts. I wouldn't want to ride an ATV down it. (Just before this point there is a nice lookout point which I can’t figure out what it is. The USGS labels it Prospect Peak, Google Earth puts Prospect Peak about 2 miles NE of there and both the USGS and GE place Red Butte right next to Garns Mtn. However the sign on the trail seems to indicate that it was Red Butte. The Forest Service Map makes it look like Prospect Peak. By looking at the picture, can someone who is familiar with the area help me out. Soon after the lookout, Trail 121 connects with Trail 890. From there 121 turns into a very narrow single track on a relatively steep side hill for about .5 of a mile. At that point you cross a stream (Buck Springs?) which has a Middle intermediate climb out of it. It is easy to miss the trail because most everyone climbs past it. The trail is right beside the stream to the left. The trail becomes an easy ATV trail again. You will come to a junction of Trail 076 which drops down to Castle Lake, just keep left following the sign pointing to Blacktail pass. Continue on the trail until you get to Trail 65, where you take a right. Follow 065 until you get to Trail 066 and take a left. You will find the first sign that says Garns Mountain at that point. As you are climbing Garns you will encounter some fairly gnarly rocks and sharp corners which I would classify as Middle to Advanced Intermediate. When you reach the top of Garns it is all worth it. An incredible view of the Grand Tetons and over looking Tetonia, Driggs and Victor. On the way back I led us down Burns Creek. We turned off on 076 because I thought I identified a trail on Google earth. Suffice it to say that was a major mistake and I would highly discourage anyone except an Expert Advanced rider even considering it.* It made a steep decent into Burns Creek and steep climb on the way out. From there we reached Slide Rock Trail, but went right down Burns Creek Trail which seems to not have been ridden for several years as it was over grown and had numerous downed trees. I don’t know what it is like over Slide Rock Trail and down Little Burns Creek, but there seemed to be some bike traffic that way.
*NOTE:
I have since learned that Burns Canyon is closed from Castle Lake to Bear Trap on the trail that we took on this ride. We were not aware that it was a closed trail.
Google Map (Click on pushpins to see pictures.)
(By clicking on the "View Larger Map" it will open in a larger window in Google Maps. Then if you click on "View in Google Earth" located at the top right of the map you view it in Google Earth and get the full effect of a 3-D view in which you can turn and spin.)
Elevation Profile: