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Little
Bear ATV Trail | Logan Canyon Pictures
and Story By Utah Outdoor Activities Back
To Utah
ATV Trails 
The Little Bear ATV Trail
is located up Logan Canyon just off the Hardware Ranch
Road. The trail head is clearly marked with a small wood
sign. This trail is just one of the many ATV trails in
this area, plus the Hardware Ranch Road is open to ATV
travel. We heard that this trail was very rough and if you are
not an experienced rider that you may want to choose a different
trail. As we pulled up to the trail head someone has written
on the sign "very difficult towards the bottom".
After seeing that we were convinced that this trail may have some
difficult spots. Now I consider myself a farley decent rider,
but I am on a sport two wheel drive ATV, and I have never attempted
a trail rated most difficult. Oh what the heck I’m game, if
it gets to rough I can just turn around - right? The
trail starts out rather calm, you meander through a few open areas
filled with wild flowers, and several patches of Quaken Aspen.
After about 2 miles of beautiful scenery and no great obstacles, we
hit the descent, it was steep, rocky, and covered with loose shell
rock.
The next couple of miles
are boulder washes, and loose shell rock, so you better plan on
getting bounced around and spending some time maneuvering around obstacles. As we continued
our way down the trail we
came across a cow Moose and her calf standing on the
trail. Just a word of caution a cow Moose with a calf are
very unpredictable. We choose to take advantage of the
opportunity and turned off our four wheelers, had a drink and
took some great photos of the Moose. Eventually she got tried
of our presence and moved on.
At the base of the Little
Bear you will come to a small wood sign marked Turkey Trail and
Spawn Creek Trail. The Turkey Trail heads off to the North and
is a hiking trail only. The Spawn Creek Trail heads to the
South West, this trail is also marked the Great Western
Trail. We continued our ride on the Spawn Creek Trail for a
ways, and it took us along a ridge that looks down into Logan
Canyon. However after review of the map, we decided that we did not
have enough time to finish this trail before dark so we headed back
up the Little Bear.
The ride back up the trail proved to be
more challenging then the decent. You have to maneuver your
ATV around all the obstacles that we mentioned above and your on a
fairly steep incline on some parts of the trail. I
don’t know if they have done some work to this trail or not but it
didn’t fit the criteria of what I would consider most difficult.
Now don’t get me wrong this trail is definitely challenging, but
if your confident in your abilities and take it slow, you should
have no problems.
It's very important when
riding this trail to be prepared. Because of the sharp rocks
pack a tire repair kit. One of the four wheelers in are party
received a small hole in the side wall of the tire. Luckily it
was a small leak and we didn't even notice it until we got back to the
trucks. The trail was very dusty so I recommend goggles and
as always wear your helmets!
Directions To Trail Head:
The Hardware Ranch Road is located approx 32.8
miles up Logan canyon from Logan Utah and 7.2 miles from Garden City
Utah. When you turn off on this road you will be traveling
south. Drive 3.4 miles to the trail head. There are
several places to pull off and unload your ATV's.
Nearby Campgrounds: Load up your
ATV's and stay at the
Bear Lake KOA. Ride directly
from the KOA and access this trail and many others in the area.
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