Kid Friendly Hike: Rocky Mouth Falls Trail
Rocky Mouth Falls Trail Overview
Distance: .7 mi | Location: Sandy | Best Seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall | Elevation Gain: 282 ft | Route Type: Out & Back | Bathrooms @ Trailhead: No
Rocky Mouth Falls Trail is a great kid friendly hike located not too far from Little Cottonwood Canyon. It is a short, doable distance and ends at a waterfall. Now that summer is heating up this hike is sure to be a hit with your family.
With the trail being such a short distance, it is an easy one to combine with another kid friendly hike making for a double feature! Not too far from the trailhead of Rocky Mouth Falls you will find:
Lower Bells Canyon Resevoir Overlook Trail (1.3 miles)
Temple Quarry Trail (.3 miles)
Getting There
The trailhead for Rocky Mouth Falls is located on Wasatch Blvd in Sandy, Utah. If you use Google Maps you can type in “Rocky Mouth Trail Head” for the most direct route from your location.
The parking lot for this trail is relatively small, but there is additional parking along Wasatch Blvd or in the church parking lot across the street. This trail requires a walk through a neighborhood (see details below).
Beginning at the Rocky Mouth Falls Trailhead parking lot, take the trail on the left of the “Wasatch Front Watershed” sign.
This will take you to a long flight of stairs.
Follow the stairs up to the neighborhood. When you get to the top, turn right.
Follow the road. It will eventually curve to the left. After a bit you will see the trail pick back up on your right.
This will take you to another set of stairs.
At the top of the stairs, you will continue to follow the trail. When the trail forks be sure to stay to the left (there is a sign to help you not go astray).
Soon the trail will curve to the left and take you up to the falls.
Trail Conditions
This trail is fairly easy for little kids to hike, making it perfect for a family outing if you have younger kids that like to hike on their own. However, here are some things to be aware of are:
As you can see from the trail directions above, this hike does include two long flights of stairs. You will want to take that into consideration if you have a child or adult that has difficulty with stairs or has bad knees.
As you get closer to the waterfall the trail gets pretty rocky and you have to walk through water. I would recommend wearing hiking sandals {aff. link} or bringing water shoes you can change into.
About half of the trail is exposed so you will want to make sure to wear sunblock. Also the water coming out of the waterfall is pretty cold so you might want to bring layers or towels if your kids plan on getting wet.
Things to be Aware of
Do not park in the neighborhood
As you saw from the trail directions a portion of this trail is through a neighborhood. It may be tempting to try and park in the neighborhood near where the trail picks back up. I wouldn’t recommend it. I have seen a lot of reports on AllTrails of people receiving tickets.
Dogs aren’t allowed on this trail
As with the case of most of the surrounding canyons, dogs are not allowed on this hike. This is due to it being part of the Salt Lake County watershed. So be sure to leave your pup at home!
In drier years the waterfall will dry up
Unfortunately, with Utah having such a mild winter and spring this year the falls will eventually dry up. If you want to see the waterfall then you will want to hike this trail soon as you can.
Crowds
This is a very popular hike so if you want to beat the crowds be sure to go mid-week either early in the morning or early afternoon (just after lunchtime).
Enjoy!
I hope you are able to escape the heat and get out and try this hike. Currently, everything is green and the waterfall is flowing but that won’t last for long. If you get a chance to try out this hike, please leave a comment below and let me know what you think.
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