Snowbasin Sampler: Wheeler, East Fork, Maples, and Icebox

The Snowbasin area give you a lot of fun assortments of trails that can be connected and ridden in various routes. This particular ride I had a fun sample by going up Wheeler Creek (pictured to left) to the Art Nord Trailhead, doing the East Fork Trail (which then connects to Middle Fork and Green Pond Trails, neither of which I've ridden yet), grunted it out up the paved road to Snowbasin where we then took Maples back until we split off down Icebox Canyon until we hit Wheeler for the return route. Total we did about 12.5 miles. Beautiful ride and fun trails.

East Fork Trail


This was the first time I've ridden all of East Fork, and only the second time I've even done any part of it. I really liked this ride. It was a bit more worn in this time then it was the previous week. It is a fairly continuous climb, but nothing too strenuous. There really isn't anything technical about this trail either.

You cross quite a few bridges on this trail, and cover a lot of beautiful meadows, with some great views of the mountains to the west. Towards the end you come to a fork in the trail, and the right takes you to the Middle Fork Trail which connects back with the Maples Trail, and the left takes a bit more climbing until you finally get to the Green Pond Trailhead at the road. From there you can cross the street and do the Green Pond Loop. Had we known this meets back with Snowbasin we might have taken it, but instead cranked up the road to Snowbasin.

Maples and Icebox Canyon

From Snowbasin we took the doubletrack trail to the Maples Trail and rode down that. The trail has had quite a bit of work done on the last half mile of it, and is much wider, more bermed, and is quite pleasant to ride on. About a half mile down it connects with a split that goes up to Sardine Peak. There is one portion of the Maples Trail that has had about a fifteen yard reroute as if you continue on the old portion it takes a sharp turn left, but if you continue straight the edge of trail is about a ten foot drop off - I'm not just talking go off the trail, its a edge of the trail drop off on a turn. I unfortunately did not take the rerouted portion, but I also was quick enough to not shoot off the edge.

From there we dropped down Icebox, which was some fun downhill and fast. The first portion that is rocky and steep I made it down without one dab, and the second portion that has the real steep spot was a blast.

Wheeler and East Fork Trails

My brother-in-law, his brother, cousin, friend, and I took a quick ride up the Wheeler Canyon Trail (pictured above) and then took a quick ride on the East Fork Trail from the Art Nord Trailhead late one evening. It was a short ride, and we hit it hard and fast before it got a chance to get too dark, but was a lot of fun.

After riding the first 1.8 miles up to the Art Nord Trailhead, you then cross the old Snowbasin Road and go up a dozen yards to the East Fork Trail (pictured top left). The trail is wide and the short portion we rode this night had recently had a lot of work done to it. There were actually at one point of the trail two backhoes parked off to the side, having done work on the trail recently. There were a few parts that were still quite soft as a result of it.

This is an extremely beautiful trail with some beautiful meadows and hills - it was just a pity that we had to make it so short to get back before it got too dark. Fast and furious on the way down - and I wasn't even keeping up!