Sweet Snowbasin Singletracks: Wheeler, Maples, Coldwater, Sardine, and Icebox

Over 16.5 miles, breathtaking views, around 2,800 vertical feet of climbing, and some sweet descents for what I would term a borderline epic ride in the Snowbasin area. I flew solo on this ride starting at Wheeler Creek, riding up Maples, cruising up to the Coldwater Overlook, swinging over to the Sardine Peak trail for some more climbing and a lot of descending, then back down Maples and Wheeler, hitting Icebox along the way. This was one sweet, exhausting ride. Highly recommend this trail.

Maples TrailRiding through some of the more wooded portions of Maples. Coming across a bridge - you can see just before that a set of stairs that I had just dropped down - quite fun. This is also the bridge where a few years back I gulped down a few bottles of river water and had the ensuing nasty results!View over a beautiful meadow toward the end of Maples.

Coldwater Overlook TrailView from the trail back over the Valley.Climbing the last half mile before the Overlook, the trail is beautiful and well shaded.
This is the Coldwater Overlook - one of my all time favorite views as it looks down through Ogden Canyon and out over the city of Ogden.

Sardine PeakStarting the Sardine Peak ride you ride along this ridge a bit before you do some climbing. This is where the Sardine ride splits from Coldwater.Just before you reach ridge you will find a short trail that leads to this lookout - I don't think it is quite as good as the Coldwater Lookout, but still worth the time. Continuing from here you will cross two more trails that fork to the left and go on up to the peak - something I wasn't ambitious enough to try this day.Coming around the ridge on Sardine, this is a view over to Pine View Dam just before you start dropping down the switchbacks.These are two pictures cruising down Sardine - the trail is well shaded and a fast fun ride down. It was a blast going down on this.
This is where the Sardine Loop meets back up with the Maples Trail. From this point up the Maples Trail is much wider and quite a nice ride where they've done some additional work on it.
This is the view from Wheeler looking down to Icebox Canyon. There is a quick steep switchback out of Icebox right after you cross this bridge. I always love the wild technical downhills from this section. From here it is just a short fast ride back to the trailhead on Wheeler.

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!

Wheeler Creek, Maples, and Icebox

On this particular morning I did an approximate 6.5 mile loop that starts at the Wheeler Creek Trailhead, goes up to the Art Nord Trailhead and then rides along the Maples Trail, and then splits off to take Icebox Canyon back to the Wheeler Creek Trail to loop back. Overal a very fun trail that I would highly recommend.

Wheeler Creek Trail

The Wheeler Creek Trail is wide, a constant climb, although it is a fairly mild climb, that is consistently shaded and cool, with great views all along. While there are rocks that require some bumping over, it is a great trail to take a beginner on that will give them a taste of climbing.

The trail is only about 1.9 miles in length, and starts near the Pine View Dam in Ogden Canyon and rides up to the Art Nord Trailhead on the old Snowbasin Road. Through most of the trail the creek runs along the side of the trail down a steep ravine. On either side are canyon walls stretching up that make for a great view.

Maples Trail

I've written about the Maples Trail before, but this trail takes off toward Snowbasin Resort from the Art Nord Trailhead, has a little more climbing than Wheeler, a lot more narrow, and is a lot more technical. I would classify this trail as an intermediate, maybe even an upper intermediate.

We didn't take this trail too far on this day, but time permitting I like to take it all the way to the campground so I can hit the Coldwater Overlook Trail. The trail had only recently opened up where we've had such a wet year, and with rain from the night before there were still some muddy spots than caused a few minor mechanical issues for me.

This trail has a ton of gorgeous views, and covers what I would call lots of beautiful meadows, while also in some parts weaving in and out of shaded forest sections.

Icebox Canyon

At your first real intersection on Maples you can turn left to continue on the switchback up the Maples Trail, or you can go straight and start heading down into Icebox Canyon. This is a short trail that connects you back to Wheeler, and is especially nice to avoid one long climb on the way back on Maples. Highly recommend doing this section on the way back, although this section I would not classify as a beginner downhill.

The trail is mostly downhill, and has some steep technical sections that are a blast to ride, one section where you can try riding through the creek (pictured below) but I suggest carrying your bike and hopping on the rocks. It is a much cooler (tempature wise) trail, and on this morning, post night rainstorm, had a ton of soaked bushed that caused my gloves to become quite damp. The very end of the trail, right after the bridge, takes some quick steep climbing to rejoin Wheeler.

Coldwater Overlook - The Return!

Just a day or two before the 4th of July, Dad and I got a chance to head up this trail again. One of my absolute favorite rides all around - great ride on the way up as its not too easy and not too hard, fast and furious on the way down, and some of the best views in the area.

The Coldwater Overlook trail pictured here, is very green, with several switchbacks on up, and a steady grade.

You can find it at the end of the Maples Trail if you take the dirt road through the campground at your right. If you look carefully you will also find a shortcut trail instead of the dirt road, which gives several jumps on the way down, or just fun ups and downs.

Wheeler Trail to Coldwater Overlook

One of the rides that I've done for a long time is the Wheeler Trail and then the Maples Trail that connects to it at the Art Nord Trailhead. I found the Coldwater section one day when I decided to keep riding and ended up finding the Coldwater Overlook Trail that connects to the Maples.
You start in Ogden Canyon directly across from the Pine View Dam at the Wheeler Trailhead, and from Wheeler's you'll join to the Maples Trail, and then you'll go right up the dirt road through the campground until you reach the trailhead for Coldwater to start heading up.

This is one of my favorite rides, with a steady uphill most of the way, slightly technical but not overly so, and a fun return ride. It also has some of the best scenery on it. The very end of the trail takes you to this incredible vista down the mountainside and over the Ogden valley.

These pics are from my second trip up it with my dad - I discovered it about a week prior on my own, on a particularly memorable ride. I ended up not taking enough water, and ran out at the top of the trail. About halfway down I realized that I do need water on the downhill, so I stopped and refilled my bottle twice in the creek, where I also received a bee sting right in my face. A few weeks later I learned why you never drink from the creek when I had an experience with giardia!

Toward the end of Maples there is this beautiful meadow - I sometimes think to myself when I'm there that it has to be something like the grove in New York where Joseph Smith prayed and subsequently seen God the Father and Jesus Christ in 1820.