Arapeen OHV Trail: Ephraim Loop

The Ephraim Canyon Loop is located southeast of the town of Ephraim, up Ephraim Canyon Road. The trail is a high elevation ride into the San Pitch Mountains on the Ephraim Canyon Road connecting with Skyline Drive and the Arapeen Trail. The 55 mile ride took us five hours at 9 mph and makes a great day trip with plenty of time left to grab a burger and malt in Ephraim.

The area offers a vareity of trails and interesting places to explore when you are looking for an escape from the heat of the summer.

Directions From the North
Directions from the South
Facilities: Nearby Ephraim offers a great basecamp with motels, restaurants and fuel.
OHVs: *Some trails with width limits. ATVs, MCs, UTVs, 4x4s on most trails.
Signage: Most trails have adequate signage.
KML File for Google Maps
GPX File for your Garmin GPS or other Apps
Buy a Map of the Arapeen Trail System

We highly recommend you get GAIA GP S for your smartphone or tablet mobile device. GAIA GPS will allow you to download this trail complete with the photos you see here so you can be sure where you are at all times. Simply install the GAIA GPS app and save this trail from here: DOWNLOAD THIS TRAIL

Here is an embedded live link to GAIA GPS to allow you to explore the trail. Each of the blue markers indicates that a photo was taken at that location. To view the track and photos click here: GAIA GPS – Ephraim Canyon Loop – Sanpete CO Utah

Would you like to see the Ephraim loop trail in an animated 3D flyover map? If it appears to pause that is likely a place we stopped for a while. It will continue, just wait a few moments. Link to 3D flyover.

Here is the 360 view at the trailhead. Feel free to tour around a bit inside Google Street Views. We have recorded the trail in 360, and it is now part of Google Street Views so you can take a virtual tour of the trail to see if it is for you. While we didn’t have time to ride all of the trail we think you will find this fairly representative of what you will find. We’ve made it a bit easier to navigate, scroll down and you will see more 360 embedded tours as we encounter intersections, trail markers or interesting places along the trail.

On any image, you can click the ‘X’ in the upper right corner and the view will change to an overview map showing the Google Street View Blue lines. You can click anywhere on that blue line and drop down to the 360 ground-level views at that point.

You can move the image 360 degrees, click the arrow to move further down the trail and zoom in and out to take a closer look. Clicking the box in the upper right-hand corner will enlarge to full screen for a better view.

We unloaded the SxS at the parking area at the end of Ephraim Canyon Rd after you pass the welcome sign to the National Forest.

Turn off Ephraim Canyon Road onto Forest Road 0051
(39° 19.8687′ N 111° 30.6001′ W)

Turn right at the fork in the road to head west.

Continue on Ephraim Canyon Road. Follow signs for Orangeville.

The trail winds its way past Grassy Lake.

Continue north following Route 52.

A good sample of the riding on this trail, a tree-lined dirt road in the forest.

A short way down the trail the scenery opens up and the trail gets a little rockier.

If you time your trip right (this is mid-July) the meadows are painted with wildflowers looking off toward the Ephraim valley below.

TV towers atop Skyline Drive.

Heading back down the trail to where we started the day.

Driving past Lake Hill.

Lake Hill Campground is about five miles from Ephraim and offers some camping close to town and the trail system. USFS classifies this campground as a medium usage site making it a good place to try on weekend. Learn more here: Lake Hill Campground USFS site

Here is a photo gallery of all of the images we took along the way. Not necessarily in any order or sequence. Many are at trail intersections. You can see the photos and exactly where along the trail where taken: Click here for Photo Locations.