Rolling a turn on EZ Breezy, a downhill-only flow trail near Fort Canyon. Original photos and trail notes April 28, 2018 by Bruce. Latest update April 18, 2022.
Fort Canyon Riding Area
Alpine's Three Falls Fort Canyon plus EZ Breezy,
Alpine Slide, and Last Chance trails
Alpine's Three Falls Fort Canyon plus EZ Breezy,
Alpine Slide, and Last Chance trails
The Fort Canyon riding area has plenty of great riding, but it's not crowded. That's because the area is relatively new and undiscovered. And the massed riders of Corner Canyon find it a very long ride to link up and ride back. This page will discuss rides easily reached from the Fort Canyon Ranch trailhead. See the area overview page for links to other area trail pages .
Three Falls Trail (Fort Canyon Section)
Fort Canyon trailhead. Bathroom, huge paved parking lot. The outbound trail is just to the left of the bathroom in this photo.
The Fort Canyon section of Three Falls trail connects the Three Falls Ranch trailhead in Fort
Canyon to
Vista
Ridge,
Last Chance (see below) and the
Bodily Harm
trail on the ridgeline. It then continues through Fort Canyon to link up with Forbidden before
becoming the Draper section of Three Falls.
To the Bodily Harm junction, it's 1.4 miles with 500 vertical feet of elevation change. At
mile 2.3, the Three Falls trail reaches the Forbidden trail junction then
continues westbound
toward Draper.
As you drive or pedal up Fort Canyon, turn right at mile 0.9, just as you're approaching the
entry to Three Falls. Take the first left into the public trailhead parking.
The trail begins
to the left of the bathroom building.
View to the southwest, with Utah Lake and Lake Mountain in the distance. To the right is the Fort Canyon road.
You'll enjoy frequent views of Lone Peak, Little Matterhorn, and Chipman Peak ahead of your handlebars as you climb. (Far left, Lone Peak. Left, Little Matterhorn. Middle, Chipman.)
After flirting with the fences of adjacent private property, the Fort Canyon trail climbs uphill.
The terrain is sage with small stands of gambel oak and occasional maple.
There are two trail forks off the Three Falls trail before you reach the Bodily Harm trail
at mile 1.4. The first is the Vista Ridge trail at mile 0.8, on your right
as you climb. This
trail crosses the ridge and descends to
Heritage Hills and Stoney Way
.
The next trail fork is at mile 1.1 as you climb. To the right is the Last Chance trail (see below). This trail climbs up from Big Hollow as the return route from the DH trails.
At mile 1.4, fork right to head downhill on Bodily Harm (the route to the DH trails or to Alpine Cove), or keep left for Three Falls to Draper or to connect to Forbidden.
Arrowleaf balsamroot blooms in the April sunshine. On the far right, Box Elder Peak appears as we climb higher.
Crossing the ridge between Utah Valley and Fort Canyon, with Lone Peak forming a picturesque background.
The Three Falls trail will now begin to drop into upper Fort Canyon. It descends through a
series of turns before approaching the homes of Three Falls and the Fort
Canyon road. You'll
be losing almost 200 vertical feet of your climbing.
Across the valley, you'll see a ribbon of pine trees in a ravine descending the slope of Lone
Peak. That's the main creek. After you get through the subdivision, you'll
climb to the bridge
across that creek.
Looking across upper Fort Canyon. I've noted the location of the continuing trail. The brown smudge through the middle of the photo is the construction area.
Riding through maple groves as we approach the Three Falls road in Fort Canyon.
At mile 0.9 from the junction with Bodily Harm, the trail starts to climb uphill again through
in a forest of mixed maple and pine. You'll go around a couple of switchbacks.
When you reach the Fort Canyon road, go straight across to the trail on the opposite side and
begin climbing.
Climb through a couple of turns. As the trail straightens and heads toward the big ravine, you'll see a trail on your right. This is the Forbidden trail, which can take you back to the lower Bodily Harm trail for a loop ride. (There's a second connector from Forbidden that joins just uphill. Keep straight if you're heading for Draper.)
Climb through a couple of turns. As the trail straightens and heads toward the big ravine, you'll see a trail on your right. This is the Forbidden trail, which can take you back to the lower Bodily Harm trail for a loop ride. (There's a second connector from Forbidden that joins just uphill. Keep straight if you're heading for Draper.)
Riding through the balsam root near the ridgeline above Fort Canyon.
The bridge over the creek. Take a minute to enjoy the spot.
To ride Three Falls to Peak View, keep straight and ride across the bridge over Fort Canyon
Creek. And you're on the way to Draper.
Bodily Harm
Hitting a grove of maple and tall gambel oak during an early-spring climb.
The top of the Bodily Harm trail is found 1.4 miles uphill from the Fort Canyon Ranch trailhead.
If coming from Forbidden or from Draper's section of Three Falls, it's
0.9 miles from the Fort
Canyon paved road.
If climbing from the trailhead, you'll first pass Vista Ridge on your right, then Last Chance, also to the right. Then at mile 1.4, fork to the right on Bodily Harm to descend to the top of the DH flow trails. (See the Bodily Harm trail page if you plan to climb to this area from the Schoolhouse Spring area.)
At 0.3 miles down Bodily Harm from the Three Falls Fort Canyon trail, the intermediate/expert DH flow
trail Alpine Slide (also known as Crew's Folly) forks away to your right
as the Bodily Harm trail veers to the
left.
Around 1/10th mile further down (two left turns away), the EZ Breezy DH flow trail forks to your right. See below for riding directions to these two DH trails.
Looking over a group of arrowleaf balsamroot at Lone Peak.
Rolling the Rocky Mountain through forest of maple -- and an occasional fir tree -- on the Fort Canyon side of the ride.
If you continue further on Bodily Harm, your next trail fork will be with the More Effort section of Forbidden
(see map), which is straight and left. A hard right turn keeps you on Bodily Harm, which descends through switchbacks to Stoney Way.
Fort Canyon - Left Fork Big Hollow Trails
EZ Breezy (easier DH flow trail)
View over Utah Valley from the EZ Breezy
Machine-built in the left fork of Big Hollow in 2021, EZ Breezy is an easy downhill
flow trail. It descends from upper Bodily Harm down to the bottom of the
canyon, where the
Last Chance trail climbs to the Three Falls Fort Canyon trail section.
EZ Breezy was Alpine's first directional flow trail and it's a lot of fun. The trail is one-way from
east to west (from Bodily Harm west to Three Falls in Fort Canyon).
Bruce starts down EZ Breezy with Lone Peak behind him.
Straight sections of the trail have little swoops and dips to keep interest, but are still easy for an early-intermediate rider.
The EZ Breezy trail is machine-cut singletrack, 0.7 miles in length, with 250 feet of elevation
loss. It's a smooth and easy trail to ride. The EZ Breezy trail leaves
Bodily Harm 0.3 miles
from the junction of Bodily Harm with Fort Canyon. This is 1.3 miles uphill
from the bottom
of Bodily Harm.
At the bottom of EZ Breezy in the hollow, turn hard left to climb Last Chance. (The trail on
the right is the exit from the one-way expert DH flow trail Alpine Slide.)
To complete a loop, climb
Last Chance (0.8 miles) then 0.4 miles of the upper Fort Canyon trail
then descend 0.3 miles
of Bodily Harm back to the top of the EZ Breezy trail.
Rolling through a turn. The trail is significantly forested with maple and gambel oak.
Alpine Slide
(expert DH flow
trail)
Highly banked turns, swoops, and plunges are non-stop as you descend.
The Alpine Slide trail is a new upper-intermediate to expert DH flow trail in the left fork
of Big Hollow. It's 0.5 miles long, descending 250 vertical feet to the
bottom of the hollow,
where it joins Last Chance for a climb out. Alpine Slide forks away from
upper Bodily Harm
at 0.3 miles from the junction with Three Falls Fort Canyon, just 1/10th
mile above the trail
fork for EZ Breezy.
The trail is machine cut with banked turns. It's engineered for much higher speeds than EZ
Breezy and would therefore earn an upper-intermediate to early-expert
tech rating.
This is the entry to the trail off Bodily Harm. Now that the trail is officially open, I need to replace this with another picture (without the chain).
Rolling the sides of the ravine as we near the bottom.
At the bottom of the hollow, the Alpine Slide trail hits the junction of EZ Breezy and Last
Chance. Keep straight and to the right and begin climbing to get back
up onto the ridgeline.
Last Chance
(climbing trail)
Looking west from EZ Breezy at the Last Chance climbing trail.
Last Chance is the climbing route to return from either EZ Breezy or the new intermediate DH
trail. It's 0.8 miles long with 200 feet of climbing as you pedal up to
the Three Falls Trail
on the ridge above Fort Canyon.
On the western side, the trail's exit is 1.1 miles uphill from the Fort Canyon trailhead, 0.4
miles downhill from the junction of Bodily Harm and the Three Falls Fort
Canyon trail.
Looking uphill to the north on Last Chance as we climb out of Big Hollow, with Lone Peak, Rams Horn, and Chipman Peak on the skyline.
The climbing rate is mostly mellow on Last Chance. It gets a bit steeper when you hit Three Falls Fort Canyon for the last bit of uphill when riding laps.
The combination of Last Chance with the downhill trails through upper Big Hollow opens up some
very nice ride possibilities. You'll need to ride clockwise, of course.
The 2.2 mile loop formed
by EZ Breezy, Last Chance upper Fort Canyon and upper Bodily Harm is a
nice bit of riding.
A satisfying big loop includes Vista Ridge, Stoney Way, Forbidden, Three Falls to upper Bodily
Harm, then EZ Breezy plus Last Chance back to Three Falls. I suggest using
the Fort Canyon Ranch trailhead for
access, which will make your ride 10 miles with 1800 feet of climbing.
A look at the mountains north of Fort Canyon in fall.
Map of the northern Alpine foothill trails.
Getting there, Fort Canyon Ranch Trailhead: As you drive into Alpine
on Main Street, keep straight at all intersections until you reach 800
North. Then, just as Main Street turns to the right and becomes Heritage
Hills Drive, fork left on Fort Canyon Road to continue north. 0.9 miles
later, turn right just before the Three Falls gate. Quickly turn left into
the parking lot for the Three Falls Farm trailhead. The Three Falls Fort
Canyon trail is just to the left of the bathroom.
Heritage Hills (North Point): Shortly after you veer to the northeast from Main onto Heritage Hills Drive as above, spot the small parking lot on your left and turn in. Climb the Heritage Hills Trail to Vista Ridge and continue to Three Falls.
The Ridge TH (Stoney Way and Big Hollow): At the T intersection of Grove Drive, turn left and follow the road as it then veers left and approaches the mountain. Take Stoney Way west to Vista Ridge and climb to Three Falls, or go northeast to Bodily Harm and climb.
Heritage Hills (North Point): Shortly after you veer to the northeast from Main onto Heritage Hills Drive as above, spot the small parking lot on your left and turn in. Climb the Heritage Hills Trail to Vista Ridge and continue to Three Falls.
The Ridge TH (Stoney Way and Big Hollow): At the T intersection of Grove Drive, turn left and follow the road as it then veers left and approaches the mountain. Take Stoney Way west to Vista Ridge and climb to Three Falls, or go northeast to Bodily Harm and climb.
Facilities: bathroom at Fort Canyon trailhead, bathrooms at Lambert Park trailheads. (No services at Schoolhouse Springs, Big Hollow, or Heritage Hills trailheads.)
