Coal Creek & Cedar Canyon Trail
Cedar City is connected by a network of paved walking trails that intersect neighborhoods, link parks, and playgrounds, and wind through some incredible scenery. This portion of the trail system (Coal Creek & Cedar Canyon Trail) takes you through several parks, past notable monuments, and winds alongside the banks of Coal Creek and into the vibrant red rock views of Cedar Canyon.
For a full map of the Cedar City trail system click here.
This Cedar City Walk follows the Canyon Walking Trail | One Way Distance: 3.4 miles
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Memorial Tree Garden | 500 North/Coal Creek
In 2009, the late Mayor Gerald Sherratt requested that the Cedar City Memorial Grove be created so the public could donate a tree in honor of a deceased loved one. the trees were selected with the help of Utah State University’s Extension Office. Many factors were considered in choosing the trees including, springtime color, fragrance, the value of urban trees to city life and maintenance needs.
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Coal Creek Water Diversion | 500 North/Coal Creek
Water is diverted from Coal Creek into a series of canals and ditches for irrigation.
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Utah Parks Building | 500 North Coal Creek Road
In the early days of National Park tourism, visitors rode buses to the parks from Cedar City, Utah after a thirty-five-mile railroad spur off the mainline from Lund was finished in 1923. These long buses featured convertible tops, which provided for much better viewing of the park’s spectacular scenery. During the mid-1920s, the Union Pacific and the Utah Parks Company built a bus garage in Cedar City to house and maintain forty 11-passenger buses purchased to take tourists on a tour of what became known as “The Grand Circle,” which included Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Pipe Springs, and Zion National Park.
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Paiute Tribe of Utah | 440 North Paiute Drive
As you are walking the Coal Creek trail, you’ll see the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah’s official headquarters, pow wow grounds and reservation land for the Cedar Band of Paiutes. In the late 19th century, the Paiute people merged into five tribal bands known as the Cedar, Indian Peaks, Kanosh, Koosharem and Shivwits Bands. Reservations were established by 1929, however, in 1954 the federal government terminated the band’s federal recognition. The results of the termination were devastating to the Paiute people socially and economically. Without federal assistance, the people didn’t have access to proper medical care, housing, and adequate income. Tribal members dwindled to less than 800 and lands were lost due to the inability to pay taxes. On April 3, 1980, an act of Congress restored federal recognition for the entire Paiute tribe and by 1984 a new reservation land base was added with the return of 4,800 acres of economically viable land. Every June, the Paiute Tribe of Utah celebrates their restoration here a the Pow Wow grounds their annual Paiute Pow Wow and Restoration Gathering., everyone is invited.
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Pioneer Iron Works Blast Furnace | 400 North 100 East
Across the Coal Creek, you’ll note a vacant lot. this marks the spot of the first Iron Works Blast Furnace. This monument marks the spot where on Sept. 30, 1852, the first iron was manufactured west of the Mississippi River by the Mormon Iron Missionaries sent by Brigham Young.
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Gardner Park | 450 East Center Street
Born in 1888, Ann J Gardner was the daughter of Cedar City pioneers Lehi and Henrietta Jones and was active in the civic affairs of the city. She served on Cedar City’s first planning commission but her ultimate dream was to build a park in the mouth of Cedar Canyon. She paid for the plans to be drawn and watched its development by the City. She passed away December of 1970 before it was completed. *Ann’s son is Lehi Robert Gardner, aka Bob Gardner, was a regionally acclaimed architect famous for his distinctive mid-century modern style prevalent throughout Cedar City. Bob designed the old Cedar city Library on Center Street and the Cedar High School.
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Rotary Centennial Veterans Park | 200 North and 200 East
Established in 2006 to honor Cedar City’s veterans. Monuments have been constructed for both World Wars, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as the Korean and Vietnam wars.
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Cedar City’s most prominent geological feature is the Red Hill. The land here in Iron County is a study in contrast, it’s here the verdant Colorado Plateau ends and the landscape breaks away in ribbons of color westward into the arid western reaches of Escalante Desert and Great Basin ranges. The starkness of the landscape is a result of millions of years of tectonic plate movement and the reseeding of ancient seas and lakes created layers of deposited sediment. About 35 million years ago, faulting allowed molten rock to come up through the earth’s crust and spew onto the surface creating small cones and lava flows. Earthquakes created the escarpment known as the Hurricane Fault which began to lower the Cedar Valley area to the west and moving land to the east upward. As a result, the Markagunt Plateau was lifted to its current elevation of over 10,000 feet and the Cedar Valley lowered to 5,800 feet. The uprising exposed layers of sediment and the vivid color of the Red Hill is a result of the oxidation of iron, manganese and other various sediments and minerals.
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Chaffin Gristmill | Fork of Coal Creek Trail & Cedar Canyon Trail
The site marks the spot where the original flour mill was constructed with the Mormon settlement of the 1850s. A grist mill grinds grain into flour. Most old ones are watermills. They have a waterwheel and 2 stones for grinding. Water pushes the wheel causing it to spin. This movement causes an axle inside to turn. The axle is connected to a gear which causes the grinding stones to spin. At the top, there is a chute filled with grain. The grain slowly falls through into the grinding stones.
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As you walk the trail, if you look across the Coal Creek you’ll see a monument near Hwy 14. This marks the site where in 1876 the Cedar Cooperative Mercantile & Manufacturing Institution constructed. The actual grinding stones used in the Old Mill are placed on the monument and in the ground surrounding it.
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This man-made waterfall was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corp in the 1930s.
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As you are walking the trail, you’ll see deposits of coal just above Rusty’s Ranch House restaurant. In 1944, Southern Utah Power constructed a coal-powered, steam generating electrical plant at this location. Water for the plant came from Coal Creek and 5,700 tons of coal was delivered to the site each month to generate 10,000 kilowatts of power.
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In October 2000, Rocky Mountain Power/PacifiCorp donated 22.6 acres of majestic canyon property in Cedar City, Utah to create a permanent wildlife rescue facility and nature park. Nestled between beautiful red sandstone mountains, the goal is to provide a public educational facility dedicated to the environments represented by the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin. The Cedar Canyon Nature Park sits on the transition point between these two unique ecosystems.
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