Horse Creek Top

Horse Creek Top marks the upper end of the Great Western Trail's Horse Creek Section in the Dixie National Forest — one segment of the long multi-use route that runs the length of Utah for hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians.

What's distinctive about this stretch

• Climbs steeply from a saddle around the 2-mile mark toward Horse Creek, a reasonable turnaround point for a shorter outing
• Pushes on with a steep 0.25-mile climb off an old roadbed to a scenic ridgeline, then crosses a cairned drainage near mile 3.5
• Descends gently to a Forest Road 135 junction around mile 6, crosses a meadow, then climbs steeply to Forest Road 140 near mile 7.75, where this section ends

Water is sometimes available in Horse Creek itself but should be treated or filtered, and it's not reliable enough to count on for a day trip. As Forest Service multi-use trail, expect to share the tread with mountain bikers and horses, and dogs are generally welcome off-leash-country here in a way they wouldn't be inside the national park.