Birch Creek

September 23, 2016

If hunting season is your favorite time of year and you’re sighting in all your weapons, remember to prepare physically for the challenges that pursuing big game can present.  It’s never too late to get in shape,  and for the rifle hunt, you have a few more weeks to hike trails to strengthen your legs, heart, and lungs.  This week I’m describing a hike on the Circleville side of the mountain that can be short and sweet, or can be an arduous adventure over hill and over dale touching bottom in several drainages as you contour the southern side of Circleville Mountain.  The first half mile of trail above Birch Creek campground is very pretty with open clearings created by a wildfire, filled in with sagebrush, elderberry, wild rose, grasses, snowberry, and other flowers and feed.  Here and there patches of old growth timber stand as testament to wildfires moving with randomness and unpredictable burn patterns which leave a mosaic pattern of age diversity in the forest.  These green pine patches are comprised of Ponderosa, Douglas fir, white fir, blue spruce, pinion pine, juniper, and mountain mahogany.  The pretty little portion of this trail above the campground is great for families and runs up the bottom of Birch Creek and has enough slope to get most people's heart rate up with an elevation gain of 300 feet before it joins the main contouring trail, forest trail 066.  Trail 066 is likened to Route 66 across America, because it’s the longest trail on our Forest, running 26 miles around the south end of the Tushar’s to end, or begin, in Beaver Canyon at the hydroelectric plant at mm 6.  If you’re a trail marathon runner, this is the right trail for you to train on!  26 miles sounds like punishment to me, even on the back of a horse,  but fun to know it’s out there on our Beaver Ranger District.  

It takes just over an hour to drive to Birch Creek Campground from Beaver.  To find this campground, just south of the Town of Circleville on US 89 look for a dirt road heading west between mm 157 and 156, near the Paiute\Garfield County line.  There are signs and you’ll be driving for 4.5 miles on Forest Road 121 which is dirt, but just recently graded and suitable for any car.  You can park near the Pavilion and pick up the trail along the fenceline to the north, across the stream.  You’ll actually begin on Forest Trail 066A and head upstream crossing 3 times until you begin climbing southeast out of Birch and over into Pole canyon.  I really like the climb out of pole canyon because the views are expansive and the aspen regeneration is stunning in its fall colors.  Manzanita and sagebrush fill in all the gaps between dead and downed logs, returning to the soil post forest fire.  If you keep on hiking past Pole, the next four drainages Little Pine, Middle Pine, Pine, and Wildcat all have forest service trails heading down canyon to join the forest road 121 which could be used to complete the loop of your choice back to the Campground.  Go get in shape, enjoy a safe and successful hunt, and love the trails “Into the Tushars!”