#hikereport

Upper, in this is case is farther up the canyon, not above Bridal Veil Falls.

This is a nice, short hike that you can do with kids.  It is only 20-30 minutes from where you park the car and most of it will be shaded, even in the hotter parts of the day.  And it ends at a waterfall.

To get to the trailhead drive East up Provo Canyon.  Go past the first turn-off for Bridal Veil Falls / Nunn's Park.  Go past the next turn-off which is for a parking lot across from Bridal Veil Falls and take the next right off the highway, close to the diversion dam.  If you reach Vivian Park, turn around and go back.  You have gone too far.

After turning off the highway, you follow the old highway a couple hundred yards and there is a set of parking spots just below the conversion dam.  Park there.  Follow the footpath that goes alongside the diversion dam and then crosses over the river on a footbridge.  

Once you reach the Provo River Parkway Trail, turn right, or back down the canyon and follow the trail along the Provo River.  After a short walk, should be only 5 minutes or so, you will come to a cement building on the opposite side of the trail from the river.  Turn off the paved trail at this building and you should find a dirt trail that leads up towards the mountains behind the cement building.  Once on the trail it should only take 10 minutes or so to reach the base of the falls.  

Unfortunately there isn't much of anywhere to go from the falls unless you are a rock climber.  But it is a nice short hike with a waterfall at the end.  Can't be beat during the hot summer days in Provo.

I made plans yesterday to pick up a friend of mine at 6:30am for a Saturday morning hike.  Since we hike together so much, we rarely plan the details of our hikes ahead of time. 

As we pulled away from his house, I asked my usual question, "Where are we going?"  And then I started to drive north.

In amongst the other things we were talking about as I was driving, I suggested Sundance.  A place we haven't ever hiked before.  He was intrigued because he has often said we should pay for the lift ride that Sundance offers in the summer to save us a 1000 feet of elevation and then continue up onto the summit ridge of Timpanogos from there.  

I had nowhere near the amount of energy or time required for that hike today.  And definitely wasn't ready mentally either.  But, I sold him on this being an exploratory hike.  So 5 minutes into our trip to our hike we had a destination.  At this point it was easy.  Up Provo Canyon to Sundance.  Park in the main parking lot and start up the hill towards the summer theater stage.

From the theater we stayed along that edge of the resort and took what is labeled as the Black Forest trail for summer hikers.  In the winter it has a different name for skiers.  The trail runs along the south side of where the Ray's Lift summits and goes up the backside of the old Mandan lift summit.  In the winter the trail is one of the ways to return to the base from the Arrowhead and Flathead lifts.

Once on the upper mountain the trail continues up to the top of the Flathead lift, up Amy's Ridge and finally ends at the top of the Arrowhead life.  It was a great hike.  Took us about an hour and 20 minutes to cover the three or so miles.

View from the summit

Details:

Trailhead: Sundance Resort parking lot, up Provo Canyon

Trail: service road and some single track, mostly follows ski runs

Type: Out and back, although you can make parts of it a look if you want to change up the scenery.  Look for the Mandan loop on the way down

Distance: 3.1 miles to the top; 8.15 total, with some detours we took on the way down