Fillmore Trailhead

Welcome to Fillmore, where you’ll find lodging, meals, groceries, repairs, fuel, and medical services. While in town, visit the Utah Territorial State House Museum in the center of town where you’ll enjoy a great historical display telling the story of Chief Walkara, the Ute warlord at the time that the Mormon settlers entered the area in the early 1850s.

The Fillmore Loop is like a giant triangle with Fillmore at its apex and a portion of the main Paiute Trail as its base. The northern leg runs from Fillmore up Chalk Creek and Bear Hollow Road. The eastern leg is the main Paiute #01 trail along the top of Pahvant Mountain from Bear Hollow to Sand Rock Ridge. The southern leg is the Sand Rock Ridge Road, which travels from the top of the mountain back to the north and west back to Fillmore.

Fillmore is the low point of this loop at 5,150 feet in elevation. The first 1.5 miles is the main, paved canyon road near the forest boundary. This is also where the trail splits due to size limits on machines. 50” or less can go up the narrow canyon of Chalk Creek. This road/trail is narrow in places and crosses Chalk Creek several times at undeveloped crossings, some of which are quite deep and are hazardous to cross during the spring runoff. This creek bottom run is 4.5 miles long and will bring riders to a picnic site called Copley’s Cove. Larger machines will need to follow the canyon road onto a bench on the south side of the canyon and around to Copley’s Cove. This route is 7 miles long.

We’re all together again as the route proceeds up Chalk Creek past several popular picnic sites to Pistol Rock. Just past Pistol Rock, the trail begins its steep climb up the north wall of the canyon via many switchbacks. The change in vegetation, temperature, and breathtaking views makes this leg a delight to ride and enjoy. There are several places to pull over, so don’t forget to stop and snap a few pictures.

Fillmore Trailhead

EXAMPLE GPS Coordinates: 41°24’12.2″N 2°10’26.5″E

In time, the trail breaks onto the gentler ground of a ridge top. And though the climb continues, the gradient is not so extreme. As the trail nears the junction with the main Paiute Trail, riders will observe parallel trenches along the contours of the mountain slopes. These were constructed in the 50s and 60s to slow flood runoff from this land, which had been denuded by overgrazing that occurred from the 1880s to the 1930s. All told, this Chalk Creek leg is just over 20 miles long and will take 1.5 to 2 hours to complete.

The next leg of this triangle ride is going south along the top of the Phavant Range on the main Paiute #01 Trail. The trail alternates between open sage meadows and cool groves of aspen, fir, and spruce. There are sweeping panoramas from these open meadows. Here, one can see all the mountain ranges traversed by the Paiute Trail. This leg is 10 miles long and will take an hour or more to ride.

There is a restroom located just 100 yards south of the junction of the Paiute Trail and Sand Rock Ridge.

The southern leg, Sand Rock Ridge, will return riders to Fillmore. About a half mile into this leg, riders can access White Pine Peak via a side trail. This peak is 10,215 feet in elevation. In places, this leg is steep, gravelly, and has some sharp turns, so riders must keep their machines under control. This leg is 14 miles long and takes more than an hour to get back to Fillmore.

Altogether, this trip is 45 miles, has an elevation change of nearly 5,000 feet, and will take 4 hours to complete depending on the length of time to ooh and awe.

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Fillmore Trailhead

Fillmore Trailhead

Fillmore Trailhead

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