The Sunset Trail and The Farmington Canyon Mine

Friday we took a hike up Farmington Canyon. We drove up the road to the first switchback, parked, then took the trail that continued up the canyon. I believe it's called the Sunset Trail.


The trail parallels the creek, but higher up on the hill. It's a pretty decent trail, other than the trash at a few party spots along it. We really enjoyed the numerous small waterfalls that cascaded down the hill from the snowmelt.

About 1/2 mile up the trail, a grouse flushed from the brush nearby and flew into a tree. We watched it for a while, then continued on.
As we were hiking, we saw a mine up on the side of the canyon. It's not the Sunset Mines, but instead a different mine altogether. A guidebook I've read of the area refers to it as the Farmington Canyon Mine. We decided to go and take a look. We walked back to our car, and drove further up the road to the second switchback before we parked and went looking for the mine.

There is a light trail to it, but it must not be well known because there's not much garbage or graffiti along the way. There was quite a few clay pigeons and other target practice debris. Unfortunately people seem to want to just drive up the canyon and pull over at any spot they want to and blast away. If you're going to, please be responsible and clean up your trash! Knowing the background for your target area is also a good idea. The pulloffs on the downhill side of the road are extremely poor locations!
The mine was pretty cool. A ways back it divides into two tunnels. We explored both of them and found that it's not as deep as some other tunnels in the area, but is still pretty fun.

As we backtracked from the first tunnel, we saw a packrat jumping before us. He turned and went down the second tunnel. We followed and got a picture right before he disappeared into a pile of foam padding, sticks, and leaves.

Nearest City: Farmington, UT

Location: N41° 00.106  W111° 51.560
Time Needed:
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Kid Friendly: Somewhat
Additional Info: "Farmington City Trails" a book by the Farmington Parks & Trails Committee has more information about hikes & other things to see in the Farmington area.