Church Rocks

Beautiful, Easy, trail among the red rocks of Southern Utah

Church Rocks Trail Description

Church Rocks is easily one of our favorite trails in the St. George area. It is quite popular and it is hard to run this trail and not encounter another trail runner or mountain biker enjoying the trail as well. Featuring beautiful delicate sandstone cliffs, sandy trails and plenty of slickrock. The stunning red provides year round appeal for all visitors. The trail is fairly easy overall having many trail markers and cairns to help guide you, but there are a few spots where the trail can get rough and steep. The entire loop is beautiful, calming and inspires a sense of peace, but the crowning jewel of the trail is what we like to call the Cathedral. The Cathedral is located at the far east end of the loop, and provides a spectacular view every time. We run this trail so frequently that there is a good chance that you may run in to one of us as you enjoy the beautiful landscape. Church Rocks loop is accessible via three main routes outlined on this page.

Highland Trailhead

The highland trail starts at the north end of Highland Park. At the time of this writing everything north of the park is still basically in its natural state and has not been developed. The trail running along the top of the Highland ridge is a primarily hard pack single track trail. Starting from the far North East end of the road/parking lot. When starting north on the dirt bear to the left to follow the route (this part of the trail makes a nice mile long Highland Loop). After approximately 0.44 miles the single track the trail splits, bear to the left and the trail connects with a dirt road that provides maintenance access for the water tank at the far north of the ridge. Following the road for about 0.1 miles will bring you to another single track trail on the left side of the road. Follow this trail until it connects with another road that runs down the west side of the ridge. This road is no longer used for any vehicular traffic so it is significantly rutted and has plenty of small gullies from rain runoff. After carefully descending to the bottom of the ridge you will find a large growth of natural foliage. Just to the west a few feet from where you descended the ridge there should be a narrow single track trail through the brush, this frequently gets overgrown, but gets trimmed back periodically, so hopefully it has recently been trimmed when you arrive. After passing through the brush to the sandy wash you will turn north and see a large culvert which provides passage under the freeway. On the other side of the freeway the sandy trail first hugs the east side of the wash for a short way before crossing the wash to the west side. Approx. 0.15-0.2 miles from the culvert you will come to a crossroads, this is the Prospector Trail, and the south side of the Church Rocks Loop. You can follow the loop below either East or West, but I typically head East on the Prospector Trail toward the cathedral. The total distance of this trail to connect with the loop is approximately 1.1 miles.

After completing the Church Rocks Loop and returning to the crossroads you would again follow the trail south through the wash and again under the freeway through the culvert. On the south side of the freeway after coming back through the brush you can ascend up the ridge the same way you descended, or for an easier grade on the ascent head South on the flat road for about 0.1 miles until the road splits and heads toward the ridge, this ascent is about 0.33 miles long following another unused dirt road. At the top of the road you will be able to reconnect with the single track trail you started on and follow it back to Highland Park.

Grapevine Trailhead

The Grapevine Trailhead is very easily accessible being about 0.15 miles off the freeway (I-15) from the Washington Parkway exit (exit 13). The Grapevine trail heads up a dirt access road for the first mile. About 0.1 miles up the road you will pass under some trees and have a trail fence step over next to a locked access gate. Proceed through and up the rocky dirt road as it gains about 200 feet of vertical. At about the 1 mile point you will come to a split in the road/trail. This is the western end of the Prospector Trail. Bear right onto Prospector trail and follow it for the next 0.3 miles, it will come down into a shallow valley and change into a single track sand trail before ascending the ridge on the far side of the small valley. The ascent on the North East side of the valley is moderate and primarily light sandy dirt filled with small to medium sized basalt. At the top of the ridge you will connect with the Church Rocks Loop at the point indicated below in bold as the Grapevine Connection Point. The total distance to connect with the loop is approximately 1.3 miles.

Cottonwood Trailhead

The Cottonwood Trailhead is the trickiest of the three approaches to locate, but offers the longest approach, and ensures plenty of red rock goodness. To find the trailhead you will turn North on to Old Highway 91 from the light at State Street or UT 9. While heading north on Old Highway 91 you will pass many warehouse and distribution facilities until about 2 miles up the road when you will come to Winkle Distributing, just to the North East of the Winkle Distributing building there is a dirt access road that goes under I-15. To access the dirt road you will need to go through the corner of the Winkle Distributing parking lot. The access is via a single wide tunnel under each side of the freeway. The Trailhead is immediately before you after passing under I-15.

The Cottonwood Trail proceeds North out of the trailhead parking area. The initial portion of the trail continues basically north for about 0.5 miles on what used to be a dirt road, this section of trail typically has lots of larger rocks on it, and gains about 100 feet of vertical before it merges with another trail that connects from the right and is marked as the Prospector Trail, this is the continuation of the Prospector trail and is a fun run, but for today we continue straight ahead for another 0.1 mile and then bear to the left, leaving the Cottonwood trail and proceeding out on the Prospector Trail. The White dirt and larger rocks stick around on the trail for about another 0.2 mile ending with a rough and rocky downhill slope, after which the fun begins. The color of the trail at this point changes to a beautiful red and is either a nice hard pack or sandy trail interspersed with slick rock for the rest of the trail leading up to the Church Rocks Loop. The trail is clearly marked and meanders, flowing nicely over the sand and slickrock for about 3 more miles. At which point you will connect with the Church Rocks Loop at the point indicated below in bold as the Prospector Connection Point. It is a great way to enjoy the day and zen out, smooth trails and rolling hills all of red sand and slickrock. This trail passes to the south of the Cathedral and offers some spectacular views of that beauty. The total distance of this trail on approach to the loop is approximately 3.7 miles.

The Loop

The Church Rocks loop can be started or connected to from three primary locations, in this description I will begin from where the Highland Trailhead route connects with the loop. This is also the start and end location for the Church Rocks Loop Strava Segment that follows the same route. The loop begins at a crossroads of the Prospector Trail heading east/west and the Highland trail connecting from the south. The description of the trail will be Counter Clockwise from this point. The trail meanders east for about 0.7 miles, crossing large slickrock grades and sandy single track before coming to another T in the trail where it splits with the Prospector Trail (Prospector Connection Point). Continue past the Prospector Trail turn, bearing north east to continue on toward the Church Rocks Cathedral. About another 0.5 miles on the trail will bring you to the closest approach of the Cathedral, and is a great spot to take a photo of this epic landmark.

From the Cathedral the trail turns west and climbs about 100 feet over 0.3 miles to the top of the ridge. The ascent is primarily slickrock with a few sandy spots, and takes you to the highest spot on the trail. Again a great photo spot giving you a great view of Zion National Park to the East, Pine Valley Mountain to the North, Coral Canyon and Warner Valley/Sand Hollow to the south and St. George to the west. The trail then continues basically east and downhill across the slickrock on top of the cliffs for about 1 mile until you descend into a wash. At this point you will head up a steep 0.1 mile ascent of primarily sand mixed with basalt or lava rock to the top of the ridge eastern. Another 0.1 mile of flat sand trail brings you to another crossroads (Grapevine Connection Point) which connects the Church Rocks loop and Prospector Trail in with the Grapevine and Dino Cliffs Trail system. Following the route you will bear south and then turn east to take the steep decent back down the ridge, again with sand and basalt rock for about 0.15 miles. At the bottom of this ridge you follow the trail south and east through the sandy wash and across a small sandy flat to the crossroads that you started heading east on the loop.