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Tony Grove - Wood Camp, 13 July, 2025

Nine of us hiked the 12 miles from Tony Grove to Wood Camp: Dave W. and Jane left early to get a head start.  Kamren, Brent J., Brent L., Ralph, Susan, David, and Dave P. (leader) left a car at Wood Camp and started hiking from the Tony Grove backcountry parking lot. One hiker realized his hat was missing but didn’t want to go back to the cars.  A few minutes later we found a hat on a log that he was able to use, which was lucky because it was a sunny day. We climbed past Coldwater Spring on the Mt. Naomi NRT (National Recreation Trail) and met Dave W and Jane at the Wilderness boundary.  We headed down the ridge between Cottonwood Canyon and Blind Hollow, enjoying various flowers, butterflies, and views.  The footing was tricky due to loose rocks.  We rebuilt the cairn at the junction between Blind Hollow and Cottonwood Canyon.  There is no sign at this important trail intersection.  We headed down into the canyon and after a short stretch a route used by horses joined the trail.  In the bottom of the Canyon were old carvings and possible bear cub scratch marks on aspen trees.  The trail climbs over a ridge where a few of us took a side trip to check out the watering trough near Cottonwood Spring.  The trough was broken and the pipe leading to the spring removed.  Farther down the trail we could see where the spring run came down the hill but there was no sign of water.
We stopped for lunch in the forest near the intersection of the Cottonwood Canyon and Mt. Naomi NRT trails.  At this point all the horse tracks went up toward Mt. Elmer and we headed down Cottonwood Canyon.  The trail is seldom used—we didn’t see any tracks of tires, cows, or horses, there was no sign of logging, and almost no invasive plants (weeds).  In this wilderness it was interesting to see how thick the trees and wildflowers grew.  We saw grouse and heard woodpeckers and the air was filled with small moths. Down in the canyon there was little wind and lots of humidity from the plants, which made for hot hiking.

We took another break on the ridge between the main canyon and the South Fork.  On the way down to the South Fork we saw where a landslide had taken the trail off the hillside.  This happened several years ago and closed the trail for horses, for a good reason.  The trail in this section has been minimally repaired and is passable but narrow.  We heard the big spring in the South Fork.  This was the first water since Coldwater Spring.
We climbed out of the South Fork and headed down the Old Juniper trail as fast as our tired legs could carry us. Jane and Dave encountered a large rattlesnake but it calmly moved away from the trail after a couple of warning buzzes. There was still a little water going under the first bridge above the Wood Camp parking lot.  At the trailhead the drivers left to retrieve their cars and the rest of us relaxed in the shade and walked down to the campground by the Logan River.
It was a good hike, but the consensus was that rather than ending at Wood Camp, it probably would be better to end at the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon.  We noticed that the user-trail heading down lower Cottonwood Canyon seemed to be well defined enough to be passable without too much bushwhacking. This would shorten the hike and avoid the climb out of the South Fork.
Trip Summary:
  • Nine Cache Hikers participated in the long hike:  Dave W., Jane, Kamren, Brent J., Brent L., Ralph, Susan, David, and Dave P. (leader)
  • Left a "shuttle" car at the Wood Camp Trailhead (13 miles) and continued another 16 miles to the Tony Grove Backountry Trailhead
  • Started hiking about 9:00 am, lunch 12:20 - 12:50 pm, arrived at the Wood Camp trailhead about 5:00 pm.
  • Clear skies, calm winds and warm temperatures
  • Hiked about 12.3 miles with about 1500 feet ascending and over 4000 feet descending

Thanks to Dave P for the narrative and photos, Jane for photos, and Dave W and Ralph for photos and GPS data.



Our start on the Mt. Naomi National Recreation Trail
 		A pond at the Bear Hollow Trail junction

Wilderness boundary, at mile 2.2 (we took the left fork toward Green Canyon)

Group photo near the Wilderness Boundary
From our trail overlooking Cottonwood Canyon we could see Mt. Elmer (left) and the "Seven Sisters" ridge

Jane's answer for the missing junction sign
The trail toward Mt. Elmer is barely discernible here


Unusual marks on aspen trees
 		Woodpecker tree along the trail
Dry remnants of the Cottonwood Spring water trough
 		We were pleased to see a sign at the Mt. Naomi NRT/Cottonwood Canyon Trail junction
A shady lunch spot near the trail junction
Waist-high vegetation obscured much of the trail through Cottonwood Canyon

Damaged trail here had been repaired by a volunteer "Trail Adopter"


Fairybells Fireweed in a area that burned in 2006
Two species of paintbrush

Sego lily
 		Buckwheat

z
Scarlet gilia (with its light-colored flower form)
 		Penstemon


Little sunflower
 		Western coneflower


Jacob's ladder
 		Big-leaf balsamroot


Bluebells
 		Fleabane

Lovage?
 		Lupine

Two species of Geranium

Potentilla
 		Stickseed

Holmgren's owls-clover
 		Blue columbine (it's white in our area)

Our GPS track shows about 12.3 miles with about 1500 feet of ascent and over 4000 feet of descent.
You can look at our route using Google Earth or download our GPS file.