Sandy Flats Trail

Sandy Flats Trail

It ain't pretty but not much about this trail is. Just a shot of the Snady Flats trail doing what it does...going up. Its the steepest trail in the gorge gaining, or losing, 1200' of vertical over its 1-mile length. June 2006
dwhike
on Jul 3, 2006 7:30 pm
Image Type(s): Hiking
Image ID: 204621

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BobSmith

BobSmith - Oct 4, 2009 10:11 am - Voted 10/10

Closed.

The Sandy Flats Trail is officially closed now. Last year some guy hiked it down and severely broke his leg. Fortunately, some hikers found him in time to save his leg.

dwhike

dwhike - Oct 5, 2009 12:50 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Closed.

Not surprised. It was all but closed when I hiked it in this pic...in fact a park ranger later told me I could have been fined for using it! Ahh well, plenty of other trails in the gorge!

BobSmith

BobSmith - Oct 5, 2009 11:33 am - Voted 10/10

Re: Closed.

Yeah. I forgot to reread your post. I saw that after I posted. It's listed as "closed" on all of the maps, now. Have you ever hiked the Pinch In Trail? If Sandy Flats was steeper, I'm glad I never hiked it.

dwhike

dwhike - Oct 5, 2009 12:32 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Closed.

No, never got around to the Pinch-In...on this particular trip I specifically remember looking for THE steepest trail in the gorge, just to say I did it. Sandy Flats (a misnomer if ever there was one) was listed in my guide as the most difficult but I seem to remember Pinch-In being a close second. As hard as it was to climb it would have been downright suicidal to descend!

BobSmith

BobSmith - Oct 6, 2009 2:37 pm - Voted 10/10

Re: Closed.

That must be what happened to the guy who shattered his leg on that trail last year. Really nasty compound fracture. They say he was lucky that he was able to drag himself to a point where some passing hikers found him. According to an article I read, if even a few more hours had passed, he'd have lost his leg (supposing anyone found him).

I took an overnight backpack into the gorge last year and never saw another person the entire two days. Sometimes there's no one else down there.

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