So first things first:
Finding the Sundance Trail trail: Location and Road Conditions
Preparing for the trip, I checked multiple trip reports on-line and consulted, Technical Loop Hikes in Southern Utah: Canyoneering 2 by Steve Allen and, the Canyon Hiking Guide to the Colorado Plateau by Michael Kelsey to find information on the condition and location of the road to the trailhead and notes on the Sundance Trail its self. Once I actually drove down there, I found that both Allen and Kelsey use outdated road numbers. Instead, I was able to easily find the trailhead using my, Utah Road and Recreation Atlas published by Benchmark Maps. I bought it at REI...I think it was 19 or 20$...I know they have them at the USGS store on North Temple in SLC too--that's also where I got my TOPO maps for the area.
***As a point of interest: I had both 7.5 min maps and 15 min maps with me on the trip. I found that the 15 min map was more than sufficient for my needs--I wasn't planning on following Allen's overland loops or anything--so if you are doing just a straightforward up-and-down-canyon-hike, you can get along happily with the 15. Also, they only cost 1$ whereas 7.5 cost about 6$. However, I know that the USGS isn't making 15 min maps anymore, so this may be a moot point in the future. ***
To get to the Sundance Trail, I drove from SLC through Price on 6, down through Hanksville on 24, and towards Hite on 95. So going South/East on 95, the road to the trailhead is the first dirt road to your left--or East--after Hite. It's NPS road 632. 632 turns into 2081 which you follow E, SE and finally NE until you intersect 256. Go NE--or left--on 256 to the spur road which will take you to the obviously marked trailhead. The Park Service has recently erected very obvious trail head, hiker, and mileage signs marking the way once you are on 256.
The County has also recently put in new road markers --white, narrow, vertical numbered signs--so the road/trail was very easy to find.
***Important Note: The trailhead has recently been relocated!****
Since the time of Kelsey and Allen's trail descriptions, the trail head has been moved. I read in a few of the on-line route descriptions, that people found the trail by looking for a stock pond. This pond is also mentioned in Kelsey's book. There is no longer any stock pond, nor is there need for one to mark the spot: the new NPS signs make the trail super easy to find*****
Roads 632, 2081 and 256 were awesome roads: well graded and smooth smooth. I was not expecting this. I have spent the last few years driving around in the back country of Escalante, and man, compared to Hole-In-the-Rock Road, these roads were paved highways. The spur road down to the trailhead however, was a bit rocky as it descended through the more sandy geological layers and intersected the sandstone of the Cedar Mesa formation. You could still make the whole trip in a 2WD vehicle though. We were in a ridiculously large Dodge Truck, so we made it without any problem. There was a super cute little gold 60's or 70's era VW van down at the trailhead though, which had clearly made the trip just fine.
I have to insert this caveat: We drove down these roads in mid-March. There had been no recent moisture and the roads had been recently graded. If there was precip, these roads would turn to sticky boggy goo--tire-trapper-mud--and nothing but serious mudders would help you. I drove over a short portion of the road to the Bear's Ears--similar consistency to these roads-- in Jan of this year, and the remaining snow made them slippery slimey and a bit treacherous despite the 4WD Toyota truck I was riding in. Precip changes the road conditions so drastically, that I don't know what their condition would be over the span of the season. I imagine though, that since some of the land you drive through is open range regularly driven by ranchers, that the county would grade them with some regularity.
ok...more later
