Friday, February 21, 2020

Jones Bones and the Cinder Cone Trail

Another beautiful winter day in southern Utah.  What better to do than go hiking with friends!  John & Mary have been "raving" about an unmarked/unnamed trail called "Jones Bones" that starts across from the north Snow Canyon state park entrance.  This "sweet" little trail just about has it all:  sand, slickrock, a decent elevation gain, wonderful views and a cinder cone to boot!  We used two cars . . . parking one at the Cinder Cone trailhead and then shuttling in the other to the Snow Canyon entrance.  This allowed us to do a 3.5 mile one-way hike, rather than an up and back . . . turned out to be a great plan . . . and a great afternoon hike!

Working our way through the sand

After we emptied our shoes of sand, we continued on the slickrock

There's no trail across the slickrock . . . just a few rock cairns 

And here he is . . . the namesake of the trail
Poor Mr. Jones . . . he's missing his right hand!
Thankfully, he has a good pair of shoes, sunglasses and a hat! 

Looking west towards Snow Canyon 

We continue heading north towards the cinder cone

One of the many gates . . . sadly, we didn't see any dangerous animals!

There's a trail leading up the cinder cone on the south side 

On top of the cinder cone . . . we had great views all to ourselves

The end of our hike . . .
Looking back to the south from the start of the Cinder Cone trailhead