Frying Pan Trail

The Trail
The Frying Pan Trail is 2.9 miles long on its own one way. However, as this trail acts as a connector between Cohab Canyon and the Cassidy Arch Trail, you must hike up one of these trails to reach it. This is a great trail to do by leaving a car on both ends or otherwise arranging a shuttle/pick up on one side. We recommend going up the Cassidy Arch Trail and then down to the west side of Cohab Canyon, which is the route reflected in the information below. Because you must include at least part of these trails in your hike anyway, the elevation graph and maps below include them. When taking this route, the entire trail (as shown in dark blue below) is a moderate 5.6 mile long hike (one way) with a 1032 foot elevation change. Keep in mind though that there is a fair amount of climbing up and down within the course of the trail.

Topographical Map

Graph of Elevation

Trail in Google Earth

The trail starts up from the west side of Grand Wash and follows the wash for about a quarter mile before turning off and climbing up the side of the canyon. This turn off is well marked with a large sign for Cassidy Arch. As hikers climb up, they will experience some nice views looking down into the Grand Wash and out to more distant points such as Ferns Nipple to the south.

View of Grand Wash from the Cassidy Arch Trail

In addition to doing the trail shown in blue above, hikers have the option of stopping by Cassidy Arch (by following the red trail shown above) before heading up the Frying Pan Trail. The junction between these two trails is about 1.4 miles from the trailhead. Going to Cassidy Arch adds about 0.8 mile total to the trip.

Cassidy Arch

After the Cassidy Arch junction, the trail continues to climb at a steady pace for about another mile. At the high point of the trail, there are some nice views of the surrounding areas.

View to the south with Ferns Nipple to the far right

After that, the trail sets out on a steady decent into Frying Pan Canyon over the course of nearly another mile. A number of interesting rock formations and nice views are found along the way.

After reaching the wash at the bottom of Frying Pan Canyon, there are some side trip options. One of these is to head east for about 0.1 mile to where the wash drops suddenly into some some water pockets. This trail is shown in teal on the maps above. Another option is to head the opposite direction deeper into the canyon as explained here (we ended up not having time for this).

Water pockets to the west of the trail

Looking east from the bottom of Frying Pan Canyon

After exploring whatever you desire in Frying Pan Canyon, return to the trail and head up the north slope of the canyon. As you come to the top of the ridge, you will find some intriguing rock formations.

From the ridge top, the path back down into Cohab Canyon to the west Cohab Canyon Trailhead is about 1.2 miles long. The path follows along a lot of slickrock and can hard to find immediately in a couple places. It is marked with rock cairns though, so keep your eye out for them.

After you reach the bottom of the canyon, you can either head east, which will exit the canyon near the Hickman Bridge Trailhead, or you can head west, which will exit the canyon near the Fruita Campground. Our understanding was that the west side of the canyon was more interesting, so we headed out in this direction.

A hoodoo in Cohab Canyon

Heavily pocketed walls in Cohab Canyon

Fruita Cliffs from just before the west mouth of Cohab Canyon

Parking closest to the trailhead on the west side of Cohab Canyon can be found near the Gifford House. The closest bathrooms from here are those available at the campground.

West Cohab Canyon Trailhead

Some fawns eagerly eating fallen pears in a field near the trailhead

Directions
This trail is located in Capitol Reef National Park in Wayne County, Utah near Torrey. To get there, take UT-24 to Capitol Reef. Turn off to head south at the Visitor's Center and continue along the "Scenic Drive" until reaching the turnoff for Grand Wash on the left. Go up this dirt road until reaching the parking area and trail head at the end.

Alternatively, you could start this trail from Cohab Canyon. To start from the west side of the canyon at the Cohab Canyon Trailhead, turn off UT-24 to head south at the Visitor's Center and continue along the "Scenic Drive" as explained above, but stop and park somewhere near the Gifford House. To start at the west end of Cohab Canyon (route not shown on maps above), continue along UT-24 to the Hickman Bridge Trailhead.