Milt's Mile - Rated 7

Milt’s Mile

This trail was one of the first developed in the Sand Hollow area of Sand Mountain.  It was developed by Milt Thompson, a local 4x4 shop owner.  When he first ran it with his CJ3, it was a great challenge, but the scenery was even better.  Since then, the trail, and the scenery have evolved.  Sand Hollow Reservoir was built in 2003 and filled by 2004. The latest changes Milt added to the route made this trail much more challenging, and now it has almost continuous obstacles from the bottom to the top. The trail now drops into the canyon above Nasty Half (so that may make it the Not Quite As Nasty Half) and adds some fun obstacles to bump the rating up to a 6. During Trail Hero, we run all the obstacles that used to be optional, and it is a fun trail.

Scenery

The scenery is spectacular from almost every part of this run.  To the south, there are slickrock canyons with hoodoos and many rock formations.  Sand Hollow Reservoir lies just to the north, with Zion Park in the background.  The lower Hurricane Sand Dunes are just to the east, with Hurricane Cliffs in the background.  In the winter time, the Pine Valley Mountains to the west are usually capped with snow.

Surface

Most of the trail is on the slickrock, with some parts crossing sandy canyon bottoms.  The access and return routes is on bumpy sand trail.  The route from the top of the slickrock is via the Hurricane Sand Dunes, mostly downhill with a few dune climbs.

Trail Details

The new and improved Milt’s Mile has notched up the action.  All of the optional of the previous routes are now the trail.  There are some bypasses, but for Trail Hero, the trail runs right up the hard stuff. There are still a few optional, such as the east side climb-out of the first bowl.  After exiting the bowl, the trail follows the bottom with a tough notch and ledge combo that may pitch you into the rocks to your left if you pick the wrong line. The next obstacle is a tough left turn out of the canyon that is easy enough for a modified Jeep with lockers, but if you elect to climb out the waterfall at the end, be ready for possible tip-over.  The next obstacles loom when the trail turns down into the canyon just above the exit of Nasty Half trail.  There are a few options.  The primary route has become the vertical wall to the left.  The bypass is straight ahead, but even the bypass is a bit tricky.  The climb-out at the end of this section of the canyon has a steep climb to the left, or the optional route up the V-notch. The V-notch has a hole that tends to suck in tires and create tip-overs.  Very careful spotting and a wide track will usually be successful on this route.   The last few turns out of the canyon wall are fun challenges with lots of variety.  After climbing out, the trail drops right back down and climbs up a challenging 30" ledge that usually has a sand hill to help you up.  After that the next obstacle is "The Crack" that drops your vehicle into a narrow crack, and then right back up, usually dragging the rear bumper pretty hard. After a few more challenges, the next major obstacle is the "Hard Right" that requires climbing a wall with your sidewalls of your tires as you climb up a narrow slot.  There are several more obstacles as you continue up the slickrock wash.  The last one is the "Hard Left" in which you wedge between a rock and a big ledge, climb the ledge by turning left, and hope to get turned enough to avoid dropping a rear tire, which brings you into a big wheel lift that can create a tip-over.  After the left turn, you climb out a small sand hill, then head east to the sand dunes for the return to the bottom.

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Trail: Milt's Mile 
Rated: 6