Lange’s Dugway

The Lange’s Dugway trail is most often accessed from its south end starting at the Black Gulch trailhead parking area off the Cottonwood Road.  A stepover gate across the road serves as an entry point where visitors proceed down a dugway (road or way cut out of a hillside) to the bottom of Black Gulch and then up the rock-walled dugway for ¼ mile till reaching the mesa top.  The two-track trail is suitable for hikers and equestrians.  However, sections with sharp lava rocks make it challenging for some bikers.  The trail originally served as the pioneer wagon route from St. George to the outlying community of Veyo but now serves partly as access for emergency vehicles and powerline maintenance trucks in addition to recreation use.  About 2½ miles up the trail, the connection is made to the easy Alger Hollow trail (which proceeds 2.1 miles to the Lava Ridge trailhead).  Lange’s Dugway trail continues another 2 miles till it terminates at the boundary of the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve.  From this point on, a faint, narrow trail continues about 1 mile to the north on private property till it reaches a gate on a public road in south-central Diamond Valley. Overall, Lange’s Dugway is an easy to moderately difficult trail with an elevation gain of 520 feet to the highest point and a total up and down elevation change of 1160 feet.  The trail runs through areas of desert scrub brush, grasses, and patches of Utah juniper with floral displays in wet years.  Views from the top of the mesa include portions of St. George and the surrounding community, upper Snow Canyon, the southern mountains into Arizona, and occasional glimpses of the Pine Valley Mountains.  The trail runs entirely across public lands administered by BLM within the Red Cliffs NCA.

BLM’s website for Lange’s Dugway

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