Little Egypt - Farmer's Knob 2.0 - 3.0

Another interesting Jeep trail.  Start at Little Egypt Geologic Formation, see a bunch of mining era relics and end up with an optional 3.0 loop around a small hill.

There is a GPS - gpx track at the bottom of the page.

Little Egypt is like Goblin Valley State Park and Cathedral Valley of Capitol Reef National Park. Weathering and erosion carves hoodoos (i.e., Egyptian temples, goblins, and cathedrals) in all three areas from the Entrada Sandstone. This is the same formation that also erodes to arches, fins, and spires in Arches National Park.

Joint sets (fractures) within the Entrada’s fine-grained sandstone beds play an important role in hoodoo development by creating initial zones of weakness. Unweathered joints intersect to form sharp edges and corners.

These edges and corners are more susceptible to weathering because they have a greater surface-area-to-volume ratio than the faces. As a result, they weather more quickly, producing rounded hoodoos through a process called spheroidal weathering.

Spheroidal weathering helps shape the hoodoos, but it is only part of the larger erosion process that forms and exhumes the hoodoos.

Interbedded and underlying shale and siltstone beds are less resistant to weathering and erosion than the hoodoo’s sandstone beds. Combined with spheroidal weathering of the sandstone beds, these softer shale and siltstone beds can give the hoodoos a stacked appearance, elongated shapes, and flat bottoms.

Additionally, variation in the amount and type of cementation (between grains in sedimentary rocks) may act as a secondary control on the unusual shapes of individual hoodoos.

Similar to rocks all across southeastern Utah, the Entrada’s reddish hue comes from minute quantities of hematite (iron oxide). The whiter areas result from bleaching by ground water that chemically removed the hematite (or rendered it colorless) before the rocks were exhumed by erosion.

Little Egypt overview

Little Egypt closer

As you continue along the trail you come to an old stone house, a stone fireplace of undetermined use and an old log cabin.

Fireplace, but why?

Log Cabin

There are two short spurs leading to overlooks of the narrow canyon on Crescent Creek and to mining remains. We guessed the platform built downstream of Lecleed Spring was to get water up to the mining operation.

Crescent Creek Canyon

Water lift platform?

There is a 2 mile spur on the western edge of this loop that goes to a great overlook.  Worth the detour and a good place to take a break.

​Farmer's Knob is a short hill near the south end of the trail.  It has a fun, optional, loop rated 3.0 running all the way around it.

Farmer's Knob

Climbing to the loop

Updated 2015.

---

---

little_egypt_-_farmers_knob_2.0_-_3.0.gpx
File Size:	364 kb
File Type:	gpx

Download File

---