Canyonlands National Park - Ernies Country

This trail is not on National Park maps but it is marked with cairns and has tread in many places. Few visit this section of the Maze so you are likely to enjoy it in isolation, especially if you venture off the route. Expect to loose the trail in places, but with good map reading skills, you should find it again quickly. Several days of roaming could be done in the area or you can blast through if your hike is part of a larger circuit in the Maze.

Cairns will take you down into the first canyon, Range Canyon. The only (short) steep scramble is located here near the beginning on slickrock. Once down to the wash, the route follows the wash to the right. Continue just 100 feet down the wash and then look for a trail going left uphill out of the wash. It goes 200 yards to Lou's Spring. This water source is 8 miles or so if you dropped down from the parking on the rim above the Flint Switchbacks or just 0.8 miles from the Dollhouses Road. It may also be the last water for quite a distance, so fill up. Lou's Spring is named after Lou Chaffin. The Chaffin family used this area for sheep grazing from 1919 to 1944 and the government improved the spring in the 1930's. It is still providing water, nowadays for thirsty hikers instead of sheep. There is another spring (Clell's Spring) about mid-way on this trail but it is not as reliable. The first half of this Ernies Country route is through rocky terrain while the second half is an area called Main Flat, a huge sage area three miles long and a mile wide. The scenery is always changing and quite unique in places. The map will show features like The Fins, but you will pass though and by many key features not written on maps like Sand Tank Canyon, Sweet Alice Canyon and The Chute. Near the end as you get closer to the Dollhouses, you go though rocky country again and pop out at the final few feet of road at the Dollhouses. Left just goes up to campsite #3, go right to walk the roadway toward the Dollhouses and to Chimney Rock.

Ernies Country - The Fins Trail