The desert hills of southwestern Utah run from the border with Arizona right up to the first peaks of Zion National Park.   There are some trails through these hills outside of the park that are too hot to hike, except in shoulder season or in winter.   In late fall, we hiked a couple of them while on a trip to Zion.   The Chinle Trail starts at the edge of the town of Springdale and bears northwest across the ridges, rocky hills, and washes for 7 miles (11.25 km) one way to Coalpits Wash.

The trailhead is at a signed parking area on Anasazi Road.   The first section is through the Anasazi Plateau neighborhood, but then the trail winds off to a gate into Zion National Park.

The route is on rolling terrain on sand and gravel through the desert hills.

To the east is Mount Kinesava and the colorful mesas, ridge, and mountains of Zion.

The trail winds past a series of small washes, then goes around and through three larger gullies/washes – Huber wash, then Scoggins wash and finally Coalpits Wash.   Between Huber and Scoggins is a petrified forest with many scattered samples along the route.

Doing the whole trail is a long day hike (23 km) and there is more to explore in the upper Coalpits Wash area so the trail is sometimes used as a winter or shoulder season backpack.   This was our second hike for the day, so were content to hike to the petrified forest area and back, a total of about 11 km.

On our way back, the pinnacles of the Eagle Crags  called for us to explore the area, which we did a few days later.

This was our fifth trip to Zion (about 9 weeks of hiking) so we took the time to explore some of the other trails of the area, enjoying the Chinle Trail on a warm fall day.