Cathedrals Trail

Cathedrals Trail is a 2.4-mile round-trip out-and-back along a low ridge parallel to Cathedral Valley’s line of sandstone monoliths. Allow 1–2 hours. The park rates it easy, though the route starts with a short, steep climb; most of the ridge is gentler, and a small hill at the end opens a broad view over Upper Cathedral Valley.

A small wooden sign marks the start on Cathedral Road. The trail climbs steeply at first; junipers and basalt boulders line the opening pitch. Once you’re on the ridge, the walk settles down and runs west beside the Cathedrals. The first clearing gives you a look at the towers, and the gaps between them keep changing the view as you go. The distance above includes the return over the same line.

This is an unmaintained backcountry route, not a formal maintained trail. The tread can be faint, and cairns may be missing or misleading. It’s a good short walk if you’re comfortable reading a map and finding your way in open country.

The ridge looks across a peach-colored gully toward Jones Bench. At the far end, the route curves around a small rise and climbs to a grassy knoll with a 360-degree panorama of Upper Cathedral Valley. The Hartnet escarpment and its switchback road lie to the south; distant Thousand Lake and Fishlake mountains fill the western horizon. Stop at the first clearing as well as at the end. For a photo, leave some of the ridge and its junipers in the foreground so the towers have a sense of scale.

Needle Mountain exposes a thick face of Entrada sandstone without the green-gray Curtis cap seen on Cathedral Mountain. That difference helps pick the two formations out from the ridge. The Cathedrals’ tall, separate shapes stand above a broad desert of layered slopes and volcanic crags.

The trailhead is on Cathedral Road, 2.4 miles north of the Hartnet Road junction and 27.4 miles from Highway 24 by the north approach. Cathedral and Hartnet roads need high-clearance vehicles; four-wheel drive is often recommended. Deep sand and wet clay can stop the drive, and the Hartnet approach from Highway 24 crosses the Fremont River without a bridge. The park recommends spring and fall for Cathedral Valley. There’s no potable water in the district, and dogs are prohibited on trails.