Distance2.5 mi (round trip)
Difficultyblue (with cultural-context restrictions)
Land managerBLM
Best seasonOctober–April
Mountain Bike Trail · Santa Clara

Anasazi Valley Trail (Tempi'po'op)

The Anasazi Valley trail — also called Tempi’po’op or Land Hill — climbs from a trailhead in west Santa Clara through a dirt corridor to a basalt-capped mesa with extensive petroglyph panels. The main trail is bike-permitted; the spurs to the rock-art panels themselves are foot-only. The riding is short, gentle, and unusual for a 435 trail in that the destination is cultural rather than scenic.

A trail with cultural rules

The petroglyph panels at the top of the trail are sacred sites for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, and visitor etiquette is non-negotiable: stay on marked trails, do not touch the panels, do not chalk them for photography, and do not scramble off-trail to reach panels not yet visible. The BLM signage at the trailhead lays the rules out clearly. Visitors who don’t respect them are why entire petroglyph sites elsewhere in the Southwest have been closed to public access.

What’s rideable

The bike-permitted section of the trail runs from the trailhead to a junction near the top, where the foot-only spurs branch off. The riding is intermediate dirt singletrack with a few rocky steps and a moderate climb. Most riders ride to the junction, lock the bike, and walk the foot-only sections to the panels. The total time is one to two hours.

Why this is a stub

This page is a stub because the bike riding here is short and incidental — the trail is fundamentally a cultural-site approach, not a mountain bike destination. It is included for completeness because Trailforks lists it as a bike-permitted trail, but visitors planning a real bike day should look at Bear Claw Poppy, Barrel Roll, or the Santa Clara network trails instead.

Where Anasazi Valley sits in the 435

Anasazi Valley is one of the few publicly accessible petroglyph sites in Washington County and is the most-visited rock-art trail in the area. Its inclusion as a bike-permitted trail is unusual and reflects the tradition of mixed use that predates current management designations. The page-as-stub posture is intentional: this is not a trail to ride for the riding; it is a trail to walk for the panels.

Last updated  ·  Apr 27, 2026