The Enepitsi Trail in St George also goes by the more enigmatic “Ghost Trail”: Enepitsi is pronounced e’noo petes and means “ghost” in the Southern Paiute language). From the signposted trailhead, the wide trail heads up a hill above the Santa Clara River.
It then descends towards the river, providing some sweeping views over the shallow canyon carved out by the Santa Clara River. The greenery along the river is in stark contrast to the otherwise hot and dry landscape.
The Enepitsi Trail follows an old pioneer road between the banks of the Santa Clara River and cliffs of Land Hill, which was also used as a route by the Ancestral Puebloans and Southern Paiutes. There are hundred of petroglyphs along the cliff-line, not far from the trail (eight sites are documented in the Enepitsi Trail Petroglyphs post).
It’s an easy family-friendly and dog-friendly walk along the Santa Clara River – although by mid-morning there is very little shade along the trail.
A short scramble up to one of the petroglyph sites also provides a great view up and down the Santa Clara River.
A short side-track off the Enepitsi Trail (next to a trail marker) goes down to the river, where there is a deep pool and a few shaded spots.
The valley opens up a bit towards the end of the trail, and some of the boulders offers some respite from the hot sun (this is a hike best down outside of summer; even in late May it was very hot by 11am).
The trail reaches a very obvious fork just before the end: to the right are two large boulders on either side of the trail, both of which have petroglyphs.
To the left, the trail descends gently to the Santa Clara River, where a series of crude man-made dams create shallow pools. (Despite being a fairly hot day, the river doesn’t have any appealing swimming holes.)
The trail is about 3.7 miles return, and can be easily done in 1.5 hours; if exploring all the petroglyph sites it’s closer to 5 miles and needs 2-3 hours.
Getting to the Enepitsi Trail
“Tukupetsi Trailhead” gets you to the parking area and signposted start of the walk if using Google Maps. It’s at the end of Graveyard Wash Road, which is off Santa Clara Drive, about 7.5 miles (15min) from the I-15 in St George.
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