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The Cassidy Trail is named for Butch Cassidy, a famous outlaw of the late 19th century.
Used by the outlaw to evade capture, this scenic trail has numerous hoodoos and other
red-orange rock formations, surrounded by Juniper, Limber Pine, Pinyon Pine and
Bristlecone Pine trees in a Ponderosa Pine forest. At the bottom of the page
there are six images of Butch Cassidy’s boyhood home near Circleville.
Click an image to open a larger version.
Use your back button to return to this page.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Red Canyon Collection page where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Links to the Red Canyon Galleries:
Pink Ledges Arches Trail Cassidy Trail
Golden Wall Trail Flora & Fauna Utah Prairie Dog
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Red Canyon Sunrise Cassidy Trail X2156
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The Castle Bridge hoodoo formations rise above a mixed conifer forest south of Highway 12.
The image was taken from the Cassidy Trailhead at sunrise in June.
Detail shots of this area can be seen on the Golden Wall Trail page.
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Red Canyon Sunrise Cassidy Trail X2160
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Landscape along the Cassidy Trail at sunrise in June.
The red-orange color in the area is caused by iron oxides.
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Evening Primrose Red Canyon X2163
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An Evening Primrose peeks out of the forest clutter on the
Cassidy Trail at sunrise in June. A very difficult exposure.
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Evening Primrose Red Canyon X2164
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A detail shot of an Evening Primrose on the Cassidy Trail at sunrise, before the flower starts to close in the light of day.
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Evening Primrose Red Canyon X2169
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Evening Primrose on the Cassidy Trail at sunrise. The edges of the flowers are starting to turn up in a reaction to the light.
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Evening Primrose Red Canyon X2174
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A detail shot of an Evening Primrose on the Cassidy Trail, with the edges of the flower
just beginning to turn up in the light of day. The flowers open in the evening (hence the name)
and are pollinated at night by moths and certain specialized bees. The flowers close each day.
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Evening Primrose Desert Holly Red Canyon X2171
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Another species of Evening Primrose beside a Desert Holly at sunrise on the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Limber Pines Cassidy Trail X2172
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Limber Pines rise into a brilliant blue Utah sky on the Cassidy Trail in Red Canyon.
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Red Canyon Cassidy Trail Landscape X2176
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Landscape on the Cassidy Trail in Red Canyon.
The Cassidy Trail starts in Red Canyon from a secluded trailhead
and leads north into Losee Canyon and Casto Canyon. Finding the trail
can be a little confusing, as a nearby canyon is called Butch Cassidy Draw,
but when traveling down the canyon rather than up, there is a sign pointing it out.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Red Canyon Collection page where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Links to the Red Canyon Galleries:
Pink Ledges Arches Trail Cassidy Trail
Golden Wall Trail Flora & Fauna Utah Prairie Dog
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Red Canyon Pinyon Pine Cassidy Trail X2180
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A lone Pinyon Pine stands among the hoodoo formations on the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Limber Pines Cassidy Trail X2183
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Limber Pines rise into a brilliant blue sky beside red-orange hoodoos on the Cassidy Trail.
Like much of nearby Bryce Canyon, Red Canyon is iron-oxide-rich Claron Formation Limestone.
The Claron Formation is composed of freshwater sediments laid down in the late-Cretaceous period.
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Red Canyon Junipers Cassidy Trail X2185
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A stand of Junipers on the Cassidy Trail in Red Canyon.
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Red Canyon Juniper Limber Pine Cassidy Trail X2186
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Junipers and Limber Pines on the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Junipers Cassidy Trail X2191
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Junipers in a wash on the Cassidy Trail in Red Canyon.
Several species of Juniper are in the area, including Utah Juniper and Rocky Mountain Juniper.
Like Limber Pines and Bristlecone Pines, some Junipers can reach great age (over 2000 years).
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Red Canyon Juniper Limber Pine Cassidy Trail X2188
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Juniper and Limber Pine on a slope above the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Juniper Limber Pine Cassidy Trail X2196
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Juniper and a gnarled Limber Pine on the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Cassidy Trail X2199
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Hoodoos below a limestone ledge on the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Cassidy Trail Landscape X2200
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Cassidy Trail landscape on the slope below the ledge.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Red Canyon Collection page where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Links to the Red Canyon Galleries:
Pink Ledges Arches Trail Cassidy Trail
Golden Wall Trail Flora & Fauna Utah Prairie Dog
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Red Canyon Limber Pine Cassidy Trail X2201
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Red Canyon Limber Pine Cassidy Trail X2205
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Gnarled Limber Pines about halfway up the Cassidy Trail, below the upper plateau.
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Red Canyon Pinyon Pine Cassidy Trail X2202
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A young Pinyon Pine poking out from a group of rocks on the Cassidy Trail. This appears to be a Single-Leaf Pinyon Pine, which is the world’s only one-needled pine tree.
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Red Canyon Pinyon Pine Cassidy Trail X2209
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A twisted young Colorado Pinyon (two-needled Pinyon Pine) growing near the upper limit of the Pinyon’s typical range at over 7700 feet on the Cassidy Trail in Red Canyon.
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Red Canyon Limber Pine Cassidy Trail X2211
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An ancient, twisted Limber Pine stands among Ponderosa Pines on an upper plateau of the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Limber Pine Cassidy Trail X2212
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Some of the Limber Pines on the Cassidy Trail are quite ancient (some can be well over 1500 years old).
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Red Canyon Bristlecone Pine Cassidy Trail X2214
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An ancient Great Basin Bristlecone Pine on the Cassidy Trail plateau.
Great Basin Bristlecone Pines grow slowly, at high elevations near the tree line.
Some Bristlecone Pines are nearly 5000 years old, and they are the oldest single
living organisms on Earth (some clonal colonies such as the Pando Aspen grove
and the King’s Lomatia are as old as 50,000 to 80,000 years, although individual
plants of the colony are far younger). The oldest Bristlecone Pine (Prometheus),
4862 years old by ring count, was cut down by a research student in 1964. The
oldest living Bristlecone (4842 years) is Methuselah in the White Mountains.
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Red Canyon Fin Hoodoos Cassidy Trail X2216
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Fins and hoodoos near Brayton Point on the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Limber Pines Cassidy Trail X2218
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Limber Pines precariously perched on the slope beside fins and hoodoos near Brayton Point.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Red Canyon Collection page where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Links to the Red Canyon Galleries:
Pink Ledges Arches Trail Cassidy Trail
Golden Wall Trail Flora & Fauna Utah Prairie Dog
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Red Canyon View Pinyon Pine Cassidy Trail X2223
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My colorful 80 year old mom enjoying the view beside a Pinyon Pine at Brayton Point.
Brayton Point is the turnaround for the 5.5 mile out-and-back hike on the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon View Cassidy Trail X2225
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Hoodoos below Brayton Point on the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Cassidy Trail Peak X2226
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The peak at Brayton Point provides a foreground to the expansive red-orange landscape beyond.
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Red Canyon Limber Pine Cassidy Trail X2231
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A twisted Limber Pine perched at the precipice with a view of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.
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Red Canyon Juniper Limber Pine Cassidy Trail X2233
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Juniper and Limber Pine at Brayton Point on the Cassidy Trail.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Red Canyon Collection page where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Links to the Red Canyon Galleries:
Pink Ledges Arches Trail Cassidy Trail
Golden Wall Trail Flora & Fauna Utah Prairie Dog
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Red Canyon Tree Skeleton Cassidy Trail X2166
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A tree skeleton at sunrise on the lower part of the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Tree Skeleton Cassidy Trail X2184
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A sun-bleached tree skeleton on the Cassidy Trail in Red Canyon.
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Red Canyon Tree Skeleton Cassidy Trail X2237
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A tree skeleton below Brayton Point on the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Limber Pine Cassidy Trail X2239
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A Limber Pine below Brayton Point on the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Tree Skeleton Cassidy Trail X2235
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A tree skeleton on the plateau at Brayton Point on the Cassidy Trail.
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Red Canyon Hoodoos Juniper Cassidy Trail X2243
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Mushroom hoodoos and Juniper on the Cassidy Trail.
Below is information on Butch Cassidy and images of his boyhood home.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Red Canyon Collection page where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Links to the Red Canyon Galleries:
Pink Ledges Arches Trail Cassidy Trail
Golden Wall Trail Flora & Fauna Utah Prairie Dog
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Butch Cassidy Boyhood Home Circleville 5534
(845 KB)
The Parker Ranch House and Granary in Circle Valley, 3 miles south of Circleville, Utah.
Butch Cassidy was born Robert Leroy Parker in Beaver, Utah in 1866 in a block house
which still exists (and still has a family living in it). In 1879, the family moved to the Circle Valley
ranch from Beaver after trading their North Creek ranch to Charles van Fleet, who built the two
room cabin in 1865. Butch learned to ride, rope and shoot from Mike Cassidy on this ranch,
where he lived from 1879 to 1884. He used his mentor Cassidy’s last name as his alias.
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Butch Cassidy Boyhood Home Circleville 5530
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Butch Cassidy’s boyhood home near Circleville, Utah.
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Butch Cassidy Boyhood Home Circleville 5539
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A detail shot of the two room cabin and granary.
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Butch Cassidy Boyhood Home Circleville 5544
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Detail of the two room cabin on the Parker Ranch, Butch Cassidy’s boyhood home.
5500-series shots were taken in December (X-series shots below were taken in June).
Butch Cassidy left the ranch in 1884 to find adventure, moving first to Telluride, Colorado.
He often returned to Utah. He was at a dance in Panguitch, Utah a few miles from Red Canyon
when he got into an argument over a girl. He knocked the fellow out, but thought he had killed him
and escaped into the wilds of Red Canyon to elude a posse which was sent out after him. He
avoided them by hiding on what is now the Cassidy Trail. He used Red Canyon to hide
from the law several times in later years, and allegedly built a rock shelter on the
Arches Trail to cache supplies when hiding in one of the larger caves there.
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Butch Cassidy Boyhood Home Circleville X2400
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The Parker Ranch House and Granary in June. Butch Cassidy helped his mother plant the
row of Lombardy Poplars as a windbreak when he lived in the two room cabin from 1879-1884.
In 1889, Butch Cassidy began his outlaw career by robbing a bank in Telluride, Colorado.
He bought a ranch near Dubois, Wyoming near the Hole-in-the-Wall, which he used with the
Sundance Kid, Elzy Lay, Kid Curry and other members of the Wild Bunch Gang as a hideout.
The Wild Bunch was the most successful gang of train robbers in history, popularized by the
1969 film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” with Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch Gang operated in a loose coalition with other gangs
using the Hole-in-the-Wall hideout, collectively called the Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs. One
of the cabins used by Butch Cassidy in his Hole-in-the-Wall hideout is still in existence. It
was moved to Old Trail Town in Cody, Wyoming in the 1970’s with other frontier buildings.
The Wild Bunch also robbed banks and mine payrolls, and also used the Robber’s Roost
hideout on Southeastern Utah’s Canyonlands area, where the gang was originally formed.
Robber’s Roost on the Outlaw Trail was an impregnable fortress of canyons and tunnels
which was never successfully penetrated by posses or infiltrators. The favorite Cassidy
hideout was Brown’s Hole at the border of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado. In the early
days when he was rustling cattle with Mike Cassidy, Butch and other rustlers could
avoid the sheriffs of the three states by simply moving their cattle across a border.
The Wild Bunch even established a town called Powder Springs at Brown’s Hole.
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Butch Cassidy Boyhood Home Circleville X2406
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Butch Cassidy’s boyhood home, the Parker Ranch in Circle Valley,
near the mouth of Circleville Canyon, three miles south of Circleville, Utah.
Butch Cassidy enjoys near-hero status in southern Utah. There are numerous
trails, canyons, streets and buildings named after the “Robin Hood of the West”,
and any actual remaining buildings that are associated with him are revered relics.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Red Canyon Collection page where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Links to the Red Canyon Galleries:
Pink Ledges Arches Trail Cassidy Trail
Golden Wall Trail Flora & Fauna Utah Prairie Dog
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Click the display composite above to visit the Pink Ledges page
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Click the display composite above to visit the Arches Trail page
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Click the display composite above to visit the Golden Wall Trail page
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Click the display composite above to visit the Red Canyon Flora and Fauna page
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Click the display composite above to visit the Utah Prairie Dog page
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