![]() |
Milky falls is big! |
We went down to Sanpete county for Memorial Day and had to squeeze in one adventure between the cemeteries. We decided to go up Manti Canyon to Milky Falls, which we’d never done before (despite the fact that I spent my first 18 years growing up around there.) The falls is very near the road– the sign says 150 yards, so to count this as a hike is a bit of a stretch. It is definitely an adventure, though.
If you find yourself in Manti in a high-clearance vehicle, you can try Milky Falls. Head east on 5th south and you’ll go straight up the canyon. From the last houses it is right around 7.5 miles to the waterfall. The road goes past Yearns, which is a fishing hole popular with the locals, and splits at the 6 mile mark. You want to go right. The last 1.5 is very bumpy and rough. We did it in a van, and we saw a few SUVs up there, but you could easily lose a small sedan in one of the ruts or potholes on this road.
The falls were really roaring though, (in late May) so much so that we had to keep yelling at our kids to stay back. One of the problems is that there is not a good “platform” to stand on to view the falls. I mean, I don’t really expect an actual platform, but there is sort of a slick hillside sliding into the river with a wisp of trail that runs up along the falls for a little way.
We’re glad we added Milky Falls to our adventure list, but it is an adventure for the truly adventurous!
![]() |
The boys in front of the lower part of the falls. |
We went here today. Our van did fine, and someone else was in a regular little sedan (we were surprised!), but nearly everyone on that road was in an ATV. I’m guessing the waterfall wasn’t roaring at the level that you saw in late May. We all thought it was fantastic.
We had just done the amazing Cascade Falls hike in Dixie National Forest a few weeks earlier, and thought this waterfall was similar. We live about 30 miles away, so really cool to find out about this.
The sign that’s shown in one of your photos declaring it’s 150 yards away was somehow gone. The frame for it was still there though. Hopefully it gets fixed/replaced. We parked on the side of the road near the sign, but a couple other people with ATVs parked down the hill a little closer to the falls where there’s an apparent dirt parking lot, although going down to it didn’t look like a good idea for our van.
We figured out the waterfall is 2.3 miles past Yearns Reservoir. The reservoir can also be hiked all the way around (it’s not very big, but still fun, like a mini version of Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon). We saw a bunch of koi fish in the reservoir someone evidently put there, I’m assuming illegally.
Pingback: Waterfalls in Utah - Utah's Adventure Family
Thanks for posting this! We aren’t super familiar with Manti and wanted to do some hiking when we were down there this past weekend for the pageant. I found your blog through Pinterest and we went up Milky Falls. It was a lot of fun…I agree with you—high on adventure…not so much on the hiking part. But we loved it!
I’m excited to try out some of your other hikes!
Yes we do! We just created a Facebook page for Utah Valley Family Adventures. The easiest way to find us is to click the Facebook link on the right side of our blog under the Connect With Us heading.
Hello… I was wondering if you have a facebook page because I would love to follow you!