The Honaker Trail is a hiking trail located near

Goosenecks State Park Goosenecks State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Utah, overlooking a deep meander of the San Juan River. The park is located near the southern border of the state a short distance from Mexican Hat, Utah. Millions of years ago, the Mo ...

in southeastern

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. Built in the late 1890s and early 1900s as a supply route for

gold prospectors Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

, the trail connects the deeply entrenched San Juan River with the canyon rim over above. Popular with geologists, the trail serves as the type locality for the Pennsylvanian

Honaker Trail Formation The Honaker Trail Formation is a geologic formation in Utah. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period. It is a member of the 3-member Hermosa Group and is located above the Paradox Formation in the dramatic site of Goose ...

. Fossilized

crinoid Crinoids are marine animals that make up the class Crinoidea. Crinoids that are attached to the sea bottom by a stalk in their adult form are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms are called feather stars or comatulids, which are ...

s and

brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, w ...

s, as well as

trace fossil A trace fossil, also known as an ichnofossil (; from el, ἴχνος ''ikhnos'' "trace, track"), is a fossil record of biological activity but not the preserved remains of the plant or animal itself. Trace fossils contrast with body fossils, ...

s of other organisms are visible along portions of the trail.

References

Hiking trails in Utah Protected areas of San Juan County, Utah {{US-trail-stub