Paper Airplane Trail

If you are looking for an easy trail with a unique destination, then this is the hike for you! Take this short path to a huge paper airplane sculpture. This is a fun spot for photos, and if you take this hike in the summer, you will get some vibrantly green scenery and a variety of colorful wildflowers along the way.

Details

Distance: 4 miles

Difficulty: Easy

Trail Type: Out & Back

Location: Eden (Powder Mountain)

Parking: Dirt Lot

Bathrooms: No

Dog Friendly: Yes

Highlights: sculpture, wildflowers, scenic views

This is a great hike that is very family friendly and a good choice for all ages and levels of hiking experience. This is also a very popular spot for mountain biking and you will likely see more bicyclists here than hikers.

How Long is the Paper Airplane & Woody’s World Hike?

If you are hiking both Woody’s World and Paper Airplane, it will be a 4-mile out and back hike. If you wish to only see the paper airplane, expect a mile round trip.

What is the Elevation?

The elevation at the Paper Airplane is approximately 8,500. Your total elevation gain on this hike is only 400 feet.

Where do you Park for the Paper Airplane Trail?

There are 2 options for parking for this trail. We will be sharing the route to take when parking at the dirt lot at the top of Horizon Run Road. The second parking lot is located near the start of Summit Pass Road. (Google Maps and AllTrails takes you to the Horizon Run lot.)

Where is the Paper Airplane Trailhead?

The start of the trailhead is not the easiest to find. The trailhead isn’t well marked and the signs are more confusing here than helpful (they appear to lead you along the side of the road). What you want to do is take the small dirt trail leading down from the parking lot.

(Take this dirt path off to the left, do not go straight along the guardrail)

Navigating the Trail

Take the narrow, unmarked dirt path, leading down from the parking lot at Horizon Run Rd. You will soon come to a big wooden lookout deck. This is a great viewpoint and worth stopping at for a few pictures.

You will follow this path around and down past the lookout deck. Continue until you come to a fork with a trail sign stating Woody’s World (with an arrow leading to your right). Take the trail to your left to go to the Paper Airplane. The trail will split once more, but both paths lead to the airplane.

There are plenty of trails that continue after you reach the airplane, and you can stay on this path as long as you would like.

We turned around after we reached the airplane, in order to hike Woody’s World. Once we reached the original split, we continued forward, following the markers direction for Woody’s World. This trail will lead you to some great look outs. We saw two deer on this path, and there were a number of spots to sit and take in the views. You will find one bench on this trail, and a few locations with numerous logs to sit on. These make great scenic lunch spots for your hike.

Where Does the Trail End?

The trail ends once it connects with Summit Pass Rd. Turn around here to head back the way you came.

Our Experience

We had a great time on this hike. It was the perfect trail for an early morning. We were decently tired the morning we took this hike, and an easy trail had sounded like the perfect choice for us. We arrived before 8 am, and were happy to be the only ones in the parking lot.

(View of the Paper Airplane, at a distance, from Woody’s World Trail)

We took a bit to find the trail, our trail maps showing us non-existent routes. At first, we decided to walk down Horizon Run Rd., then we tried following the signs along the Summit Pass Rd. After quickly deciding that both routes were the wrong ones, we decided there was only one route left. The small, unmarked dirt path that led us to the paper airplane.

We find a good amount of shade along the trail and the weather was perfect, with a light breeze and great morning lighting for pictures. I knew that the trail would be green, but I was extra happy with how many wildflowers were blooming here already! We saw some new flowers that we haven’t seen on any hikes, this summer or last summer which I found to be pretty exciting.

Summary

Like it Love it Gotta hike it

We enjoyed this outing and were very happy that we went in the summer when the trail was nice and green. Having seen a lot of pictures of the paper airplane, we knew it would look much more impressive against a green background rather then blending in with the brown dirt. I am glad that we waited, finding it even prettier than I had expected it to be.

We also liked how many trails were out in this area and plan to do more hikes past the airplane in the future. Overall, it was a nice and easy scenic hike, and it’s not too often you can find places to hike to sculptures – particularly, a paper airplane sculpture! It makes for a unique experience and nice way to mix it up from a traditional destination hike.

If you are looking for more easy hikes in the Eden area, be sure to check out our posts on North Fork Park Waterfall, and Pineview Trail. Don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter to keep up with our latest posts and receive hiking ideas straight to your inbox!