The Maze" at Cutler Marsh in Utah"

Trip Overview

The Maze at Cutler Marsh near Logan Utah is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon paddle. The marsh is called the maze for a reason, and although the paddling is easy, your navigation skills can be tested if you venture away from the buoys marking significant trails through the marsh. A GPS would be a nice thing here.

We began at the Cutler Marsh Marina, basically a well maintained gravel parking area with a boat ramp, small floating dock, pit toilet, and pleasant covered picnic area.

There are several buoy marked trails in the marsh.

For our day trip we chose to follow the buoy trail through the marsh and continue up the Logan river from where it feeds into the marsh. The trip was pleasant and peaceful, traveling first through the labyrinth of cattails and marsh grasses. Wildlife is abundant. During our four hours on the water we saw deer, a red fox, several fish hawks of some kind, beaver, many species of ducks and other waterfowl, and a couple of swimming water snakes. Large carp startled by the canoe would make fantastic torpedo wakes, as they fled across shallow water.

At the end of the buoy trail you must watch for the slow moving current to follow to keep finding your way up river. Eventually the marsh subsides into thick overgrown riverbank, and paddling is upstream is easy against the slow moving current. We paddled up a mile or so looking for a good lunch spot, but not finding one, we turned back downstream to a place we had spotted earlier.

As we followed the current back down into the marsh toward the marker buoys, we managed to make a wrong turn that cost about half an hour of pleasant backtracking, this with a map and having been up the route on the way in, so be warned, and start back with spare daylight.

We only saw one other boat (looked like duck hunters) and they were taking out as we put in. Other than that, not a soul. The fall colors reflecting on the water, with the mountains rising in the distance, were breathtaking. This was the first week of October, and no mosquitos were present, very few insects at all, in fact.

We plan to go back with a much earlier start, to explore further up the Logan river, and other trips to different parts of the area. There is alot to explore here, and at this time of year, it is a very nice flatwater paddle.

Accommodations:

Concrete boat lauch, small floating dock, toilet, picnic area.

Outfitting:

There are two outfitters in the area that rent canoes; one does provide a shuttle service.
We used our own canoe, and returned to our put in.

Fees:

No

Directions:

Exit from I-15 at Brigham City and follow Highway 89 to Logan. Turn west on 200 North in Logan and proceed about six miles to Cutler Marsh Marina. The turn out to the marina is on the south (left if your travelling west) side of the road.

Resources:

There is information and a map at this website: http://www.bridgerlandaudubon.org/wetlandsmaze/canoe.html