Lower Williams Creek Trail has 3 options. All begin at the Williams Creek Picnic Area and end on Perreau Creek Road. You can leave a shuttle vehicle at the junction of Perreau Creek and Williams Creek Roads or at the Shoup Bridge Rec. Site back on US-93. All 3 options have big views, rugged riding, hike-a-bike, and a steep brake-burning descent into Perreau Creek.
Option 1: "Trail Access" - Descend about 1/2 mile on the gravel road from the Picnic Area to the "Trail Access" sign. Follow a short two-track to a hike-a-bike and the trail. There are rock cairns and carsonite marking the route from here. Follow the main trail, the sage can get thick at times, as it contours and climbs. You will pass an old water trough then climb to a ridge.
Option 2: Old Lower Williams Trail. From the Picnic Area climb on the gravel road briefly leaving it for singletrack at the lefthand curve in the road. Climb on the trail and go right at the fence crossing, cross the creek and bear right to the next fence. Here cross through the fence and immediately go left and up, look for a good trail heading right once above the trees and follow this as it contours and climbs to an aspen grove and flowing spring. Cross the Spring and follow the main trail across the hillside, it can get technical where the cattle have blown the trail out. After crossing a prominent ridge the trail enters thick sage, follow it bearing right just below the water trough in the clearing. Here the trail crosses another face to a wide ridge and joins the trail described above in Opt-1 at the cairn.
Option 3: Horse Mountain Trail. As with Option 2, climb from the picnic area to the trail and follow it to the spring. Cross the Spring and go left and hike-a-bike steeply to a good trail above the spring. Bear right onto this trail and continue climbing. Follow this trail across faces and through sage to a saddle and on old tire. From here the trail drops through woods, bear left below the rock face and pick up a trail contouring through sage to a water trough. Here bear right and cross the meadow to pick up the other end of the Old Lower Williams Trail described above.
From the wide ridge and cairn, the trail contours through sage to another water trough. At the 2nd water-trough go right at the cairn and straight down the gully. The trail gets more obvious and crosses the gully to the left and climbs through rocks to a saddle. Crossing the saddle the trail enters the woods and descends. First on braided cow trail and later on more defined singletrack. There are steep sections and rocky sections and all along there are great views of the Perreau drainage.
After 4.5 miles the trail comes out on the Perreau Creek Road. It is another easy 3 miles on gravel road down to the Williams Creek Road and another mile on pavement to Shoup Bridge Rec Site.
You can add this trail onto a Powderhouse Gulch ride making the ride almost 12 miles with close to 4700' of descending.
