Hiking Close to Home in Salt Lake City

 

Hiking Close to Home in Salt Lake City
By Amy Brunvand

Last Spring when the COVID-19 pandemic first started, Utah Governor Gary Herbert issued  a “Stay Safe, Stay Home Directive” that included the instructions, “do not go to or engage in activities at a State Park located outside the county in which you reside.” The Wasatch and Uinta Mountains were still snowed in.  The health department had closed public lands in southern Utah to camping.  It seemed like a good time to explore hiking trails and open spaces close to home in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County.

The first challenge is, there are not many guidebooks for these local trail systems. I got a lot of beta from city and county planning documents. In 2016, Salt Lake City began working on a Foothills Trails Master Plan with the Bonneville Shoreline Trail as the backbone.  So far they have maps for the northern edge of the city to the mouth of Emigration Canyon. Once I started exploring I realized that the trails are more extensive than I imagined. I’d been in a rut using the same trailheads out of habit. Salt Lake City is starting work on a new public lands master plan for parks, urban forests and natural areas called “Reimagine Nature, ” and one good reason to explore trails is to be able to offer public input from personal experience.  

Another underappreciated trail in Salt Lake County is the Jordan River Trail, a 45 mile paved non-motorized trail that follows the river from Utah Lake through highly urbanized areas to Great Salt Lake marshes.  I admit, the Jordan River is in need of some TLC—it’s full of garbage and the water is kind of stinky.  But the river corridor also has groves of big cottonwoods, wetlands full of birds, and a rudimentary water trail.  Elliott Mott has published a detailed guidebook about the river trails. So far I’ve done two water trail excursions in the Kokopelli packraft I bought from the Great Old Broads silent auction a few years back.  My favorite river segment  goes through nine acres of restored floodplain at the Little Confluence in Murray. There are so many birds you can’t believe you’re in the middle of a city!

One thing I’ve realized is how important it is to have funds for acquisition of public open spaces. Planning for urban trails is  incredibly complex since they cross a lot of different municipal and management boundaries. Parcels of private property that block trail completion can cost millions of dollars to purchase, particularly if the trail is competing with high-end developers. 

I also have a new appreciation for how wonderful these local trails really are. I doubt anyone ever travels to Salt Lake City  just to float down the Jordan River or hike in the foothills, but maybe that’s just because we’ve been a little too good at keeping these places secret.  

Here are some useful resources to start exploring Salt Lake City and County open spaces:

·       Salt Lake County: Open Space https://slco.org/open-space/

·       Salt Lake City: Reimagine Nature: https://www.reimaginenatureslc.com/

·       Elliott Mott. Jordan River Water Trail and Bike Path. $12.95. https://www.utahmapstore.com/products/jordan-river-water-tr