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

Where Did the Summer Go?

 

And so it begins; the first sign of the beautiful color change that's on its way.

It's Labor Day 2020, September 7.  The city temperatures are in the low 90's today with a 30 degree drop expected by sometime tomorrow. The mountain maples, the first trees in our area to make the transition from green to red, are starting to change. Is it time to put the shorts away or will we enjoy an extended Indian summer this year? That's what I love about the changing seasons - a little uncertainty from day to day.

With only 40 days left to achieve our goal of visiting all the trails on the TFNU 2020 map, I'm thinking we might not make it. By October 17 we will have explored all the new trails we have never been to and that was really the main point of the challenge. We have also written letters to public entities thanking them for their efforts and have donated dollars to their fundraising.  We look forward to the next month, celebrating everything Mother Nature has in store.

In August we rode the Centennial Trial from South Ogden through Riverdale and the Weber River Parkway then onto the Ogden River Parkway and back to the east bench. We also assisted the trails foundation with placing information signs on two trails we had never visited - Pleasant View to No. Ogden Divide and No. Ogden Divide to Coldwater Canyon, both part of the Bonneville Shoreline trail.

We also made trips into the Uinta and Sawtooth Wilderness areas, discovering new terrain and revisiting old favorites.

It's great to be alive and enjoying everything our public lands and wild places offer us daily!

Park City Hiking Fun

 Several hikes in Park City.  Getting to know more fun trails.  It helps when you have a pass and can take the chair up and just hike the rolling trails  up high.  So much to see! PCMR to Guardsman Pass.  Amazing. I had good guides.

Broads View! 2020 Hiking Challenge Part II

Broads View! 2020 Hiking Challenge

PART II - PHOTO CONTEST

Nothing to track, just send us a photo!

PART II. What’s up with that?

 
We are nearing the half-way point of the 2020 hiking challenge and it’s been fun seeing how all the participants are doing. Everyone probably slows down a bit during the dog days of summer so we thought of something ALL Great Old Broads and Bros can be a part of – PHOTO SHARING!
 
So, here is the deal. Email your VERY favorite hiking photo (with you in it) to us and tell us the location of the photo and the year it was taken, the name(s) of the people in the photo, and why it’s your favorite. It can be old or new, doesn’t matter, just as long as it’s your favorite. We will post all photos on the BLOG and that will help us get to know one another since it’s impossible to gather together in person. Email your photo as an attachment to greatwasatch@gmail.com.
 
PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO:
First to submit a photo
Oldest photo (need year photo was taken to qualify for this prize)
Most scenic photo
Best hat or head covering
Most broads and bros in one photo
Photos must be submitted by the October 17, 2020 deadline.
Prizes will be awarded by the end of October
Please join in the fun and submit your photo today!

www,thewasatchbroadsview.blogspot.com

And here's the first photo! It's mine so I'm not eligible for any prizes, but I wanted to share this with you. It was taken in 1973 at the top of the Grand Teton in Grand Teton National Park. My boyfriend, and now husband indulged my need to climb this mountain that he had been doing since he was 11. This photo reminds me of the struggle (2 days of hiking and camping on the mountain, one day of climbing) and also the reward I felt when we got back down. Those feelings have stayed with me throughout my life.

New Month, New Trails

Our 2020 Trail Challenge was to hike or bike all the trails on the Trails Foundation of Northern Utah's trail map. There are 66. Well, we got the new 2020 map and there are 77 trails. Not sure how we are going to get them all in by October 17 but we are working on it! So far this week we checked out two trails new to us. Today it was Gibbs Loop, an urban trail above Weber State. Fun loop with a stream for the dogs. On Monday we ventured to North Fork Park and hiked the new Cutler Twist loop on the north end of the park. Lovely canopy of oaks and elms keeping the trip cool. Check it out! 

Always Something Unexpected

An urban trail, flowers on the lower east bench are spent, no expectation of something unexpected on today's hike. And maybe that lack of an expectation created the environment for an unexpected discovery. It was internal, not external - a calming peace mixed with the joyfulness of being outside. I take for granted the rejuvenation found in my outside world. I suppose that's why this trail challenge is so important. It continues to remind me to get up and out the door and do it early in the morning because it's July and if you don't get moving early it's too hot. Get out and get moving, that's the mantra for this month!

I hiked the Solamere Trail at Deer Valley with my friend Kristi June 14th.   It’s only 4 and 1/2 miles with a great view of all the ski resorts and the Jordanelle from the top.  Not many people and I even saw a red tailed hawk dive into the ponds near the parking lot and catch a coy fish.  Spectacular!