Bonneville Shoreline Trail–Tunnel Springs TH

The Bonneville Shoreline Trail will one day go from Idaho all the way to Nephi Utah (which is just south of Provo) 280 miles! It is a trail the follows the ancient shore of Lake Bonneville. The skeleton is in place and many sections are complete. From what I have seen it appears to be almost solid from Ogden to Draper but there might be some missing sections within that still as well. I have hiked various sections of it in Ogden, Centerville, Bountiful and Salt Lake. Today I decided to explore the section that starts in North Salt Lake at Tunnel Springs Park and connects to Salt Lake City. It looks like you could even take this all the way to Ensign Peak. Although, that would be what appears to be a 3ish mile hike to get to what is other wise a less than a mile hike.

We returned the following weekend on April 4th and rather than creating a new post I thought I would just add to this one so there will be a few edits which will all be in this color.

To get here: Take HW89 in North Salt Lake to Eagle Ridge Dr. Head east up the mountains and continue forward through the roundabout. About .8 miles later turn right on Parkway dr. Parkway winds right then back left for about .9 miles. After which you will turn right on Eagle Point Dr. 100 more feet and you will see the park with a parking lot. Address is 1080 Eagle Point Dr. If you want you can drive another 100 feet or so on gravel to a back parking lot.

You drive by the giant landslide that happened in August last year. (Drive by Photography).

They recently completed this Tunnel Springs Park in North Salt Lake. Honestly, that was what helped me decided to do this adventure today. Tunnel Springs sounded interesting.

It is a nice park that offers a great view.

This park is just down the road from the Wild Rose Trailhead Park. And we will see some of the stuff you see from above on that trail, from below on this trail.

I am guessing this is Tunnel Springs. It is not as exciting as it sounded.

The trail is wide open and there isn’t much shelter so I wouldn’t recommend it on a hot summer day. However it is fairly wide, hard packed and flat.

They were burning phragmites (an invasive plant species) out on the shores of The Great Salt Lake today.

A look up into one of the several gulches you will pass with a dry stream bed.

The reason we returned the following week is I saw what appeared to be an old stone wall up this canyon.

After looking up the area on google maps I determined it was just a pile of rocks, but then I noticed that circle. I thought it might be a Native American medicine wheel. So I wanted to investigate.

So we decided to get closer. There was a thin trail to follow.

Not a stone wall, but a pile of stones. I don’t think this is natural as the rocks don’t match, but I honestly can’t fathom why they were gathered here.

And here is the circle. I can kind of see it in my picture but I couldn’t see it while I was there. Honestly, I have no idea what it was/is. But It got us out and exploring so whatever.

A look at the striped hillsides. You see a lot more of this on the Wild Rose trail.

We followed the thin trail up the side canyon for a little way, before it thinned out too much. Got a nice view down though.

View of the dry stream bed.

The fires below seem to be getting pretty big. It is a blustery day.

Well after exploring the side canyon we decided to head up to the peak.

Trees on the hills above.

Antelope Island. The Great Salt Lake looks almost dry from here.

What remains of Becks Spring. From what I have read it used to be a resort with several pools to bath in the natural warm spring water. Until a couple of disasters, and then ultimately they decided to build I15 right over it, so all that is left is a shallow marsh. Around a busy freeway.

We found another set of small springs. Not much coming out of these, but we did have a dry year. I wonder if maybe this is Tunnel Springs?

Radio Towers.

A hiker returns from the outcropping.

I wasn’t sure how far I was going to get on this trail. It was just a beautiful day and I wanted to do something with it, but Roxy wasn’t feeling it. I managed to coax her along until I got above the ridge enough to see into Salt Lake.

The Salt Lake Valley. This was as far as we made it today.

Quick panoramic between the two valleys/counties.

There are quite a few trail splits here getting towards the towers. We opted to climb this low peak. which ended up being almost exactly a mile from the trail head. To get to the towers I would guess is another 1/4 to 1/2 mile because you have to go down and back up.

There is a much better view of downtown from this small peak. You can just see the Capital to the left just above the hill line.

Trail down to the outcropping. It didn’t look too bad, but the wind was really whipping us about so we decided not to go down to it.

Quick panoramic from the peak.

So we turned around and started heading back. We did close to a mile. I think it you went to the radio towers that would probably make it a good mile (and a halfish). Which appears to be about a third of the way to Ensign Peak. Or you can take the full 5.6 miles to City Creek Canyon.

It is a little disconcerting to know you are hiking directly above a strip mine. A little more so when you can see that.

Quick panoramic of Antelope Island.

A look back across the open bench you’ll hike along.

This one shows the changing colors of soil as we descend through the layers, and Ben Lomond Peak in the background.

They are getting aggressive with the burning.

Black fuzzy caterpillar.

A look out at the point of the mountain between Salt Lake and Davis counties.

I got a quick drive by photo from i15 (passenger) I think this is the peak we made it to, and you can see the ridge with the radio towers to the right of it. And the strip mine we were hiking above.

This was definitely different to mix the 2 different trips together in one post. Not sure how I feel about it. Feel free to let me know what you think.

I actually enjoyed this quick little hike more than I thought I would. It was super easy and offered fantastic views of the valleys below. Although I think I prefer more wooded areas. Going with a 7 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, the short bit that I did was super easy. A nice wide flat packed trail that was mostly level. It start start to go up as we neared the towers but it wasn’t too bad. Going with a DR 2.5.

Dogs are allowed! Please clean up after your furry friend.