Bear River Bird Refuge - Wetland Walk Trail

The Bear River Bird Refuge near Brigham City Utah is a very large (80,000 acre) wetland bird refuge. It has an Auto Tour and a small trail. Unfortunately, most of the auto tour was closed due to weather so we did the Wetland Walk or the Wet & Wild Trail. It was a mild paved path around a small wetland section next to the visitor center.

Quick Details:

Length: 1/2 mile loop
Difficulty: DR2. Flat, paved.
Elevation Gain: 0
Restroom: If the Visitor Center is open, yes.
Dogs? I couldn’t find any information on this. So I would go with no.
Extra Info: Visitor Center hours are 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Tuesday - Friday, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Saturday, and is closed on Sunday, Monday and Federal holidays.
The Auto Tour is open daylight hours year-round, weather and road conditions permitting.
More info at the official website (external link).

To get here take i15 to exit 363 (Forest St.) take that west about a quarter mile. You will see the visitor center on the left.

The mountains between Ogden and Brigham City (DBP).

The Visitor Center.

So, hopefully I didn’t screw up. The visitor center was closed, and the gate across the road to it was closed, but the pedestrian gate was open. I took that to mean I could still walk around the trail, even if the center was closed. But, I can’t find anything to back that up. So, don’t take my word on whether you can hike this trail when it is closed.

Couple of crows.

Not sure what this is, but it looks like a hawk.

The visitor center again.

I looked over and thought that’s a weird looking duck.

I’m still not quite sure if we saw an otter or a beaver. I was leaning towards beaver, but didn’t see a beaver lodge, so I don’t know for sure… and trying to answer the question a muskrat got thrown into the mix, and looking like the likely contender. I found a helpful article here (external link). I still think it’s cute.

It was fun watching him swim around.

Cute little critter.

And we have made it to the trail head.

Nice view of the mountains.

The paved trail. Whole lot of flat out here.

The mountains out west.

Some geese.

I think this is Antelope Island.

This is an extended loop trail called Marsh Meander that is not paved. Currently closed, and I can see why so we stayed on the main trail.

We startled off a few ducks, who in turn startled the hell out of us. Ducks make a heck of a lot of noise when they scramble off of the water.

Floating dock. It moved a bit too much for my comfort.

The little pond.

The pond and the back side of the visitor center.

Some geese.

Short boardwalk section.

The pond and the mountains above.

Box Elder Canyon. This is the way we took to Bear Lake.

The pond again.

And the trail seems to end (or start) at the visitor center, which is closed. Well, guess we are turning around then.

The pond again.

Big bird and Antelope Island.

More geese.

Cattails across the horizon.

Clouds obscuring the peaks above.

The pond again.

We kept seeing something jump out of the water.

And I actually caught a fish jumping out of the water! not the best shot, but I caught it!

One of the bird silhouettes on the outside fence.

Well, not the most exciting trail, but we did see some neat wildlife! Even though the auto tour was closed, we decided to see how much further we could go.

The mountains are very pretty today.

Terrible shot of a hawk.

The last parking area we could reach before the road closed. I can see why, a lot of flooding here.

great shot of the mountains.

I just liked this tree.

Great clouds today as well.

Another hawk. I think this might be another Coopers Hawk..

Here he is after landing. Still a little too far away to identify properly.

Trees and clouds.

Love the clouds today.

Okay, well we couldn’t go any further so we called it a day.

We decided to head into town and find something for lunch.

Well, there wasn’t much to that trail. We saw some wildlife, but not a bunch. The pamphlet does say that winter has the lowest amount of birds, so meh. Maybe we’ll come back and do the auto tour and explore some more another time. For now, 5 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, it is paved, flat, and short. Definitely a DR2.

Dogs. Like I mentioned I can’t find any info on that. I usually assume that means no dogs allowed.