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Quick Details:
Length: We did about 4 miles out and back, but it did keep going.
Trail Type: Out and back. Loop options.
Difficulty: DR4. There was some up and climbing.
Elevation Gain: We did about 850 ft.
Restroom: No.
Dogs? Yes, leash required.
Other Info: The south trailhead is closed for construction of a new building. I imagine it will be quite a while before it reopens, if it ever does. The north TH adds about a half mile, but is better if you want to loop down Limekiln Gulch.
To Get Here:
Take South Temple in SLC east to Virginia St and turn left. About 6/10ths of a mile later, turn right on Popperton Park Way. Go about 3/10ths of a mile to the 2nd parking lot on the left. If it is full, you are stuck with the lower parking lot. You will start your hike on the sidewalk heading eastish (uphill).
The upper parking lot, and the sidewalk you will be walking up.
The Trail:
View of the mountains across the way.
I thought this was part of Limekiln Gulch, but I guess it is Spring Gulch.
Nice view of downtown Salt Lake.
The Avenues Twin Peaks.
I think that is the peak we will be hiking behind. You can’t see it, but it has the University Of Utah Block U on it.
Before long the sidewalk switches to the other side of the road.
Sign designating the bike path. This part of the trail runs alongside a upscale gated community, so I think the sign is here to let you know you are allowed to be here.
Trail below said gate.
They weren’t kidding about the steep part!
View across the valley. Little hazy today, but not as bad as it could be.
Panoramic.
The construction at the south trailhead on the other side of the gulch.
Enjoying the mountains.
Dry Gulch and Mount Van Cott.
Landis: “It’s nice to see Life Flight parked and not doing anything”. Definitely agree, it’s good to see no one needs them right now.
Getting to the mouth of Dry Gulch.
Trailhead sign. This part and well, the entire part we did last time up to the ridge is part of The Bonneville Shoreline Trail. It then continues below the Avenues Twin Peaks, out up across City Creek Canyon.
This looks like the trail signs they use up in Ogden. This is the only one in Salt Lake like this I can think of.
Little bit of ice on the trail, but I only considered putting the micro spikes on for a minute, then it was alright.
View up canyon.
Snowy trail.
Some dryer sections.
Little tree tunnel.
View up Mount Van Cott.
This trail follows the dry creek bed for a while.
It also can’t decide which side it wants to be on. haha.
I think this is the south fork. Might have to come back and explore that some time.
Continuing up.
There were quite a few muddy sections, but most of it could be avoided by walking off to the side or in the snow instead.
Peaks above.
I love this little rock formation. It’s like a miniature Devils Slide.
Where the BST continues up the the saddle.
North Fork and Middle Fork.
Middle fork.
North Fork.
The BST going to up to the saddle.
The North Fork is quite a bit more thin than the lower section.
Neat rock formation.
Starting to get a little steeper.
The trail is pretty much in the creek bed. This time of the year there is a little bit of water flowing down it.
Some rocky parts.
The little creek again.
I started to notice some scat that definitely seemed bigger than deer scat. More on this soon.
Working our way up.
Itty bitty waterfall.
North fork splits again here. Here is the left side.
The trail continues up the right fork.
Little thinner and steeper.
Looking back down the gulch.
Oh boy. I almost turned back here, but sometimes its just a quick steep section, so I sucked it up and scrambled up.
After the scramble I needed a little break so I sat down and enjoyed the view for a bit.
What is this?
Elk??? Really? This low in elevation? This close to the city? This is crazy!
Come to think of it, I can’t recall ever seeing elk on a trail in Utah. I’ve seen them in Yellowstone and at at Hardware Ranch but that is a little different.
Well this made that last scramble totally worth it!
I think this also explains the ‘larger than deer’ scat we were seeing along the trail.
A sixth one poking her head over the ridge.
All 6 of them. There could be an unknown number of them behind that ridge though.
They definitely know where are here. However I think we are far enough away that they aren’t too worried about us.
So fun.
Is it just me, or does this one seem darker than the others?
Panoramic shows all, now 7 of them.
I could have enjoyed watching them for a while, but then I would have taken a 100 more pictures haha. Also, we were starting to get cold.
I wanted to keep going but the trail was getting really thin, and steep. Plus it was getting late. So, no great end destination, but having a fun and rare (to me at least) elk sighting really made the day!
The steep trail down.
The great view down again.
Now there are 8 of them up there! I wonder if we had waited around long enough how many more we might have seen, or even if there was a male hanging around somewhere.
View of the gulch. You can see the saddle we hiked up to last time on the right. And just to the left of that is the back side of the peak that the Block U sits on.
Little closer to the saddle and peak.
The elk again. Alright alright we’ll get going.
Steep scramble down.
Looking down gulch.
Heading down the creek.
Tiny waterfall.
Back in the snow.
Windy gulch.
Looking back at the peak with the elk on it. So small from here. It kind of makes me wonder if the deer we saw last time might have been elk. I never did pull out my telephoto lens, I typically don’t for deer. Now I wonder how many possible elk or other things I have dismissed as ‘another deer’.
Peak above with fun clouds.
Back on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail in the main gulch.
The saddle the BST goes up to.
Some deer, or elk had a grisly demise here.
Scrub oak covered hillside.
Game trail.
Looking down gulch.
Back to the fun rock formation.
More game trails.
What is that?
Pulled out the trusty telephoto lens and… a wreath? seriously? Again, I think that is kind of fun and whimsical, in December. Now it is litter. But I am am not gonna climb up there. Whoever put it there should come back and take it down.
Since I put the telephoto lens on, I back tracked the 10 or so feet to see the neat rock formation again.
Muddy section. As I mentioned, most were easy to avoid, by tromping through snow, or in this case saddle stepping on either side of the trail. Probably look like an idiot, but hey, not getting muddy.
Pinkish ridge as the sun starts setting.
Canyon bottom.
More game trails.
I’m starting to feel like I might be missing a spectacular sunset.
However the canyon is fun.
The muddiest section. Again, easy to tromp through the snow instead.
Down canyon.
Again.
Holy magpies batman!
Back to the mouth of the canyon. Okay, just a little more than a half mile to go.
Wewt, I didn’t completely miss the sunset.
Okay, now this is a nice way to end a nice hike! A beautiful sunset.
With the valley below.
What is with this illuminated blue tower?
More sunset.
Dark shot of downtown.
Antelope Island.
We timed it well today getting back to the car before full dark.
Downtown again.
Valley lights.
Panoramic.
Fun tree.
Landis mentioned that these expensive homes still have Christmas lights up. I mentioned that the blinking red ones are the Block U. So we decided to go seek it out.
Best I could get from the Block U trail head. The trail is super short, and I was willing to venture out, but Landis was not so here is what I got with a big expensive home in the way haha. I do need to eat my words a bit. when we visited the Block U last year, the sign mentioned they flash red whenever any team in the University of Utah wins, and I mentioned I have only noticed it during football season. Well, it is not football season and it is flashing. Landis looked it up, and the U of U slalom team won today. So yes, all activity appears to be displayed here.
I really enjoyed the trail today. As I mentioned there was not a fantastic end goal, but the final view was pretty epic, and well, seeing elk kind of did it for me, so I had a wonderful time! We saw a couple other trail users, but not too much. Going with a good 8 out of 10 squirrels.
As for difficulty, it wasn’t too bad, but going with a DR4 due to thin steep trails.
Dogs are allowed, but must be leashed.
