Redwood Nature Park

 The Redwood Nature Park is a small wetland located in West Valley. It features a pond, some wetland, and some forest. And a small possibility of seeing some wildlife. This restored wetland is adjacent to the Jordan River Parkway, in fact to do the longer loop you will walk along a short section of it.

Quick Details:

Length: We did about a 1 mile loop in the nature park, but there is a slightly longer 1.1 mile completely paved loop as well.
Trail Type: Loop, can add on additional trails to make balloon, or bowtie.
Difficulty: DR3, with DR2 option.
Elevation Gain: NA
Restroom: No. But there is a seasonal one at nearby Redwood Trailhead Park.
Dogs? Yes, leashed.
Other Info: One of the few trails that can be accessed via Trax. You can use the River Trail Station (add about 6/10ths of a mile each way) or the Redwood Junction Station (add about 4/10ths of a mile each way).

To Get Here:

Take the 201 to the Redwood Rd exit in West Valley. Head south for about a half a mile and turn left on (if you can get over fast enough) on Parkway BLVD. Take that east to Chartham St. turn right and take that to Crystal Ave and turn left. Go to the end of Crystal Ave, turn right on Chesterfield St. Find street parking and head south.

You cannot turn left on Crystal Ave from Redwood heading south. So if you were unable to get over fast enough, you will need to go further south and flip around. There is another light on 3100 S. to turn around and head back north, then turn right on Crystal Ave. go to the end of Crystal Ave, turn right on Chesterfield St. Find street parking and head south.

FYI: Google will recommend you park at the American Preparatory Academy, but there is no crossing there so don’t do that.

If you’d prefer not to park on the street there is a parking lot at the nearby Redwood Trailhead Park (this will add about 6/10th of a mile each way along the Jordan River Parkway. Or, you can just park at Decker Lake.

The Trail:

You start out by crossing these Trax lines. Just a reminder to look both ways, there are no safety features other than using your eyes.

Crossing the surplus canal.

Here is the split for the loop. Right starts along the Crosstown Trail and then you can loop left. Forward is the dirt shortcut we took to make it about a 1 mile loop around the park. However you can go Left and do the Jordan River Parkway, specifically a short section within the James Madison TH to Redwood Trailhead Park trail section  around the park to make it a 1.1 mile loop that is completely paved.

The area was covered in invasive plants and has since been restored as a natural Jordan River floodplain wetland.

The trail was a little bit muddy.

Nice view of the mountains.

Panoramic.

Fun clouds.

The mountains again.

Another panoramic.

Storm out west.

The wetland.

The little pond.

It looks like there were some efforts to develop the area, and some infrastructure was built. I wonder what stopped it.

Small stand of trees.

The wetlands.

You can make an even shorter loop by hanging right here. We opted to keep going forward.

Another manhole.

Bat houses.

Closer.

Pavement!

There are a couple of picnic tables scattered around.

Now we are heading west.

Wetlands to the south.

Wetlands to the north.

Storms to the west.

Another manhole.

More wetland.

This part of the trail passes by a power plant, that you can definitely hear buzzing.

Another panoramic of the mountains.

Passing Trax train.

Patch of willows.

More wetlands.

At the southwest corner of the park we hit another junction, you want to head right here to stay in the park.

Another sign about the restoration efforts.

Entering a more forested area.

Squirrel!

More forest, and the Brighton North-point Canal to the left.

Another picnic table.

We found a random circle of stones. So naturally we went to investigate.

Oh! it is an outdoor classroom. I can’t quite make out who with though, but that is really cool.

Little closer.

More forest.

At about 3/4 of a mile we got to northwest corner and decided to walk the Crosstown Trail out to Decker lake.

After the random detour, we picked back up the trail to complete the last 2/10th’s of a mile.

Nice view of the mountains.

Closer view of Mount Olympus.

The surplus canal again.

Duckies in the canal.

The park again.

Nice view of the mountains.

Again.

Removing invasive species like Russian olive, and tamarisk to make room for native species allows native bugs to flourish which provides a stable source of food for our native birds.

They did a big removal project back in 2008.

Native trees.

Mountains again.

A great blue heron off in the distance. Not quite sure how I spotted it, but I did. Hello buddy! Nice to see some wildlife here aside from a squirrel and some ducks.

Another random dirt trail into the park.

Mountains.

Holy shit!!!!! I didn’t immediately put together what I was seeing, but it looks like a hawk decided to bite off more than it could chew and went after the heron! The heron managed to evade it but wow. I am quite surprised a hawk would even try! Then again, we are experiencing a pretty rough winter so, desperation and all.

Then again, Landis thinks that maybe the hawk was just chasing off an intruder to it’s “airspace”. While I had an alternate theory that maybe the poor heron accidentally landed next to the hawk with a recent kill and was chased off. Since we did not witness the beginning of the encounter that is all just conjecture.

The heron flying off.

Hard to tell with the lighting, but I am leaning towards a red-tail hawk.

Big puffy clouds above the mountains.

Before long we reached the Jordan River Parkway and have completed our loop.

The county acquired the land in the 1970’s which was planned to be developed (yay I am not crazy) and they restored the land in 2008.

The surplus canal.

Upstream.

Crossing the Trax tracks again.

Mountains and clouds.

American white pelican.

Mount Olympus and clouds.

Again.

Well, this little nature park is not the most thrilling we have done, but I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed finally seeing some wildlife in the end. Adding the Crosstown Trail out to Decker Lake (separate post) was definitely a good call to really get an adventure in. 7 out of 10 squirrels today.

As for difficulty, its almost perfectly flat, DR3 for the route we did since there were dirt trails and little hills. However, there is a completely paved option that is only a little bit longer and can be DR2.

Dogs are allowed, leashed. Please clean up after your furry friends!