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Willow Heights is an amazing trail near the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. The short trail takes you through a beautiful forest up to a small high alpine lake at the top. We absolutely love this trail and tend to do it generally at least once a year. Because we enjoy this trail so much, we have also had the unique experience of observing the changes to it throughout the years. This is not a trail guide, this is my observed history of a dynamically changing trail. For the most recent guide of both forks, click here. Otherwise, sit back and watch my observed history of the trail.
The trails inception.
The dedication stone.
Basically the land went up for sale and was zoned for development. In 2001 Salt Lake City managed to collect the funds to buy it to leave it as a natural open space. This might explain the unusual neighborhood sounding name.
When we discovered it
We discovered this trail in April of 2015, and unfortunately still encountered quite a bit of snow.
We decided to come back just a short few months later in June to really explore it.
Shows the rough old trail.
We visited fairly often since…
First noticed the alternate route
We noticed an alternate route heading down in 2017 and decided to take it. The time we did it, either the connection to the main trail did not exist yet, or we missed it haha. But we ended up having to walk through a neighborhood, and then back up Big Cottonwood Canyon Road to get back to our car.
Eventually I realized this alternate route went down an old dirt road, and likely found the original, original trailhead before Salt Lake County took over the property. It is also I believe where they were planning to extend the road up for the development that was being planned.
We first noticed the connection of the alternate or west route in 2019 and used it.
Image. You can see the original trail, or now east route. It is super steep and rocky.
The original bridges were loose logs.
Rerouting being started on both trails
We started seeing signs of trail rerouting on the trails in October 2020.
Digging equipment on the west fork.
The middle creek crossing rerouted.
Still rocks and logs to use to cross.
The September Windpocolypse of 2020 knocked down a bunch of trees in the back section.
We noticed that they started building switchbacks on the main/east trail, but they were still blocked for use.
The bottom of the new east fork still being built, with a sign advising to keep out.
We looked up their Instagram, and apparently this group normally builds routes for mountain biking. I honestly can't recall seeing a biker on either of these trails ever.
And in November of 2020 we noticed they finally added to little sign on the west fork to get you back down to the main trailhead.
The currant trails.
In August of 2021 we finally got to experience the newly rerouted east fork/original main trail and see that they have closed the original east fork.
New upper bridge.
As well as another reroute on the west fork.
Heading down the newly rerouted east fork we found the original trail has also been blocked off to deter usage.
Our first attempt at climbing the new east fork was in September of 2021. I learned the fist switchback was a little too much for my fear of heights, but I was able to muster through.
However it was interesting to see the new switchbacks crossing over the original trail.
Still no bridge at the final creek crossing just below the lake.
The fallen trees from the Windcoplypse event of September 2020 at the back end of the lake.
From here the trail reroutes and changes appear to be done for the most part. I have added a couple more pictures documenting the reroutes from here though.
More fallen trees from our May 2022 trip.
The original east fork trail covered with logs to deter use from Sep 2022.
Still no bridge at the lakes outlet, also Sep 2022.
A more robust log bridge we found on our June 2023 trip.
Here is my most recent trip along both the east and west forks.
The most recent changes we have seen is that someone has come in and cut away a path through the trees in the back loop that fell in the Windpocolypse storm of 2020.
So there you have it. A newer trail system, and how it has evolved over the years of us using it. If it evolves much more I might come back and add to this, but aside from adding another bridge below the lakes outlet I cannot foresee much more happening here. But it really has been neat watching it happen over the years.
I don’t know if anybody else is interested in this like I am, but yeah, this was kind of fun. I might decide to do something similar with the Donut Falls Trail, and maybe even Bell Canyon. As I have watched similar events happen at those trails as well.
So hit me up, was this interesting, or not so much?
