Random Rambler: Porter Rockwell Trail: Sandy Dog Park to 110th South

The Porter Rockwell Trail is an ~11 mile trail between Pioneer Avenue in Sandy and Minute Man Drive in Draper. It is a paved alternate commuter trail that, among other trails, the county has been pushing. They are meant to be non-automobile commuter trails, and some also offer safer alternate routes for school children to get to and from school that are not next to major roads (see the White City Trail). Some of these trails are pretty cool, some of them are duds. Some, Like The Jordan River Parkway are a mix of both haha. Anyway, for our bonus day off we got a super, super late start for the day, like later than yesterday. So I figured it would be a safe option to do with being more than likely to get caught after dark on. I am going to throw out that, aside form the beginning section, I did not particularly care for this section. I liked the previous random section we did a bit to the south a little better.

Quick Details:

Length: We did about 3 miles out and back. Of course you have longer or shorter options.
Trail Type: Out and back, connector.
Difficulty: DR2. It is paved, and almost flat.
Elevation Gain: About 36 feet.
Restroom: No.
Dogs? Yes, leashed. Please clean up after your furry friend.
Other Info: This section can be reached via Trax using the Sandy Civic Center Station. I would imagine a lot of this trail can be accessed via Trax as it follows the line for the most part.

To Get Here:

Take 90th south or 106th south to State Street. Turn east on Sego Lily Dr. Head east to 300 East. Go right and follow it to the end of the road. which will be next to Sandy Dog Park. There is a trail to the north that will connect to the Porter Rockwell Trail.

Alternately, you can park at the Sandy Civic Center Trax Station, or take Trax to it.

The air is looking a little chewy today (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).

The Trail:

The trail is to the north of the Sandy City Dog Park.

Approaching the Sandy Civic Center Trax Station which is about 630 feet west from the parking lot. You can go either way here, we went left or south. It looks like the trail currently goes about 2 miles to the north to Pioneer Avenue, and about 9 miles to the south to Minuteman Drive from here.

Heading south.

The west section of Sandy City Dog Park. I… I don’t understand why it is split into two sections. My theory was this west section has a water feature so its closed in winters.

Okay, from what I have found through various news articles, is the west side has grass while the east side is gravel. They rotate back and forth to allow the grass to recover.

Heading south across a little bluff of sorts.

Little Cottonwood Canyon. It looks a little weird from this vantage.

Panoramic of the mountains. Mount Olympus, Twin Peaks, Mount Jordan.

Steep Mountain to the south.

I think this is where Dry Creek comes out. I don’t know why they covered it up from the Bottom of Dimple Dell to here. Aside from our ancestors obsession with burying creeks. I am also curious as to why they covered it up, and then didn't develop it. I wonder if maybe the sandy soil wasn't stable enough here? Total shot in the dark though.

There are a couple random neighborhood connectors. Stay on the path with the painted line.

Another panoramic showing the mountains, and the undeveloped bluff.

There is another neighborhood connector that goes down beneath the trail, and the train line, connecting to Beetdigger Blvd.

Well, this is pretty much the view for the next half mile or so. Sound wall to the right, fencing to the left.

Another neighborhood connector. This one connects to Sandy Willow Cove.

This looks like a trail counter.

Continuing along.

Venus is particular bright this evening.

At just under a mile we reached 106th south. There is a signal to make it a safer crossing, but our timing today, the Trax train set it off before we got there so we had to double time it through. But it made me feel a little less bad since it wasn’t triggered just for us. No such luck on the way back though.

No sound walls though this section, which appears to be more farms. I guess the animals aren’t bothered by train noise? Or nobody cares if it does.

Continuing along.

Mount Jordan.

Neither of us quite understand what the various color lights for the train operators mean. Might have to look that up.

Green means that at least TWO blocks beyond this signal are clear. Yellow means that only ONE block beyond this signal is clear and this route is impassable at the next signal. Red means that this route is impassable. Okay, it's pretty much the same with traffic lights for us. It threw us off that it went from yellow to green, but it works slightly differently on train lines But generally the same. Green = go, yellow = exercise caution/prepare to stop, red = stop.

Mount Jordan again.

This bee farm has these warning signs. I wondered out loud if that was to try to keep people out, or for liability purposes. Landis mentioned probably both.

Another neighborhood connector.

Continuing along.

Just short of another half mile we reached 110th South. There is no light or any other protection for this crossing. You just need to watch and hope traffic sees you and stops. Luckily it is not nearly as busy as 106th.

Shortly after the crossing we reached 1.5 miles. I considered pushing on to 2 miles, but it was getting dark, and we were getting cold so we turned around here.

I was hoping we might reach Draper City Park where we left off last time, but hahaha that’s a little bit further. Looks like about 4 miles or so further (I didn't thoroughly vet the trail today). If I do decide to complete this trail, that will probably be 2 more sections to the park.

Back to 110th South.

We noticed these mcmansions did not get a sound wall. We figured this development was probably built after Trax started here, and UTA went you knew this was here, build your own sound wall.

Back to 106th South.

Back to the sound wall section.

Back to the little bluff.

Back to the Trax station.

And the last little section heading back east to the parking lot.

Well, this was not at all my favorite paved commuter path. It was pretty boring with the sound wall blocking most of the view. I did like the short part at the beginning with the little bluff, but otherwise it was pretty meh. I do like to complete these trails, because sometimes I find unexpected little gems and I like to have a good easy paved option in the winter, but this was just so meh. Eh we shall see. 3 squirrels. Only getting a slight bump up for the bluff section.