Eccles Wildlife Center: Nature Trail (Red)

 The George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Wildlife Education Center is quite a mouthful so I shorten it to the Eccles Wildlife Center. It was formerly called the Great Salt Lake Nature Center. It is a neat area within the Farmington Bay WMA. in Farmington. The Nature Trail, apparently now the Red Trail (and Formerly the Farmington Creek Trail) is a great short and easy trail to take in some of the views and enjoy various birds. We have done it several times but it is a nice short adventure so we thought it would be a good add on to the day.

Quick Details:

Length: The point to point trail is 1.15 miles. To complete the loop it is 1.21 miles. If you decide to add the short spurs out to the viewing platforms, it is about 1.6 miles.
Trail Type: Loop, point to point with shuttle. 2 short spur options.
Difficulty: Super easy going it is hard packed earth, and boardwalk. DR3, with partial DR2.
Elevation Gain: Not much.
Restroom: Yes, there are vault toilets, and even flush toilets in the Visitor Center if it is open.
Dogs? Yes, leashed.
Other Info: The Visitor Center is open Tues - Sat 11:00 Am to 4:00 PM, Closed Sundays, Mondays, and Holidays, but the nature trails can be accessed any day during daylight hours.

To Get Here:

To get here from the south, take i15 toward Farmington. Take exit 322. Take the first right and follow it around the curve to the frontage rd. Turn right onto Glovers ln. Drive 1.6 miles to 1325 w, and there is the small parking lot on the left before the gate.

If the gate is closed, you can walk up the road (if its daylight) which will add about 2/10ths of a mile each way. It has been quite a few years since I have seen the gate closed though.

The great blue heron nesting poles.

Which is currently occupied by several couples.

Goose Egg Island. This artificial island was created by dumping the excess mud and debris here from the 1983 flood.

The new George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Wildlife Education Center. The Eccles created the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation and they have donated a lot of money to arts and culture, community, education, health care, and preservation and conservation.. You will find their name all over the valley on things such as the George S Eccles 2002 Legacy Bridge. The George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Otter Outpost in the Loveland Living Planet aquarium among other things.

Here is what the old Visitor Center looked like back in 2014 when it was called The Robert N. Hasenyager Great Salt Lake Nature Center, also quite the mouthful. 

Playing around with google earth, the old building was torn down sometime in 2016, the lot was vacant in 2017, and the new building popped up in 2018.

The Trail:

Quick FYI, all pictures were taken with my telephoto lens. Birds typically don’t sit around long enough to change lenses out and since I was here to see birds, it’s just easier to leave the telephoto lens in.

Trailhead sign I guess this is now the Red Trail amongst the Nature Trails??? You can also see it is not quite a full loop as I mentioned.

And what the heck, I guess the Glovers Pond trail is now the Purple Trail? And it is a lot shorter now. Weird. I wonder if you can still do the full loop on that one.

Northern harrier.

I love watching these guys on the prowl.

Lots of ice in this canal.

Goose Egg Island again.

Indian Annie Rock along the Davis Creek Trail.

The first ~1/3rd of the trail is along this dike. It is pretty wide and flat.

Duckies!

The canal again.

Sadly the new West Davis Corridor is a little noisy through here. This is actually a bridge over it, but the point still stands. I was totally opposed to it, however I do concede it makes getting to Antelope Island a lot easier. I just hate that its through primary bird habitat.

Our shadows appear to be walking on the water on the other side.

Continuing down the dike.

Almost full moon.

Another northern harrier.

The pond.

Towards the other end.

I used to think this "soccer ball" was a water tower of some sort. I have since learned it is a FAA Radome or an aviation weather station.

Very narrow bridge over the ponds outflow. Which I believe is Farmington Creek.

They say this trail is wheelchair friendly, but uh, I don’t think this bridge is. Before this, and the north section might be, but I really don’t think this is. It is pretty darn narrow. I would recommend doing the north end if in a wheel chair, it is a bit more scenic.

The creek below.

The back third consists of hard packed earth, and some boardwalk areas.

Pile of timber. I wonder what they are building.

Red-winged blackbird.

These random birdhouses are new. I guess this might be what the lumber is for.

Ducks in a little pond.

Another northern harrier.

Hitting the boardwalk over the marshy section.

Marsh.

Bridge.

Farmington Creek, upstream.

Downstream.

Muskrat.

There is an unpaved side trail along the creek here that says "closed, employees only". I’m not sure if they are building a new trail segment, or if something else is going on back there.

Absolutely terrible lighting, but we found a ring-necked pheasant. I got much better pictures of these guys on our 2023 trip out here.

The boardwalk continuing back towards the Visitor Center. With the FAA Radome aviation weather station in the background.

Hawk silhouette.

 Red-winged blackbird. You can just make out the yellow and red patches on the wing. These guys have a pretty distinct call, it sounds almost robotic.

More boardwalk.

Approaching the bridge over the pond.

The pond, with the two viewing platforms you can walk out to. We didn’t do that today.

Crossing the pond. The bridge is approximately 293 feet long. Woo!

Pond again.

End of the bridge.

Duck on the pond.

The last ~third of the trail is hard packed gravel, then just the road getting back to the parking lot.

Ducks and coots.

Continuing along.

Little bit of a sunset.

Goose Egg Island again.

Trail sign again.

The viewing platform at the end of the Blue Trail.

And the one at the end of the Orange Trail. We have seen them before so, with the dwindling light we opted not to go out to them today.

The FAA Radome again.

More sunset.

Continuing along.

Split for the Orange Trail.

Little bridge.

Another little pond.

Back to the road, which will conclude the posted 1.15 mile trail. It is about another ~tenth of a mile back to the parking lot (half that to complete the loop).

The great blue heron nesting poles again.

Continuing along the road.

More sunset.

Antelope Island from the parking lot.

The new Visitor Center.

The Glovers Pond Trail, or I guess now the Purple Trail.

I am still kind of upset they shortened this trail, and re-purposed the Upland Trail into a service road. But, it looks like they MIGHT be building a new trail. So meh time marches on and the only constant is change.

I still need to see what how much the West Davis Corridor affected the Great Salt Lake Shoreline Loop. From what I can see on the official Farmington Page it still exists.

Panoramic.

The great blue heron nesting poles again.

Well, that was a fun add on. Some nice birds to enjoy as well as some nice mountain views. We saw a few people up ahead of us, but didn’t really cross paths with anybody, which is always nice. We did not see as many bird as we usually do this time, but thems the breaks. Sometimes there are tons, sometimes not so much. Maybe next time I do it I will try to take some photos that are not with the telephoto lens haha. 7 out of 10 squirrels today.

As for difficulty, it is really flat, hard packed earth like paved, and some boardwalk section. However there is a tight bridge so I am going with a DR3. The website seems to think it is wheelchair accessible, so I will add a DR2 for that, but as I mentioned, I would start at the north end to enjoy the best part and see if you can cross that narrow bridge at the SE corner. If not you can return the way you came.

Dogs are allowed, but must remain leashed. Please clean up after your furry friends.