Great Salt Lake: Lee Creek Natural Area

 The Lee Creek Natural Area is a great place to explore the Great Salt Lake in Magna, without paying the fee at the Great Salt Lake State Park. Granted the lake is much closet to the state park than it is here, but with a little bit of work you can get out to the lake. My original plan for today was to B line it to where Lee Creek joins the lake but uh, that was so not happening today. So, we explored the jetty again. Short of turning back and going back to the state park, we did not have a whole lot of alternate options out here. We have done this before, which is why I had a different idea in mind today.

Quick Details:

Length: About 1.2 miles out and back, with the option to explore more.
Trail Type: Out and back.
Difficulty: DR3. It is pretty darn flat and easy going, but rocky and beach sandy. DR3.
Elevation Gain: About 16 feet ish.
Restroom: No. The closest ones I know of are in the state park, but there is a fee to get in there. Short of that you will need to find a gas station.
Dogs? No.
Other Info:

To Get Here:

From i80, take exit 111 for 7200 West. Turn right, then immediately left onto the frontage road. Follow that for about 4.9 miles, and the area is on the right.

If it is your first time, I recommend pulling up the map, as there isn’t a whole lot to indicate you are there.

The Trail:

The trailhead from the road.

There is a small parking lot that can fit 3 cars or so, but a very narrow driveway. Considering well, people nowadays, I didn’t want to risk getting trapped by some obliviot so we parked off of the frontage road.

Area sign, which naturally has been shot up. Woo Utah.

Looking back towards the tight cattle guard you have to squeeze through. We’re both pretty skinny and it was still a squeeze for us. oof.

The signs are quite faded now, but mostly still readable.

Eh, for prosperity.

Back on the Jetty.

I miss the old train and the “Temple of the Birds” which was actually an old powerhouse. The train, car “502”, belonged to Salt Lake, Garfield & Western which still operates and a station exists near the Jordan River Parkway off of North Temple. The train car was removed in 2012 due to safety concerns.

Image from 2011.

As I mentioned, my original plan was to go from here and B line it to where Lee Creek joins the Great Salt Lake, which is almost directly north of here. So, we went down this little side trail heading toward that. The lake bed did look a little wet, but I figured we’d be okay…. hahahaha.

Yeah, the lake bed looks super wet.

Before we even made it to the lake bed we both slipped pretty bad, not so bad that either of us fell, but enough that we decided nope. Nope nope nope. Not happening today. We both muddied our pants a bit. I imagine if we had continued this would have been a lot worse haha.

So… back to the jetty it is. I figured we’d walk a ways down this while I thought about what else we could do.

Random debris.

Antelope Island. It looks a little weird from this vantage.

Stansbury Island.

Fun skies and a pond.

I am very curious about what happened here. It looks like there was a road with some utility services at some point. Then, sometime later they just tore it all up and tossed it to the side? Super weird.

Remnants of an old pier of some sort. I previously though this was the remains of the original Saltair, but I learned today it is not, at least not the main part. I suspect it was likely associated in someway though.

The jetty.

The Kennecott Smelter Stack. Tallest man made structure west of the Mississippi.

More fun clouds.

Continuing along.

Random structure. We got a little closer to that last time we were here.

More fun clouds.

Looking back towards the parking lot.

At about 4/10ths of a mile you reach this… what I assume is an old marina of sorts.

Last time we were here we saw a bunch of American avocets. No such luck today.

We decided to continue along the west arm. The trail is a bit more thin here.

Yep. No avocets. Darn.

The old pier again.

The random structure again.

Continuing along.

The old marina again.

Continuing along.

Antelope Island again. Still looks weird from this vantage.

Stansbury Island.

The Wasatch Front.

The old pier gain.

The end of the jetty. I looks like there is a weird line of dry lake bed continuing northish from here, but, we figured it probably didn't last too long before becoming muddy again. So we decided to turn around instead.

Panoramic.

Heading back down.

The old marina? again.

The Kennecott smelter stack again.

Continuing back.

Lots of dried foxtails. Even if dogs were allowed, it is not a very good place to take them.

The old marina again.

The random structure and the smelter stack again.

Back to the south end of the marina.

Heading back.

The Wasatch Front.

Panoramic.

Continuing along the jetty.

The discarded roadway again.

Mountains.

Panoramic.

Continuing back.

We noticed some people walking along another jetty, that we had never done before, so we figured we might add that on after we finish this one.

Little pond at the beginning.

One last look at the jetty.

Well. That was a bit of an adventure, but not really anything special. I am a bit sad we were unable to do what I had initially planned to do today. Sigh. But we did end up having a pretty neat adventure after this. 7 out of 10 squirrels for this.

As for difficulty, it’s pretty flat and generally pretty easy DR3.

Dogs are not allowed, so be sure to leave Fido home for this one.