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Miller Park AKA Miller Bird Refuge is a small park in Salt Lake City that follows Red Butte Creek through a narrow gully. It features the creek, lots of trees and wildflowers, and some neat old stonemason works. It connects to Bonneville Glen, and they are both pretty short so we generally tend to just lump them together into one adventure. This is another place we tend to do fairly often.
We still had a bit of energy after our last adventure at Allen Park so we thought we would add this on due to it being nearby, offering shade, and well, last time we tried it was too dark. So it was a perfect little add on.
Quick Details:
Length: about 1.1 miles.
Trail Type: Loop de loop.
Difficulty: It is hard packed and mostly flat, but they are some climbs and some stairs. DR3.
Elevation Gain: About 65 feet.
Restroom: No.
Dogs? Yes in Miller Park. But not in Bonneville Glen.
Other Info:
To Get Here:
Take i80 to the 13th east exit. Head north on 13th E for about 1.5 miles. Turn right on 1300 S. 1600 Ft later turn left on 15th E. About 1600 ft later turn right on Bonneview Dr. There is street parking, but check the signs.
The Trail:
Wild rose.
Closer.
Alfalfa.
Heading across to the trailhead.
Entering the park.
Map and rules.
Super green and pretty in here.
Red Butte Creek below.
Neat stone steps. A lot, if not all of the stonemason work you see in the park was built by the Works Projects Administration between 1935 and 1943.
And up. I wonder where this leads. It looks like it might have once been a neighborhood connector, but that lock says that is not the case now. Or, it might lead to a private residence like the other ones do. I don't know.
More wild rose.
Closer.
Allium.
Closer.
Continuing east next to the old rockwork wall.
Tiny glimpse of the creek through the thick foliage.
I.. don’t think that is official at all. I assume it is a nice memorial from the family whose fence it is attached to though. Sorry for your loss.
More forest.
Neat old stone work bridge. We will come back to this.
Forest.
Not all of the stair cases are as fancy as the first one, but they are all neat.
More wild rose.
Forest.
Burdock.
Forest. This was a good option today since there is a lot of shade.
The creek below.
Forest.
The creek below.
Oh fun! We found a small patch of poppies in here too! I suspect they might have come down from the property owner above, but I might be wrong.
Sign about restoring native species in here.
The view from the overlook is just thick trees.
Forest.
Iris’s.
Closer. I miss having these in my garden... I might plant some this year.
The creek.
Continuing along.
Trail split. Left leads up to 9th South. Right continues around the loop to the other side of the creek.
There is another little trail split. The right one cuts across to the little deck thingy. Left goes around the outside of it. It really doesn’t make much of a difference which way you go, but I like right for the better view of Red Butte Creek.
Red Butte Creek where it emerges from underneath 9th South. The next place upstream to enjoy the creek is at Sunnyside Park.
History plaque.
Wild rose.
The neat rockwork amphitheater.
Burdock.
The creek again.
Where it enters the park.
Heading back down on the other side of the creek.
The fancy rockwork culvert.
A white money plant, or annual honesty. Since I learned about these plants in 2016 I have only seen them purple. Then a few weeks ago I found my first white ones ever at Wheeler Farm, and now I feel like I am seeing white ones pretty often. Weird.
An allium with a bee friend.
Faint purple money plants. They are normally a little darker purple.
More white.
Continuing along.
I love these Salt Lake City neighborhoods. I feel seen, and safe here. Just a quick fuck you to the legislature and their most recent illegal attempt to silence us and well, everybody who keeps voting those assholes in place too.
More white money plants. Wow, there is a lot of it in here.
Closer.
With the creek below.
Looking back. It is such a beautiful green oasis in here.
Trying to see the creek through the thick greenery.
Old staircase back down to the creek.
More money plants.
Continuing down.
Faint purple and white mix here. Weird.
Tiny clearing next to the creek.
Island Sanctuary. Mostly talking about restoring native plants. Also, how after the oil spill that polluted this creek back in 2010, the native fish they have restocked into the creek.
Here the trail is next to the creek for a bit.
The creek.
Upstream.
Tiny rapid.
Super green!
The creek again.
More forest.
The creek.
Forest.
Creek.
Burdock. The leaves are absolutely huge!
The neat stone bridge again.
Information sign.
Bridge from the sign. This is my favorite rockwork project in the park. Again, built sometime between 1935 and 1943 by the WPA.
The bridge. It really is a neat bridge!
Fun fact: The WPA did not consist of professional masons. Workers learned on the job.
The creek below.
From here the trail climbs back up a bit.
Along the south ridge.
Burdock starting to bloom.
Super pretty in here.
Crazy ivy.
Continuing along.
Before long we have reached the end of the line, and need to go right to cross the bridge. There does appear to be a desire path forward, but from what I can tell it just ends maybe ~20 feet or so further.
Heading down.
This lower bridge is not as fancy as the other one.
The creek, upstream.
Downstream.
Back to the west end of the park.
Bonneville Glen
Bonneville Glen is adjacent to Miller park, so it makes sense to just add it on while you are here.
Little waterfall.
Bridge across the creek.
The little waterfall again.
Again.
Downstream.
Burdock.
Nice and green through here as well.
Wow is it pretty in here.
The creek.
Continuing along.
The creek again.
The huge fireplace across the way.
Still super pretty in here.
Fireplace again.
The creek.
Upstream.
The last of Red Butte Creek. Just below here it goes into a culvert and is not seen again until a brief appearance in Liberty Park and finally the 3 Creeks Confluence.
Finally some “normal” purple money plant! This is what I see in my garden.
Hounds tongue. I am used to seeing this in higher elevation. It is a little weird to see it this low.
The creek again.
The large fireplace.
Continuing east.
The creek.
Again.
Again.
Honeysuckle.
The creek.
The north end of Bonneville Glen.
The final climb.
Back to the main trail
Little bit across the top of the gulch.
As always, that was a fun little walk. We normally do this in the fall, so it was nice to see it in the warmer months. I do love these little trails that follow creeks! We need more of them! I do have a full list of the 7 Creeks I recently posted. Anyway, it wasn’t too busy. It is a great little add on trail if you are in the area. 10 out of 10 squirrels for this guy as well.
As for difficulty, it is fairly flat and hard packed, but there are some stairs and climbs. DR3.
Dogs are allowed in Miller Park. They are not allowed in Bonneville Glen.
