Greater Avenues Water Conservation Demonstration Gardens

 The Greater Avenues Water Conservation Demonstration Gardens (phew what a mouthful). Is a tiny community park with some desert gardens. As the title implies, it is located in The Avenues neighborhood of Salt Lake City. It features 5 garden types that thrive in our arid climate. I don’t remember how I stumbled upon this, but whatever I was doing I just quickly added it to my mental list of things to maybe check out. So after a day of shorter adventures in the area, I thought we would come do it. So, just going to say, while it is an interesting concept, it wasn’t particularly exciting to me, so I did not love it. But hey, they can’t all be winners.

Quick Details:

Length: About .14 of a mile out and back.
Trail Type: Out and back.
Difficulty: Completely paved option DR2.
Elevation Gain: Eh, 10-15 feet.
Restroom: No.
Dogs? No. Big Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info:

To Get Here:

Take South Temple to I street, head north tp 11th Avenue, go right. Go a few blocks to Terrace Hills Drive. It will be on the southeast corner. You can park at 11th avenue park, or along the street.

The Trail:

The bottom of the park.

Sadly this sign is way too sun faded to read. It looks like it basically has the same information as the city website does (outside link).

Bottom with some yucca looking plants.

Neat little arbor.

Little faux river channel.

So, if each of the 5 garden types have a specific area within the gardens, it is not signed at all, or particularly clear. So I suspect that maybe they are all just mixed up through out?

Fun giant rock slab bridge.

It looks like this might be a pamphlet box, but it is empty.

Looking uphill.

The little faux stream again.

Random paver path.

Back to the main path.

The top. Well. I guess that is it. Not a whole lot going on here.

The website does state that this replaced a weed filled lot though, so this is absolutely an improvement for the community.

The upper sign is in better condition, and does show that the garden is sectioned into the different zones. Well, alrighty then.

So this top area is montane foothills.

Little bit of downtown peaking through the trees.

Heading back down.

11th Avenue Park across the street.

We took a paver path up into what I think is the montane meadow part.

Pretty flowering bush.

Back on the main path. 

We climbed another set of pavers and found this cemetery next door. At first we thought it was a new cemetery we never heard of, but as we learned later, it is part of the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Continuing down. The map is a a little hard to distinguish the separate garden areas but I think we are entering the dry riparian area.

Juniper, I think.

More of the park. By the shrub steppe area.

Back to the pergola.

The area at the bottom. This is desert community.

The main entrance off of 11th avenue and Terrace Hills Dr.

View across 11th Avenue.

We were parked just to the east here, so we went through this paver path. On the way in I did not think it was appropriate to cute through her, but on the way out, the path starts out paved, plus it is on the map so I feel a lot better cutting through now.

Random cemetery gate we parked next to.

There is not a lot to this, but it was kind of a neat add on to our shorter hikes we did today. I definitely would not come for just this. Normally I enjoy conservation gardens, maybe we came too early and it would be be better later in the season? Meh. But I will reiterate, it is certainly better than a lot full of weeds. Meh, 1 squirrel.

As for difficulty, the main path is paved, DR2.

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

Limekiln Gulch

 Limekiln Gulch is a small gulch in the Avenues above downtown Salt Lake City. The trail features some decent views, scrub oak, wildflowers, and of course a historic limekiln! It is a super short trail that is a great option to do as an odd on, or maybe something super quick after work. Of course the gulch itself connects to the massive Avenues trail network, so you have some options to do it little bit longer if you want. We have done this trail a few times now, but it is neat.

We added this on to a trail that ended up being a little shorter than I wanted to be.

Quick Details:

Length: With a little exploring, we did about 6/10ths of a mile out and back. 
Trail Type: Out and back, longer out and back or loop options.
Difficulty: DR3. Pretty easy going.
Elevation Gain: About 160 feet.
Restroom: No.
Dogs? Yes, leashed. Please clean up after your furry friends.
Other Info: This trail is squeezed between private property areas. So be sure to stay on the designated path

To Get Here:

From downtown, take South Temple east to Virginia St. Turn Left. This road will start winding up the mountain. Turn right onto Chandler Dr. and then another right onto Tomahawk Dr. Drive about 400 feet and look for the trailhead to the left. It is between houses.

Not the best shot of the University of Utah Block U (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)). It's super close to here and worth adding on, even if your not a big sportsball person, like both of us.

The Trail:

The start of the trail is this thin gravel strip between some houses.

Trail signs just as the trail veers to the right.

The scrub oak through here is greening up quite a bit more than it was in the Terrace Hills area we were just in.

Glacier lilies, yay! Between spotting these, and removing my hoodie tells me we are truly starting to hit spring.

The trail spits you out on the paved section of an old access road. Which appears to have been converted into the homeowner to the left’s driveway. I imagine there is some sort of agreement with the city to allow access for various needs up here. Anyway…

Immediately back to dirt.

People on that peak way up there.

Myrtle spurge. A particularly noxious weed that can cause rashes and burns. It is best avoided.

Another glacier lily.

Double track.

More glacier lilies.

Continuing up.

First view of the kiln.

You have 2 options here. The short option with a bit of a scramble up the lime covered hill to the right, or the slightly longer, but more gradual climb around from the back side to the left. The scramble really isn’t that bad, but hey, if there is an easier option that isn’t much longer, why not? So we went left.

I just love the foothills this time of year.

The kiln obscured by the hill it is sitting on.

The gulch.

Starting to see it better.

Here the trail faintly curves over to the right, back towards the kiln. With a nice view of the gulch as well.

Looking up towards the peak and ridge.

The gulch and saddle.

We climbed a little ways up here the first time we were here. And we have reached the saddle at the top from the nearby Dry Gulch trail. Now if I can manage to work myself from up there over to the BST to Bobsled Alternate junction (and a little more northwest) I can say I have done most of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) through here. Then of course I have a bit north and a bit south as well. I am not in a super hurry to complete the BST, it is super long. But, it might be cool to have 1 section of it completed.

Anyway, got a little off track…

Heading back towards the kiln. You have another 2 options here. Heading towards the bottom of the kilns to the right. Or head to the top to the left. We went right.

Super pretty in here.

More glacier lilies.

The hill the kiln sits upon.

Flowers on the other side of the gulch.

The kiln. It is a rather large one with 4 portals.

I have located a few other limekilns, some still on my list to visit, others I have visited, but this is the biggest so far.

The Ogden Canyon Limekiln is another neat one.

The front.

Panoramic.

The information plaque.

This is just 1 of 3 historic limekilns that were built in this canyon back in the 1850's. This area was donated to the University of Utah in 1975.

Limestone was quarried from nearby deposits and brought to the kilns. It was layered between layers of wood and burned in these kilns. The heat would remove the water and carbon dioxide, and the resulted product was called quicklime. Which was used as a mortar used in the construction of a lot of buildings around that time.

Aside from an early form of cement, it had many other uses including plaster, whitewash, water softening, some food additives (was that okay?), tanning leather, destroying diseased animals carcasses (and they ate it?), sanitizing outhouses (again, they ate it?), and treating acidic soil. 

In 1908 a violent thunderstorm destroyed about 10,000 bushels of lime stored hear (about a years worth). Which subsequently caused the kilns to be abandoned. 

Chunks of the abandoned lime were used in the original Block U which is just around the ridge to the south.

The largest of the 3 limekilns was restored in 1976.

Much of the kilns stonework had to be replaced, and the original work repointed (I thought that was a typo at first, but it means to fill in or repair joints in stonework). The chimneys where the lime was burned, were not refurbished. 

Lastly, due to continued vandalism access to the portals, and the area above were fenced off to try to mitigate that. 

I am not sure when the gates went in, or when the sign was placed, but it had to have happened in my lifetime as I have a friend that filmed a music video inside back in 2006 (outside link, I cropped it to a point where you can see it before the gates were put in, in case you don't care for the music style, but if you scroll through the video also shows inside). I did not discover this until 2015. I am sad that somehow my various network of spooky kids did not bring me up here before it was all gated off. Yes, we were dumb teenagers, and we hung out in places after hours and were all sorts of mischievous. But none of us, not a single one of my friends or I ever vandalized a historic or nature thing (the random modern neighbors house or car... well, I can't really claim innocence there). I am proud of myself, and my friend group to be able to say that. 

The plaque is in front of one of the very much locked up portals.

The far left portal.

Inside, well, what I can capture through the grate.

Looking at the other 3. Which shows the historic marker is on the 2nd to the left portal.

Into the 2nd one.

The 3rd.

The 4th. This is why we can’t have nice things. Assholes who can’t be bothered to take their trash to the nearest receptacle. Particularly when visiting historic stuff.

The view down.

The front of the kiln again.

Earlier, we avoided the lower steep trail. Here we decided to scramble up this steep trail to get to the top. Don't question my adult decision making skills. :-p

The top. They did not preserve or restore the old chimneys, so you just have the holes where they were.

Panoramic.

North.

South.

One of the chimney covers.

Hills above.

Repair efforts to keep the riff raff out.

Heading back down to the bottom.

Back to the bottom.

The lime covered hill.

View down the gulch.

The front.

Panoramic. This one turned out much better and caught the whole thing.

So… wait a second.

What’s up with the bricks here? It kind of looks like it originally had 2 portals, and was expanded. 

I mean, I am no architect, mason, or historical expert at all, but I mean, just look at it. I might have to do some digging to see if there is anything to back that idea up.

View of the valley again.

Closer view of downtown.

Last parting view before we head back down.

We decided to go down the slightly longer and easier route again.

Continuing down.

Again.

Where the 2 trails merge.

Scrub oak.

Where the trail veers away from the old access road.

Short forested area.

Glacier lilies.

More forest.

The final little bit before reaching the road again.

I always enjoy coming to see this. But, I love old old buildings, so I guess that  shouldn’t be a surprise. haha. Its a a super easy short trail, and a great add on. I rarely see many people on the trail so it is generally pretty quiet as well. 10 squirrels out of 10.

As for difficulty, it is a really mild, short climb. Both short scrambles have longer alternates as well. DR3.

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