Eccles Wildlife Center: Red Trail

 The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Wildlife Education Center (or what I just call: The Eccles Wildlife Center since the former is a bit much) is a a fun little natural area in Farmington. The Red Trail (formerly known as the Nature Trail, formerly The Farmington Creek Trail) features some lovely wetlands, with ponds, canals, and creeks, and mountain views. Plus, usually a spectacle of birds! It is a nice trail for birding and I generally try to make it out at least once a year or so.

We added the super short lookout points that the Wildlife Center now calls the Orange Trail and Blue Trail.

Quick Details:

Length: Just the loop is 1.15 miles, adding the overlooks (plus the bit back to the parking lot) makes it about 1.6 miles.
Trail Type: Loop
Difficulty: DR2 it is flat and like paved and boardwalk.
Elevation Gain: NA
Restroom: There are vault toilets 24/7/365, and flush toilets when the Wildlife Center is open (Tues - Sat 8-5)
Dogs? Yes, leashed. Please clean up after your furry friends.
Other Info:

Wildlife Center Hours:

Tuesday–Saturday: 11 a.m.–4 p.m.
Sunday, Monday and holidays: Closed

The nature trails may be used during daylight hours any day of the week and on holidays.

The entry gate opens at 7 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. (it will not lock you inside after 5, it will open automatically for you as you approach it).

If it is still daylight, and the gate is closed, you can still hike along the trails, you just have to park outside the gate and walk the short 3/10ths of a mile in to the parking lot.

To Get Here: (directly from the webpage)

Coming from the south

Travel north on I-15 and take Exit 322 (just after the Glovers Lane overpass). When the ramp forks, stay right. Just off the exit ramp, turn right on the frontage road and continue south. At the first stop sign, turn right onto Glovers Lane.

Continue west on Glovers Lane for two miles, passing through the roundabout at 1100 West. Turn left when you reach Waterfowl Way, drive through the gate and follow the paved road to the parking lot.

Coming from the north

Travel south on I-15 and take Exit 325 toward Park Lane. Turn right onto Park Lane. Turn left at the stop sign onto 1525 West and follow this street until it ends. Turn right onto Glovers Lane.

Shortly after you take this turn, you will see a small parking lot and a gate on your left. Drive through the gate and follow the paved road to the parking lot.

Downtown Salt Lake City (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).

The Great Blue Heron Nesting Poles.

The weather radar tower.

The Wildlife Center.

The Trail:

The trail.

The trail is next to a canal.

The current map of trails here. The Orange and Blue Trails are just spurs off of the Red Trail, but can also be done separately if you want shorter options. The mileage on the map here show doing them separately.

Goose Egg Island in the Farmington Bay WMA. Also a good place for birding.

Continuing along.

One of several little bird houses.

Mountains above.

American coots.

Mountains.

The Freedom Hills Switchbacks. It crosses through that particularly interesting feature on the mountain.

The main pond.

Again.

Smaller ponds.

One of several benches along the way.

Oh fun, they added some wildlife art on them. Yay. Looks like a pelican and a duck.

Wetlands.

The little bridge over the outlet.

Outlet canal.

Little waterfalls coming out of the outlet.

The big pond again. We will get a better view of it in just a minute.

Mountains.

Continuing along.

Snake, pelican, and frog.

Pelican and ... I donno.

The east end.

Pelican and a quail.

Normally when we do this trail I have my telephoto lens in, because there are a lot of birds! But, today we did not have much luck. It is super windy today, so that is probably why.

Mountains.

Wetland.

On the other side as well.

I can't make anything out of the first one, snake, hawk.

Continuing along.

Bittern, weasel, owl. So, with the lack of actual birds to identify we are having fun identifying stencils.

Well, here's one, a red-winged blackbird.

Frog, the Wildlife Centers logo which I believe depicts a snowy egret (I initially thought a great blue heron, but it is white when you see it in color), and a quail.

Mountains.

We have reached the boardwalk section.

Through some wetlands.

Wetlands.

Bridge.

Over Farmington Creek. Looking upstream.

Downstream.

More boardwalk.

Cattails for days.

We did have a northern harrier sighting.

More boardwalk.

Landis said it best. You got your name on a sign that birds poop on hahaha. But really, I do appreciate all the people who did donate to make exploring the area possible.

Cattails.

Back to the big pond.

Bridge across it.

North end.

Again.

American coot.

The bridge again.

The west end of it.

Looking back east.

The pond.

The weather radar dome.

The pond again.

Panoramic.

Frog, the logo, pelican.

Back to a gravel path.

Another little pond.

The split for the Blue Trail.

Which takes us back to the pond, with an old hunting blind/dock thingy.

A pelican and 2 geese.

Lone tree with another red-winged blackbird.

The old blind.

Again. I guess it is officially called Viewing Platform 2 according to the map on the website.

View from it.

Panoramic.

There are some benches in the back to rest on.

The south blind, or viewing platform 1 that we will be seeing in just a moment.

Tufts of grass in the pond.

Heading back to the Red Trail.

Quail, duck, hummingbird.

Another map. That little spur was only about .12 miles out and back. But would be about a mile out and back from the road. You would think since they decided to put a map at the beginning of the spurs that they would add the mileage from the point the split off to the end but I guess it makes sense to just print out 4 of the same maps. Then again, they do have different you are here points so its possible.

Cloud formations.

More ponds and the radar dome again.

Frog, weasel, bittern.

Clouds above the Wildlife Center.

The turn off for the Orange Trail.

Bench on the end of it, with a hawk, the Wildlife Center logo, and snake.

The Wildlife Center again.

Heading down the Orange Trail.

Cattails for days.

Another bench. This one didn't get any art.

This blind has a longer bit of boardwalk.

More of it.

The blind. Or Viewing Platform 1. There used to be camouflage netting around them.

View from it.

Panoramic.

Another with more mountains.

The north blind or Viewing Platform 2.

This one has benches as well.

Heading back.

Fun clouds. The storm is definitely blowing in.

Which is also covering the sun.

Goose Egg Island again.

Heading back.

Back to the Red Trail. This ended up being a short .24 spur out and back. It will be about 4/10ths of a mile out and back from the road.

Continuing along.

Little bridge.

Over some more wetlands.

The Wildlife Center again.

Another pond with another blackbird.

A larger bench with a snake, pelican, frog, weasel, and owl

Back to the road.

Just a short .05 miles back to the other side of the the loop.

The wind is sure sending the flags out!

The canal.

Back to the south side of the trail, where we started.

The parking lot.

Unfortunately, what I really like this area for is the abundance of birds, and that was not the case today. But, I guess it was a nice walk through the wetlands. 7 out of 10 squirrels today.

As for difficulty, it is flat, and like paved. DR2.

Dogs are allowed, leashed.