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The Mountain View Trail in Dimple Dell Park is a lovely trail. It features scrub oak forest, and as the name implies, lovely mountain views. It stays mostly along the middle part of the slope, but does connect to the top and bottom. This trail also doesn’t have a specific trailhead, and must be connected to via other trails. We have done short sections of it before mostly using it as a connector trail, today we finally did the whole thing.
Quick Details:
Length: The main trail itself is about 3 miles out and back. Starting at the Wrangler Trailhead we ended up doing 4.7 miles out and back.
Trail Type: Out and back, connector, loop options.
Difficulty: It is mostly fairly flat, with 1 big hill, and a few small rolling hills.
Elevation Gain: About 450 feet.
Restroom: Yes. There are year round flush toilets at the Wrangler Trailhead.
Dogs? Yes, leashed.
Other Info:
To Get Here:
We used the Wrangler TH today. Take 106th South to 13th east then turn left. Go north for about 1200 feet then turn right. Go another 300 feet and you will see the Wrangler TH on the right. You want to use the trail access on the east side of the lot starting on the North Rim Trail.
The trail can also be accessed from several other trailheads, but this seemed like the most strait forward option to me.
The Trail:
As I mentioned, we decided to start at the Wrangler Trailhead today. However, you can shave off about 8/10ths of a mile out and back by starting at the Flanders Road Trailhead.
The trailhead on the east end of the parking lot.
Trail rules.
Mount Jordan. We will have a nice view of it for most of the way.
We start on the North Rim Trail AKA the Dimple Dell Trail.
Before long we reach the junction for the Sego Lily Trail, and the Edgecliff Drive neighborhood connector. You can use that trail to reach the Mountain View trail as well.
Continuing along.
Some kind of hawk soaring above us.
Mount Jordan.
The west end of the Flanders Point Loop.
It still has one of the old trailhead kiosks and has not been updated yet.
With the old, old map.
Mount Jordan again.
The Flanders Road neighborhood connector. I notice that it has one of the newer trailhead kiosks. Quick note: This neighborhood connector does not have any of the amenities that the main trailheads have, no restrooms, water, designated parking, etc. But, as I mentioned, it will shave off about 8/10ths of a mile.
Gopher holes.
The east side of the Flanders Point Loop.
The Jordan Narrows. The very narrow corridor between Salt Lake and Utah Valleys.
Looking down into the gully.
At about a half mile or so you will reach the split off for the Mountain View Trail.
Then we descend into the gully.
The Badger Cove Trailhead on the other side of the gully.
As the name of the trail implies, it does offer an extraordinary mountain view.
The gully, and the Sego Lily Trail.
Where the Sego Lily Trail connects to the Mountain View Trail.
With one of the new signs that came in sometime last year. I am not sure if I like the way they are placing them. I think trail split signs should be you know, where the trail splits in the V or the ^. Not randomly on the other side of the more main trail. But, I guess that is being nitpicky. I do appreciate that they are putting more signs in. But, as we will see in a minute, they could use some more still.
Into a restoration area over the pipeline scar.
Mount Jordan.
View across the gully towards the Dry Creek Loop.
Primrose Point. The Primrose Loop Trail goes around that.
Back towards Flanders Point.
Through the scrub oak.
Where the Sego Lily Trail veers off again. According to the official county map, this is actually where the Mountain View Trail starts. Just you know, 9/10ths of a mile in. Notice the placement of the new sign on the left and the old sign on the right. In the V. That is what I am used to, but again probably being nitpicky.
However, one of my long time real gripes about this park is that the main trails completely switch from being super wide, and bark lined, to thin dirt trails (and vise verse) completely randomly. That plus still being a little short on signage makes it a bit confusing. I am starting to get the hang of it, but there was definitely a learning curve.
Continuing along.
Random posts.
Dry Creek below, being well, dry. If we don’t start getting some real moisture real soon, I don’t think the creek will flow much, if at all this year.
Little Cottonwood Canyon.
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Panoramic.
A connector trail down to the Dry Creek Trail. We tend to use it as a a connector to do a loop with the dry Creek Trail. It is approximately halfway along that trail.
Mountain bluebird.
Continuing along.
Mount Jordan.
Little Cottonwood Canyon again.
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Another panoramic.
The view behind us.
View towards the top of the gully.
Continuing along.
One of the many side trails that is closed.
Scrub oaks.
There are still patches of snow in places that don’t get very much sunlight this time of year.
Thin fin below.
I am not sure if they are fixing a landslide, or building a road.
Again. If is was a slide that is pretty gutsy to leave the heavy tractor there.
The creek below again.
This trail also has a lot of rolling hills so a bit of up and down. Not as much as the Sego Lily Trail but still noticeable.
And back down.
More scrub oak.
Mount Jordan.
One of the many random side trails.
Another.
Mount Jordan.
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Panoramic.
Looking up toward the north rim.
Across to the south rim, with another landslide.
Coming up on our turn off. Notice, there is no sign here. But I am really confidant this is it.
Switching to soft dirt.
Note, it is about 100 feet or so above the bridge over the creek. After here, the bark lined trail becomes a connector to the Dry Creek Trail.
The trail is much more thin here.
We have never done this section of the trail before, so this is all, well, mostly all new for us.
And now the trail splits are a little bit harder to tell which one we should be on. I think I kept us on the right trail for the most part. It gets a little fuzzy towards the end though. Generally try to determine if the trail is going to head up hill or downhill too much and choose the more forward option. So, right here.
Yup, I chose correctly.
Soft beach sand. It is a little more tough to hike though, but not too bad.
Couple of thinner spots.
More scrub oak.
Mount Jordan again.
The gully below.
Random poles and Fox Point.
Here the gully makes an almost perfect 90 degree turn to the left, north. I call it the big elbow.
The former site of the now removed amphitheater.
Fox Point again.
Bell Canyon.
Trail heading down to the creek. About here I think we might have taken a wrong turn at some point, but, I still wasn’t really sure so we kept going.
Crossing Dry Creek, which is thankfully living up to it’s name at the moment. In recent years they have been working on getting the stream to flow more often when possible, but with how dry this winter has been I don't expect it to flow anytime soon.
Downstream.
Upstream.
And we hit Dimple Dell Pond, which is surrounded by this fence. It is, and has been dry for a little while now.
Continuing along the north end of the pond.
Better view of the empty pond.
Bat box.
There is a big clearing here at the big elbow.
Mount Jordan.
Mountains to the north.
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Panoramic.
Another bat box.
Random shed. I assume it is for some utility, probably power?
Some kind of hawk soaring above.
Again.
Another split. I know the trail is supposed to connect back to the Sego Lily Trail at the end, so I figured we needed to start heading back uphill. So, left it is.
The random utility building again.
Crossing the creek again.
A pair of large trees.
Back to a bark lined trail.
And we have reached the Sego Lily Trail. Right where I thought we would! So whether I got us off track or not, I did end up exactly where I was expecting. So, I guess it worked out in the end.
The big clearing.
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Another panoramic.
Back towards the 4 way intersection. You can make a loop and return via the Sego Lily Trail going forward. Or you can return the way you came, left. I am not sure where right leads. Possibly up to the North Rim. Actually, looking at the map it appears to keep heading north for a bit. I might check it out some time, but not today. Lastly if you still have energy you can keep following the Sego Lily Trail north to the Mount Jordan Trailhead, behind me from this vantage. But, we have gone far enough today, left it is.
Heading back down.
The large pair of trees again.
Again. Plus the next trail split. So, we came in from the trail on the left. But, there is a trail forward so I thought I would check that out.
The creek bed and the random utility building.
The utility again.
Closer.
This old trail marker says this is the Pumphouse Trail. So I think that answers that, the building is a pumphouse.
The other side says Fox.. and then not legible. I assume it used to say Fox Point. It dies appear to head up to it. That is probably a little steep.
The pumphouse.
Another large tree with a hole at the bottom.
I decided to walk back along the creek bed until we hit the spot where we crossed it before. There is a faint trail to the right of it. I suspect that actually might have been the original trail.
And a landslide took out a small part of it.
So yeah, I am glad we decided to follow the creek bed. If the creek happens to be flowing (which at this point I am not sure is going to happen anytime soon) then just return the way you came.
Patch of trees that the creek is eroding the dirt away from.
The creek bed.
Then the foliage got a little to thick to pass through. Luckily just a few feet back I saw a way back up to the trail next to the pond.
Some poor creature met it’s demise here.
The dry pond.
Little bit muddy though here.
Crossing the creek again.
Back up through this deep, sandy channel.
I guess I didn’t get a picture of it, but there is a trail just above here to the right that has a fence across saying closed (I assume due to the landslide we saw). I am not 100% sure, but I strongly suspect that was the original trail. And I stumbled upon an alternate route around the hazard. But, I might have to come back and explore a little more to be sure. There is only so much you can make out using google maps.
But, here is what I have. The trail-split in green. with the creek and pond behind me. The pumphouse in red. I added some blue dashes below the closed trail.
On the way in, from the split in green, I continued down across the creek to the trail on the north edge of the pond then connected to the trail north of the pumphouse. On the way back, I followed the creek back.
Playing around on the map, it looks like you can do a similar detour by taking that right fork above the green circled fork and going around the trees over to the pumphouse (orange dashes). Or, you could take one of the forks (purple) up to the Sego Lily Trail (brown) and call it done haha. Both are good options if the creek is flowing and not easily crossable.
As you can see there is a huge mess of trails criss-crossing all over the place. Which can be a little frustrating, but at the end of the day, I think I found my way pretty well.
Fox Point above.
You can see someone on the Sego Lily Trail above.
Where the old amphitheater was again.
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Another panoramic of the mountains.
The view to the west.
Continuing back.
Weird little plant.
Fox Point.
Beach sand.
I can’t seem to figure out what that random block is up there on the north rim.
The gully below.
Another cross trail. There really is just a giant mess of trails in here.
One of the landslides on the south side.
I found the random picnic table along the Sego Lily Trail above.
The north rim.
Back to the bark lined trail, again no sign. But at least now I know the rest of the trail is pretty easy to follow.
Mount Jordan, and the bridge across the creek below.
Scrub oaks.
Continuing along.
South rim and a landslide.
North rim.
Continuing along.
Down into the gully with another landslide.
Scrub oak.
Caught a bird taking off.
A little sub peak. We have passed it a few times, and I always say, one day I might scramble up it. But today was not the day either.
Continuing along.
Fun layers of clouds.
Another landslide down in the gully.
Trees.
Continuing.
Fun cloud layers again.
One of the many side trails heading up.
Back to the construction area.
The gully.
Continuing along.
Some plant life.
Continuing down.
More plants.
Scrub oaks.
The midpoint-ish trail I use to make loops with the Dry Creek Trail.
The Dry Creek Loop Trail on the other side.
With Dry Creek.
Fun clouds.
With a bird.
Continuing down.
Where the Sego Lily Trail connects. This is technically the end of the Mountain View Trail and is now a connector trail to where the Sego Lily Trail splits off again, and then to the North Rim Trail.
The gully below.
Setting sun.
Into the restoration area across the pipeline scar.
Again.
Where the Sego Lily Trail splits off again. You can take this trail back as well. But we decided to keep going the way we came today.
One of the new signs, which claims this is still the Mountain View Trail. I guess the county has changed it’s mind about where the trail starts/ends on this end?
But, the current map on the website shows what I originally said.
Fun clouds.
Flanders Point.
Starting to get a bit of a sunset.
The Badger Cove Trailhead again.
Flanders Point again.
Primrose Point.
Looking back towards Mount Jordan.
Back to the North Rim Trail.
With one of the new signs.
As well as one of the refreshed old signs.
Now just about a half mile back to the trailhead.
Better sunset colors.
Mount Jordan behind us.
The Dry Creek Loop again.
Little birdies.
Down into the gully.
Sunset.
Continuing down.
More sunset.
The Flanders Road neighborhood connector. As I mentioned, you can park here and shave off about 8/10ths of a mile out and back.
Continuing down.
Sunset.
Nice wide path.
Looking across Flanders Point.
The west end of Flanders Point Loop.
More sunset.
Continuing down.
Sand dunes.
Sunset.
Back to the west end of the Sego Lily Trail.
The neighborhood connector to Edgecliff Dr.
Sunset.
Above the Wrangler Trailhead. Woo. It is nice to make it back to the trailhead before full dark again!
I came across this a couple weeks ago and it resonated with me. Mostly due to getting stuck in the dark so often on hikes in that window. I am so glad to be on the other side of it finally!
Pink clouds above Mount Jordan.
The new year-round restrooms.
Looking back towards the parking lot.
The newly updated trailhead kiosk and map.
I would like to note that it shows the random detour route we ended up doing today as being the new official trail I wonder when they plan to put the new map up on the website. So far I have not been able to get a great picture of it.
I also see the section between the North Rim trail and the Sego Lily Trail is now considered part of the Mountain View Trail, which honestly I always considered it to be as well so that works for me. I also see they have removed the Primrose Loop from this map. That one was particularly tough to follow so I guess that makes sense too.
Sunset.
Last of the sunset as we head back home (PSP).
I am super happy we finally did the whole dang trail today! Yes, it was a little frustrating with the giant web of trails and no signs towards the east end, but we managed to make it to the end despite that. It was a little busier in the park than we have seen in a minute, but still pretty quiet along the Mountain View Trail, and particularly the east end. Overall, I really ended up liking the trail. 9 out of 10 squirrels, losing 1 for the web of trails and lack of signage on the east end. But I do note, it looks like they are trying, and you know how fast government moves.
As for difficulty, it is mostly flat with some rolling hills, and one bigger hill back up to the rim. DR3.
Dogs are allowed, leashed. Please clean up after your furry friends.
