Bell Canyon Preservation Trailhead Nature Trail

 The new Bell Canyon Preservation Trailhead came with a new little nature trail. We did it when it was first built and well, there wasn’t much to it. We had stopped here for a quick bathroom break after our previous hike at Rocky Mouth and I figured while we’re here why not. It has been a couple of years so, lets see what its like now.

Quick Details:

Length: About 4/10ths of a mile loop with spur.
Trail Type: Loop with spur. Or a figure 8
Difficulty: DR2, the main loop is paved.
Elevation Gain: About 50 feet.
Restroom: Yes, nice fancy flush toilets at the trailhead.
Dogs? No.
Other Info:

To Get Here:

Take the 90th south exit from i15 and head east up to Wasatch Blvd. Turn right. Go about 600 feet and turn left. Head up the hill to the top parking lot.

The Trail:

Bees enjoying the planted flowers.

Little Cottonwood Canyon.

You can access this trail from both the east side, to the left of the restrooms, or the west side of the top parking lot.

Trail map.

The little trail.

Cross trail. Left connects to the main Bell Canyon Trail and right heads to the picnic areas.

Helicopter pad for life and fire safety. Not much to it, but it is a good place to land a helicopter I guess. It is weird the trail passes through it though haha.

With an aviation wind sock.

This central path leads up to some picnic areas. We will explore that in a minute.

The first ridge you have to climb for Bell Canyon.

Bell Canyon above the 2nd ridge.

Around the bend.

There is a sticker on the bottom that says: Smile you’re on camera.

Yellow flowers.

We were both startled by a very loud metallic creaking noise… it took a second to realize apparently the wind had shifted and the wind sock had turned.

Continuing along.

View south.

Oh, well here is an interpretive sign about water.

The turkey claw above Dry Canyons. Some people use this as an indication of winter being over. If there is not much snow in it it means we will have a early, weaker run-off. Note: I heard this via a random Facebook post, and am having trouble finding something to verify that. So.. it could be made up. But I mean, right now it appears to be holding true. I wonder if I have any pictures from the epic winter of 2022-23.

Wewt, here we go, from about this time of year in Dimple Dell. This was the year that Emigration creek flooded. Not the same angle, or even the best angle, but you can see the "claws" are still quite snowed in.

Above the 2nd ridge and the North Bell Bottom Twin (As I call it).

View south, with Wasatch Boulevard.

West.

South again.

One of several fake granite “boulders” that appear to be storage containers. I assume they are for the life and fire safety teams.

Actually, according to my post from last time, they are hiding RF emitters. 

Another one.

Trail split. We decided to see what was in the middle section.

West picnic table. It is a shame they didn’t put in any kind of shade structure.

Continuing along.

The middle picnic area. This one has shade… at least this late in the day.

Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Hummingbird. Crap, that reminds me I need to clean and put out the feeder!

And the east picnic area. Also shaded this late in the day.

I seem to recall the original plan had 4 picnic areas and a pavilion up here. But, they ended up with just the 3.

Almost back to the east side of the loop and the ridge above. We decided to head back. Looking back we could have done a figure 8 for about the same mileage.

The hummer is still there. Hello again buddy!

View to the west.

An actual granite boulder. And oddly enough, it has not been quarried, like most nearby boulders. My best guess is the previous property owners were here before the quarrying happened. This property used to belong to the oldest residents of Sandy.

Real boulder next to a fake boulder.

View south again.

Back on the main trail.

Another interpretive sign about the watershed. So that makes a total of 2 interpretive signs. Woo.

Another fake boulder.

A lovely granite bench that shows the drill marks from quarrying. You can learn more about that on the nearby Temple Quarry Trail.

Drill marks. These appear to be a lot more uniform, leading me to think it was probably recently quarried.

Nice view of Antelope Island from the bench.

And to the west.

Panoramic.

Another fake boulder.

Lupine. I think this was planted here.

Fake tree cell phone tower.

Next to a non disguised one.

Nearing the end.

The cell towers again.

Back to the parking lot.

Bell Canyon above.

As I mentioned, this land was owned by some of the oldest families in Sandy, the Richardsons and the Evans. They agreed to sell the land to Sandy at a discounted rate as long as it was preserved as a community resource. Hooray, it didn't become more McMansions. We got a new trailhead, with 133 parking spaces, flush toilets, drinking fountains, picnic areas, and this little nature trail.

Here is what it looks like today using Google Earth.

Here is what it looked like in 2021 while being built.

And he is what is looked like in 2018. As you can see, the old property had pretty much the same paths, the city just enhanced them. You can also see all of the old junk the city had to haul away.

We took a wrong turn and pulled over to turn around, and well, hello there.

That was a random unexpected find.

Neat clock tower above the Localz Bistro. It is not currently displaying the correct time.

Meh. It is not the most exciting trail, and well I think I would appreciate more interpretive signs. But, it does have a nice view, and I really appreciate having an ADA trail that offers those views. We don't have a whole lot of those. Plus it’s not a bad quick add-on trail. 5 out of 10 squirrels.

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

Dogs are not allowed due to watershed restrictions. Be sure to leave Fido home for this one.