Jordan River Parkway: North Segment

The Jordan River Parkway is a 45 mile long trail through Salt Lake County that connects to Utah County and Davis County. You can essentially follow the path along the Jordan River from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake. Last year we did a segment down south through the Jordan Narrows. Today we did a short segment between North Salt Lake in Davis County to the Rose Park Golf Course in Salt Lake County which is about a 2.5 mile segment. We were hoping to see more birds than we did today but instead we got to see some other surprising and fun wildlife instead.

Quick Details:

Length: As long as you want! We did 5 miles out and back.
Difficulty: DR2. Super easy paved trail.
Elevation Gain: None totally flat.
Restroom: Not at either TH we passed.
Dogs? Yes, leashed.

To Get Here:

Take i215 to exit 27 Redwood Rd in North Salt Lake. Go south on Redwood Rd for about half a mile. Turn Left on Recreation way. You will find yourself at the Pony Express RV Resort. The trailhead is at the back (west) end of the parking lot. The parking lot has signs for guests only, so be sure to park on the road.

Sign for the RV Resort.

If you can see the break in the cattails just to the right of the car on the left, that is the trail. We are getting snowed on a bit but it looks like the storm will pass by quickly so we continued.

The Trail:

Short little break through the cattails.

And then you are on the paved parkway trail.

The Jordan River.

Small storm in front of the Oquirrh Mountains.

Short segment behind a couple businesses on Redwood Rd.

Little collects in our waterways. Really sad to see all that. It’s amazing the Great Salt Lake isn’t just a giant pile of plastic.

Back to the pretty river.

Old bridge.

The river again.

The airport and the Oquirrh Mountains.

This would have been a good spot to see Downtown SLC except the passing storm is obscuring it at the moment.

Short segment next to Redwood Road. It is super short and once you get past it the trail is quite nice.

The storm moved just enough to give us a glimpse of downtown.

Bend in the river, and trail. This is where it takes you away from Redwood Road and starts being kind of lovely. This is about a half mile from the TH.

Reflections on the river.

Starting to be kind of nice and almost wild.

Seems like we are seeing signs of beaver. But I don’t see any beaver lodges.

Pretty trail.

No sign for Salt Lake County but here is the Davis County Sign. So, we have crossed into Salt Lake.

Probably a coincidence the pavement has a crack right about here. But it seems like both counties paved to the line and stopped.

Neat old pipe crossing.

Turning out to be a lovely day, now that the storm has passed.

Pretty river.

Nice boardwalk over a swampy section.

Little glimpse of downtown again.

Ensign Peak from the west.

Clouds to the north.

Duckies!

The river again.

Some American coots.

Pretty clouds.

The Oquirrhs above the river.

The river.

Neat bridge.

View from the bridge.

Bike repair station. I love seeing these on trails.

Where the trail crosses Redwood Road. There is also another trailhead here. This is where I originally planned to turn around but we decided to keep going for a little bit. This is not quite 2 miles, but close.

The river again.

A remnant from the 2002 Olympics, kind of neat.

Now the trail is skirting the Rose Park Golf Course.

More American coots.

Robin.

Terrible shots but I think I caught a fox squirrel! I just read an article that this is a species that has recently crept into Utah and has been spotted around the river. I’m not 100% sure, but based on the behavior, I think it might be one. If you are interested, you can read about them here (external link).

Well, we hit about 2.5 miles and remembered we have to do the same back. So we decided to call it. We can explore more of this trail some other day.

It would appear some golfer recently had a bad game.

Old barn.

Back to the bridge.

After the crazy storm fully passed it’s now a beautiful day.

The river again.

The mountains above Bountiful.

I have been seeing a lot of these nests lately. Still trying to figure out what kind of bird builds them.

Back to the boardwalk area.

The mountains above SLC.

Whoa! I found a fox! Of all the random trails we have done, this is the one I find a fox on? Totally not expected and completely made my day. Although, I wish I had my telephoto lens on because he didn’t hang around long enough to even try to change it out. But it was still really neat to see one!

More signs of beaver. Still never saw a lodge but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t one. According to the inaturalist site they have been observed near here.

Pretty wooded path.

The river again.

Downtown Salt Lake City again.

The strip mine below the BST near Tunnel Springs.

The Jordan River OHV State Recreation Area.

Salt Lake City again.

More beaver activity.

River bends.

Back to the side trail that leads to the trailhead. As you can see the paved trail does continue north. After it goes under the freeway it becomes the Legacy Parkway Trail.

For a paved trail through the city, I actually really enjoyed this one today. Yea the first half mile was industrial and was next to Redwood Road, and that last half mile was starting to get into the neighborhoods and the golf course but there was a good mile and a half of pretty, quiet woods. I particularly enjoyed the wildlife we saw today, and the interesting view of downtown. I also enjoyed that we did not run into very many people on it (although for the first time ever, we did run into a co-worker). I think I might try biking down this one day and see how far I get. All in all, not a horrible option to avoid the snow and mud in late spring. 6 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, other than the short 15 foot connection from the parking lot to the trail, it is completely paved and flat and in really good condition. DR2.

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