Jordan River Parkway: Germania Park - Alternates

While I have been working on completing the southern half of The Jordan River Parkway some of my friends have been working on the middle section. Now that we are all vaxed up, we decided to meet up and walk together. This section has been dedicated as a park and has a couple alternate routes. We mostly walked along the alternate routes today and enjoyed the river. This is a bit of a jump from where I have left off hiking north along the parkway. However I plan to tackle that later this year/next year.

Quick Details:

Length: We did about 2 miles out and back.
Trail Type: Connector, Point to Point, Out and Back, or Loop.
Difficulty: DR2. It’s paved, or like paved and flat.
Elevation Gain: NA
Restroom: At the north end of Germania Park.
Dogs? Yes, leashed.
Other Info: JRP Mile Markers 28. Cities: Murray

To Get Here:

Take i15 to 5300 S. head west for about 1.1 miles to Riverside Dr. Turn right. You can either immediately turn left, and park, or drive an additional .4 miles and park. The latter option is where the restroom is.

The Trail:

Park Sign.

Parkway sign. Looks like this section was dedicated in 1992.

Fun clouds.

Trailhead sign.

There is a network of horse trails throughout the park. We mostly kept to some of those. This one follows next to the JRP for a little ways.

Quails!

The river.

Mile Marker 28. We only went about a mile today, so even though we veered away from the main trail, I don’t think we missed one. I think it is neat that Murray added their city logo. I Can’t recall if any other city that I have passed through has done that.

The river.

Lovely forested section.

More river.

More forest.

River.

Mountains.

My friends know me too well, and recommended we take the route to the ‘bird wall’. At first I thought they were talking about some art piece, but no even better.

Crossing the river, looking up stream.

Downstream.

The river below Mount Olympus.

Flowers.

It is just lovely through here.

Geese.

More geese.

Riverbend.

The ‘bird wall’.

Informative sign: Bank swallows like to build nests in higher banks. Kingfishers do as well. They are also a little worried about erosion destroying this perfect location for these two birds and are planning to takes some steps to protect it. Awesome. I think this might explain what I saw in Dimple Dell.

Yup, my friends know me well. This was super fascinating to me.

Bank swallows.

Nest holes.

It was really lovely through here. It really is nice some of the cities set aside sections of land along the river.

Fun bent tree. We learned on the Limber Pine Trail that this can happen due to heavy snow bending the tree over and the leading branch breaking and a secondary branch taking over as the lead branch.

Duckies!

It was hard to capture through the grass, but a mother duck teaching her babies how to swim against the current.

Well we went about a mile, and that was our friends goal (they don’t hike as often as us and are just getting started). I didn’t mind the shorter stretch because I had great company. However I might revisit this segment when I start working on the north half.

Lovely forest.

Back to the riverbend.

Mother geese teaching their young to swim.

Then there are these guys. I joked with my friends that these must be the menfolk. Hanging out with the bros wile the womenfolk work with the children. I probably am not fairly far off, but honestly, I can’t sex geese, and honestly am not super familiar with their parenting behaviors.

Moms? and babies headed to the other side as we walked by.

Edit: Did a little research, I guess both parents raise the young. So could be either one.

Muskrat.

The river.

More forest.

Mountains.

A couple of magpies.

More mountains.

More forest.

Mountains.

The river.

Duck butt!

Lovely trail.

Duckie!

River.

We took a little break here.

Interesting sunset on the way home (PSP).

This was a really enjoyable area, that is super easy. And It was just really great to do something with my friends again. It was a little busier than I was expecting, but not too bad. 8 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, it was flat and paved or like paved for the most of the way. DR3.

Dogs are allowed, but must be leashed. Please don’t be that asshole with the “friendly” dog off leash. Your dog might be friendly, but other, leashed, dogs might not be. It is not fair to have to scramble to pick up reactive dogs because your dog is “friendly” and you chose to break the rules.