Jordan River Parkway: Little Confluence Park and Arrowhead Park

A group of my friends have started doing random walks along The Jordan River Parkway. This particular walk was particularly random, so I wasn’t going to write it up, however we had some fun wildlife today so I decided I would.

Quick Details:

Length: There was little rhyme or reason to what we did today, but we did 1.55 Miles.
Trail Type: Loop, figure 8, out and back.
Difficulty: DR2
Elevation Gain: About 45 ft.
Restroom: Yes at Arrowhead Park
Dogs? Yes, leashed. I don’t care how “friendly” your dog is, there is a reason most places that allow dogs say they must be leashed. Don’t be that entitled asshole who creates an issue.

To Get Here:

If coming from the north, take i15 to 4500 S, go west. Turn left on 500 west. Take that to Murray/Taylorsville rd (4800 s) hang right, then immediately left.

If coming from the south, take the 5300 S exit. Go west, turn right on Murray Blvd. Turn left on Murray/Taylorsville rd (4800 s), then immediately left.

The Trail:

Woo pretty flowering cacti.

Closer.

Super pretty.

For whatever reason, we agreed to meet at Arrowhead Park, and then walked over to Little Confluence Trailhead, which has a parking lot as well. I don’t know why this happened, probably just a game of telephone between friends.

There is a little garden area in the little confluence trail. Right now the iris’s are blooming.

Mountains.

I liked these 2-toned ones.

Pretty woods.

The Little Cottonwood Creek Confluence. It’s kind of neat to see one of our larger creeks joining the river.

Duckies!

The river.

Forest.

Riverbend.

Kind of hard to see through the reeds, but muskrat.

The river.

Sign talking about all the native plants they have planted here during the restoration project.

As we rounded the bend we noticed there was a group with 3 bigger dogs running around off leash. My friends have chihuahuas.  If you are familiar with chihuahuas you know they tend to be very reactive dogs. “Friendly” dogs tend to set them off, which in turn makes “friendly” dogs not so friendly. It is a hot button issue with all off us. We decided we would rather not have an issue and then possibly a confrontation, so we turned around. We almost had an incident last week on our walk but luckily my friend managed to scoop up her pups before the other dog arrived.

So I will say it again. When the park says “Dogs must be leashed”, Leash your fucking dog. Chihuahuas and other reactive dogs deserve to enjoy our open spaces as much as you do. And there are plenty of off leash options to take your “friendly” dog to. Oi. I will also add, do not take your reactive dogs to an off leash area then be an asshole when off leash dogs approach you. It goes both ways. It really just comes down to respecting the rules and thus the expectations of the area.

Heading back the other way.

Muskrat.

More pretty irises.

The cactus flowers again.

Crossing the river on 4800 south.

I was taking pictures of the ducks and geese when something else caught my eye.

We noticed this stick bobbing up and down…

Wouldn’t you know it, it’s a beaver chewing on it. A couple times now I have been like 95% certain that I was seeing a beaver, but due to distance and lighting always had that smidge of doubt that maybe it was a muskrat, like our sighting at Green Pond. This is the first time in my entire life that I can say with 100% certainty that that is definitely a beaver.

Of course with my excitement I totally just did not think about the fact that I had a telephoto lens on me. Sigh. But lets see what we get with cropping.

He’s so cute! Just chomping away on a stick.

Cropped this one a little closer. Starts to get a bit grainy.

I’m still kicking myself for not pulling out my telephoto lens. I seriously don’t understand what happened here. I usually am quite quick to pull it out when I see wildlife.

Geese with their babies.

This sign covers how they restored the banks here near the confluence.

Looks like the plants have taken to it.

Duck and ducklings.

Geese and goslings.

Little Cottonwood Creek as it joins the Jordan River.

Looking upstream of Little Cottonwood Creek.

Back to the Jordan River.

Muskrat.

The river.

This sign talks about the riparian zone you are walking through.

Looking back at the Little Cottonwood Confluence.

Oh fun! Another citizen science station! I participated in the one on the Roi Hardy Park section. So I am happy to do so again today. There ended up being 3 in the vicinity.

Nice and green.

Crossing over a tiny little stream.

Beaver activity.

Lovely woods.

Snort. Yes, we are 12.

And… the counterpart. Again, we are 12.

Another bent tree. This can happen when the tree gets bent over with heavy snow, and the leader branch likely snapped off, so a secondary branch took over as the leader branch. I learned this on the Limber Pine trail.

Another fun citizen science station.

The river again.

This sign talks about methods used to protect the banks. They put trees in, roots out towards the river. This slows the current, slowing erosion, and also provides a safe place for fish and other aquatic life. Neat.

Prim rose.

Another one.

We reached another small side creek that was dry at the moment.

Unfortunately, Mickey just got himself so overworked due to the excitement of the trail, and the excitement of other dogs to interact with, and he started to not do so well.  So we had to turn back to ensure he was okay. I don’t think we can bring him along anymore, unfortunately. He did do fine once we got him into his pool though.

Dry creek bed.

Primrose.

The river.

Letting the dogs cool down in the side creek.

Back to the confluence. Goose butt!

Back to the confluence.

I used to mix up Big and Little Cottonwoods canyons until I came up with this mnemonic. Big Cottonwood curves to the south over Little Cottonwood. So, Big Cottonwood is to the north,

I happened to catch the beaver heading back. I am confidant that this is a beaver due to the definite size difference between it and the muskrats. I am actually pretty sure it is the same beaver I saw before.

Cropped in a bit closer.

Super cute!

He kind of looks like a bear.

He went under water for a minute and all I could see was bubbles coming up.

Found him again on the other side. I swore I got a better shot of it’s tail, but this is the best I got.

So cool to be able to definitely say I have seen one now. After what I observed today, I am still 99.99% certain I have seen one at Green Pond, and one at Silver Lake. All other sightings I can either say were definitely muskrats, or could have been either or.

Bye cute little buddy!

One last look up Little Cottonwood Creek.

I enjoyed both of these little areas quite a bit. I particularly enjoyed our wildlife encounters today. Definitely going to have to come back some time. 8 out of 10 squirrels, even if we did have to deal with one entitled asshole who thinks the rules don’t apply to him.

As for difficulty, it’s pretty flat, you have paved options, but even the unpaved options where nice and easy. DR3.

Dogs are allowed, but must be leashed. Seriously, leash your dogs.