Jordan River Parkway: 9th S. to North Temple

 I actually enjoyed this section of The Jordan River Parkway a lot more than I thought I would. It was mostly greenway, away from houses, and then a short industrial area. And it had a few neat things to see and explore including the final puzzle that completed the trail, The bridge over the train yard between 2nd S. and North Temple. There used to be a longer detour here.

I did not end where I had anticipated to last time, and skimmed about a quarter mile of the last section that I added to this one. Which kind of worked out for me in the end.

Quick Details:

Length: The map put this section at 4.6 miles out and back, but with the detour removed it is now 4 miles out and back. It will be even shorter if you use the official TH at 1025 W Genesee ave. Instead of where I left off at 900 S.
Trail Type: Connector, out and back.
Difficulty: DR2. Its paved with gradual climbs.
Elevation Gain: About 120 ft. Most of that is climbing over bridges.
Restroom: Yes, at 9th South River Park.
Dogs? Yes, leashed.
Other Info: Cities: Salt Lake City. JRP Mile Markers: 38 and 39

To Get Here:

To use the “trail head” I used:

Take i15 to the 13th south exit. Ge west for about 7/10ths of a mile and turn right on 9th west. Go about 6/10ths of a mile and turn left on Montague Avenue. Go to the end and there is a small parking lot at the end.

The official trailhead which is about a quarter mile north:

Take i15 to the 13th south exit. Ge west for about 7/10ths of a mile and turn right on 9th west. Go about 7/10ths of a mile and turn left on Genesee Ave. Go to the end and there is a small parking lot at the end.

The Trail:

I left off last time at the intersection with the 9-Line trail, so that is where I started today.

The neat bridge on the 9-Line trail leading towards The Fred and Ila Rose Fife Wetland Preserve. I decided to tack that on to the end today. Its only a 10th of a mile detour and reconnects to the main trail.

The 900 South Constructed Wetland. Another thing we explored on the way back.

Heading into 9th South River Park.

The river snaking around it.

Geese! And a quick peak into the Fife Wetland Preserve.

You can go left across the bridge or forward here, but might as well go left as it is a more direct path to stay on the trail.

Better look at the bridge.

Downriver.

Upriver.

There is a light guarded crossing here at Indiana Ave.

This marker is placed by the Salt Lake City Fire Department in recognition of the courageous efforts of the citizens in this community.

On September 18, 2014, approximately 20 bystanders risked their own safety to save the lives of three young men in an overturned car, submerged here in the Jordan River. The City of Salt Lake and the Salt Lake City fire Department offer gratitude to the men and women whose swift and selfless actions prevented tragedy that day.

When the community works together with our public safety responders, we make a positive impact in the lives of others,

Placed spring 2016 by: Fire Chief Brian A. Dale - SLCFD Awards and Recognition Committee - Mayer Jackie Biskupski - Salt Lake City Council

Wow. That pretty incredible. It is great to see a memorial to such a great act by the community.

More green space that gives room between the river and some houses.

The next bridge already. That’s what, 2 now.

Bridge again.

Downstream.

Upstream.

Squirrel!

More green space.

The river again.

Squirrel!

There are a couple nice benches to enjoy the view.

7th South crossing. There is a signal you can activate, but today it was pretty calm so a simple looking both ways was sufficient for me.

Random art piece.

Oh. It is called Sphere and was completed in 2003 by Daniel Gerhart.

More greenspace.

The river again.

Mile Marker 38.

Connector trail bridge.

More greenspace and well, these houses don’t really match most of the other houses in the area. Looks like a newer development.

The 5th South crossing also has a signal you can activate. But again, it was not terribly busy today and looking both ways was sufficient.

More lovely greenspace.

Another neat art piece.

Unfortunately the sign has been damaged. I can make out Prometheus but that’s about it.

There are loads of little monuments to the 2002 Olympics along the parkway, most of them in the Salt Lake City section.

This Olympic Legacy Project was made possible by Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics Legacy Funds.

The improvements exhibited pay tribute to the more than 30,000 Community, Paralympic, and Olympic Volunteers of all ages and cultures who offered services in many areas.  Volunteers were a very big part of the 2002 Winter Games including: greeting visitors, security at venues, catering, administrations, ticketing, and transportation for Athletes and officials.

Salt Lake City recognizes all who participated in this global sporting event.

Alright. Neat.

More pretty greenspace.

4th South crossing. This is another one that has a dedicated light to allow you to cross safely.

Nice parkway sign. And this area was adopted by Questar, who helped care for this part of the trail.

Transformer box with a fun little cat mural.

More fun greenspace. I really am enjoying this trail, aside from all the road crossing anyway haha.

Duckies!

Pretty trail.

Duck on a stick.

The river again.

3rd South. This one has a signal you can activate, but again, looking both ways was enough for us.

This building has some pretty murals on it.

Flowers and a pelican.

Kayakers.

I’m not 100% sure, but I am fairly confidant this depicts a white faced ibis.

Some cyclists and some turtles.

The last 3 appear to have had the bottom halves painted over, likely due to graffiti. Looks like the wing of some hawk (maybe a red-tailed?), a snake, and a bee on a flower.

More pretty greenspace.

Alzheimer's Wildlife Grove.

Alzheimer’s Park.

The river again.

Its super pretty through here.

The river again. About here we started noticing the noise of i80.

i80.

Heading underneath it.

Graffiti on the other side.

Crossing 2nd South. Again, you can activate a signal if you want, but looking both ways did it.

Before I get to lost in some history, lets talk about how this was where the detour used to exist. You used to have to go down 2nd south to 1000 west, over to North Temple and back up again, but the final piece if the Jordan River Parkway made that 1.1 mile detour a simple half mile jaunt. More on that soon.

The Fisher Mansion.

The fact that they fenced it off and boarded it up, rather than tearing it down, tells me the city might have plans to restore it. That might be neat.

Interesting embellishment.

We noticed there was an official Utah Historic Site marker on it. I hoped if I took a picture I would be able to zoom in enough to read it, but no dice.

I like the old banisters.

It really is a neat old mansion.

Luckily there was a sign nearby that offered more information.

Fisher Brewing Company was Utah’s first and longest running brewery. The Fisher Family occupied the mansion from 1893- 1940 and managed the brewery until it closed in 1957. The site was purchased by SLC in 2006.

Early Industry On The River

In 1884 German brewer Albert Fisher established a brewery just a few hundred yards to the east of here. It quickly became the largest in the state. In 1893 he built the grand mansion before you.

Fisher Brewery closed in 1918 when Congress passed the 18th amendment, prohibiting the production and sale of alcohol. Though Albert Fisher died just a year later, his son Frank reopened the brewery in in 1933 when Prohibition ended. It remained Utah’s premier brewery Until it closed in 1957.

In those days the Jordan river was largely an industrial area of mills, stockyards and tanneries. and the river was a dumping site for industrial waste. Today, the Fisher mansion overlooks a river whose health and water quality are steadily improving.

Wow. A great history factoid here. With the official Historical Marker, it really looks like they plan to restore it rather than tear it down. Which is odd for Utah. And something related to booze? Even more odd for Utah, but I am happy to see it.

The mansion again.

From the side.

There is a little plaque that says 1893. Which, for the record, matches what the sign says about the year it was built.

Boat ramp?

This house is behind the Fisher Mansion. I don’t know if it is historical as well, or just in an odd spot.

Here begins the final piece of the puzzle the completed the Jordan River Trail. This final bridge was placed in 2017, thus completing the trail and supporting more use in this section. The long, uninteresting detour deterred a lot of people from using this section.

I am not gonna lie, I was a little nervous climbing up to it, knowing that it is a fairly tall, and long bridge with my fear of heights.

Approaching the Arch Bridge.

A train approaches on of the tracks this bridge crosses. That did not help with my nerves at all haha. But actually, once I was on the bridge itself I was fine.

If I am not mistaken, this is a tied-arch bridge. From what have explored, and am able to find, it is the only tied-arch bridge in the valley. It is 120 feet tall, 270 feet long (2700 feet including the ramps). It was completed in 2017. Gathering those small factoids took several articles oi.

I thought this was a factory of some sort, but it turns out it is the Gadsby Power Station.

It is a really neat looking bridge!

Fun fact, the Jordan River Parkway was envisioned and started in the 1970’s. It took until 2017 and a voter approved bond of $4.5 Million for this bridge to complete the trail.

Minor gripe, we went long sections without seeing another person on the trail today. But once we hit the most interesting part, suddenly, people everywhere! Luckily I have a tool to remove them but it was frustrating.

The train passing underneath is quite long!

The train made it a little difficult, but once I got past that, I was totally fine (regarding my fear of heights). The bridge doesn’t wobble at all, its steel and cement, and the guards rails are pretty high up. I was more nervous in anticipation of getting to the bridge, than I was on it. In fact I am doing just great on it now, and didn’t have any of those lizard brain feelings climbing back up and crossing it on the way back. This is a great bridge!

Oh, I did get a shot without people in it.

Interesting perspective switch with a portrait shot.

Another shot without people.

Heading down the ramp on the other side.

The Gadsby Power Station again.

Downtown and some power equipment. One of the articles I read said the power company had to move one of their poles to accommodate the bridge, but they were happy to do so. I wonder if it was the pole to the right here.

They put in a “canoe chute” on this river hazard. I wonder if that is what they were doing on the low head dam near WW2 Memorial Park a few months ago.

It honestly doesn’t look much safer to me, but I guess the idea is to shoot them out past the churning water?

The total span of the bridge, including the ramps is 2700 feet.

You know, this bridge is so significant that I am really surprised it wasn’t named.

The other side of the canoe chute.

Mile marker 39. This is the first time that it was covered up on one side. Luckily the other side was not, and I didn’t have to mess with their stuff.

Small railroad crossing. I don’t know if this line is ever used, but you know, basic kindergarten rules, look both ways.

Yay. more history.

The building on your left is the original maintenance building and storage yard constructed in 1892 for the Saltair Railroad. On September 6th 1891 the railroad was incorporated to provide transportation to and from planned Saltair Resort located on the Great Salt Lake.

In 1892 it was renamed to the Salt Lake and Las Angeles Railway Company to show that the intent was to extend service to California.

Saltair opened on Memorial Day 1893. At the time it cost 50 cents for round trip fair, that included resort admittance. For a while, Saltair resort goers departed at the Rio Grand station. The the Saltair Depot located at about 200 S 400 W. in 1934 the Saltair Depot was moved to adjacent this building.

In 1916 the Salt Lake and Las Angeles Railway Company changed it’s name to Salt Lake Garfield & Western Railway Company (SLGW). In addition to passenger service it provided freight hauling to the copper smelters until 1930. Fulltime passenger service to Saltair ended in 1958. Occasional Service to Saltair for special events continued until it burned down in 1970. Now to company continues to offer private freight services.

Oh, so the line can be active. Definitely look both ways.

The existing SLGW building.

I’m not 100% sure, but I think this is overflow parking for the Utah Fairgrounds, which we will see in the next section.

Oh look, you can see Ensign Peak from here.

The river again.

Looking back at the bridge.

This sign is a little skewampus, and not terribly helpful. But we did figure it out eventually. I get it the TH and the station are both less than a 10th of a mile from here, but you could put feet, and less than 1 min so it doesn’t look like it was just forgotten. Meh

Bridge #4, final one over to the Gadsby Trailhead.

Downstream.

Upstream.

Geese!

Another boat ramp.

This sign talks about how the river can be enjoyed in every season.

More geese.

The river and all the cities it crosses through.

Trailhead sign.

Fun little red rock art piece.

Artistic trailhead sign.

Whelp, I think this is a great turn around point.

It looks like I have 1 or 2 more sections left to complete the trail. Yay!

The geese again.

Back over the river.

Okay random bridge tagger. If you say so.

What I assumed to be overflow parking for the State Fairgrounds.

The river again.

Approaching the arch bridge again.

The SLGW building again.

The SLGW lines heading east.

West.

Mile 39 at the beginning of the ramp up to the bridge.

Climbing the ramp.

The Gadsby Power Station again.

Nearing the bridge.

The bridge again.

Rail lines heading west.

The bridge again.

Old railroad bridges below.

Tracks heading east and Downtown SLC.

The bridge again.

On the other end looking back in.

Looking back towards the train tracks and power station.

Heading down the ramp on the other side.

It really is a neat bridge. I am glad we finally came to see it.

Here is the best view from the side I could find on google maps.

The boat ramp again.

The back of the Fisher Mansion.

Duckies.

Front of the Fisher Mansion. I hope that one day I might be able to tour the inside.

Crossing 2nd South again.

Downtown.

Back under i80.

The river again.

The Alzheimer Wildlife Grove.

Alzheimer’s Association Northern Utah Chapter Dedicates this Alzheimer Wildlife Grove to the victims of Alzheimer’s disease and their families. May 5(?), 1991

Crossing over 3rd South.

Downtown again.

More lovely greenspace.

What is this?

Ah! Muskrat. I don’t think I have seen one on the ground before. Not that I got a particularly good shot of it.

Duckies.

4th South crossing.

More lovely greenspace.

Another little micro park.

5th South.

Back to the newer neighborhood.

Mile Marker 38.

Greenspace.

The Sphere again.

7th South.

An old sign post. It strongly resembles the sign posts found in Ogden.

More pretty greenspace.

Not here, but one a little further down, Landis wondered why they put the red signs at the end of the dead end street. My theory is that they really want to make it clear it is a dead end, lest someone end up in the river. I imagine its more for the winter months where it might not be super clear the road ends.

Bridge over the river.

Upstream.

The river again.

Indiana Ave. Crossing.

These appear to be arch bridges as well, but a different type. I think through-arch bridges.

Crossing over the river again.

Upstream.

9th South River Park again.

Neat little art pieces.

Again, sign failure, come on Salt Lake City. I get it’s less than a 10th of a mile but put in feet!

Anyway, we decided to go through the Fife Wetland Preserve. I decided to make that a separate post along with another nearby feature. From my mileage tracking, this little detour only adds about a 10th of a mile to the trail, and will get you back to where we started. Plus, it is worth checking out as one of the few oxbow lakes that survived the historic river channeling.

After that we added on the 900 South Constructed Wetlands. Another neat area.

Ended the trail next to the off leash dog park at Jordan Park.

I actually liked this section a lot more than I thought I would! Salt Lake City did a great job of keeping some greenspace around the river, and the houses are far enough back that it doesn't feel intrusive. There is some art to enjoy along the way and a few neat historical things. Plus, a really neat and although new, a historic bridge that was absolutely fantastic! And it wasn’t as scary as I thought it might be. I think this might be a record for this trail, but 9 out of 10 squirrels! Loosing 1 due to the many street crossings.

As for difficulty, I want to give it a DR2, but the ramp up to the bridge is a bit much, so DR3.

Dogs are allowed, but must be leashed.