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Dimple Dell Regional Park is a large park in sandy that has over 15 miles of trails. There are 4 main trails that traverse the park, and the Sego Lily Trail was the last one that we had not really explored. So, I figured today was the day! So, the North Rim Trail (AKA Dimple Dell Trail) is at the top, The Dry Creek Trail is at the bottom, this trail is mostly on the middle slope of the gully.
I have been working on a main overview page for the park which helped me realize this was really the last main trail we have yet to explore. So, that is probably why it was on my mind today. It’s a little bittersweet realizing its one of the last trails we have to explore. kind of like knowing you are getting to the end of a beloved series. Happy to be finishing it, but sad it’s coming to an end. Anyway, be sure to keep a lookout for that coming soon.
Quick Details:
Length: The full trail is 3 miles long one way. We did about half of that doing 3 miles out and back.
Trail Type: Out and back, connector, loop options.
Difficulty: DR3. It is a lot of rolling hills, and very sandy soil.
Elevation Gain: We did about 360 feet today, but it goes a bit higher up.
Restroom: The Wrangler Trailhead on the west end has year round flush toilets. The Mount Jordan Trailhead to the east does not.
Dogs? Yes, leashed. Please clean up after your furry friends.
Other Info:
To Get Here:
We used the Wrangler TH today. Take 106th South to 13th east turn left, Go north for about 1200 feet then turn right. Go another 300 feet and you will see the Wrangler TH on the right.
It’s good to finally see the mountains covered in snow (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)) We finally got a good dusting last night. The first measurable snow in Salt Lake City for this season at a good .01 inches. We did not quite beat the record from 1890-91 season with January 2nd getting the first measurable snow..
Busy trailhead today!
The Trail:
The trail is on the east end of the parking lot, starting along the North Rim Trail.
Trail rules.
Mount Jordan.
We took the first split to the right, that skirted just to the right of this revegetation area sign. It didn’t pass the barricade, so I thought we were on track.
Spoiler: we were not. We got there eventually, but the main trail is just about 450 feet east along the North Rim Trail. It is signed… but kind of dumbly.
Right seemed like the more prominent pathway, but also seemed to go down further than expected. So, left it is.
Mount Jordan. The whole trail has a good view of it, so there might be quite a few shots of it today.
Eventually the random trail we took led us to the actual main trail. Okay. I got a little over eager and took the wrong split at first, but we found where we should be. You would think how often we do the North Rim Trail I would have known where to go…
Onto the official Sego Lily Trail. For the most part it is fairly wide, but there are a couple of thinner spots.
Horse riders. We saw quite a few more of them on this trail than we have on others in the park.
Down into the canyon.
As I mentioned, this trail stays about midway down the canyon on the north slope.
With lovely views of Mount Jordan.
It is a very, very sandy trail, which can be a little rough to hike along, but not too bad.
Side note, which I have mentioned before, this is the leading theory as to how the city of Sandy got it’s name, the sandy, thirsty soil.
Pretty hillside.
Don’t forget to look behind you once in a while.
Super pretty.
Sandy trail.
The Badger Cove Trailhead on the other side. That was just completed last year.
Continuing along.
There are a lot of random offshoots from the trail, but for the most part I think it was easy to stay on the main path.
Steep trail up towards Flanders Point.
Climbing up one of the many ridges.
Short thin section along a steep slope that I really did not like, but managed to push through.
Meep.
Then it gets better again. Phew! Thankfully it was super short.
More horse friends.
Little Cottonwood Canyon.
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Panoramic.
The gully below.
Continuing along.
Flanders Point above with a steep scramble looking trail up to it.
Mount Jordan above the gully.
Dry Creek being dry.
Pretty rolling hills.
Primrose Point ahead. Actually I just pulled that out of thin air, but it is where the Primrose Loop is, so it makes sense it might be be named that.
A better trail up to Flanders Point.
I did that, as well as a little bit along the Sego Lily Trail through here randomly once, but I did not know I was on the Sego Lily Trail at that time.
Trail down into the gully.
Mount Jordan.
Then the trail joins and shares a path with the woodchip lined Mountain View Trail for a little ways.
I feel like this sign is new. But it is helpfulish. It does seem to imply the mountain view trail only goes left here, but it definitely goes both ways. You want to go right.
Nice wide trail here. As I mentioned the North Rim is the top of the gully, Dry Creek Trail is the bottom, and Sego Lily is middle. This one kind of connects all 3 of them. It starts above us between Flanders and Primrose Points, and connects back to this trail again just north of the big elbow.
Some of the snow from last night's storm hanging on in the shadows.
There is a trail split here that I thought might be what we needed, since I knew the trail splits off from the Mountain View Trail again to the left. But this is not it, it might connect again, but we want the split after the fenced in revegetation part.
The fenced in part. They are restoring the scar of an old section of Highland Drive through here, at least that is what I gathered last time we were in the area.
Speaking of last time, the Dry Creek Loop on the other side of the gully.
A little closer. I definitely remember that cell tower.
Continuing along.
Sign for the restoration area which is a danger to horses I guess. The fine print at the bottom says questions/concerns contact 440-PIPE which now has me leaning towards the scar being for a pipeline of some sort instead of an old road. Huh, actually I guess that makes more sense.
There have been talks about continuing Highland Drive across the canyon though. As I say every time, I really hope it never happens. I don’t see a need for it at all. It really is not that big of a deal to go 7 blocks down to 13th east or even 14 blocks up to Wasatch to get around the gully.
McMansions on the other side.
The Mountain View Trail lives up to it’s name and offers a nice view of the mountains.
Primrose Point.
Little bit more of the Mountain View Trail beyond the scar.
Then we come to the split off we are looking for
It has both a refreshed old style sign, and one of the newer signs as well.
The trail is a little more thin here, but still easy to follow.
Primrose Point again.
Continuing along.
The other side of the gully again.
Sandy trail.
Scrub oak.
View behind us.
Like the Mountain View Trail, this trail offers a nice view of Mount Jordan.
Fun clouds.
Again.
One of the many trail splits. For the most part is was pretty easy to stay to the main trail as most of the splits seemed to go up or down the hill. This one gave me a little pause, but left seemed more prominent.
Heading up and over one of several small ridges.
Uphill.
Downhill and across the gully.
Mount Jordan.
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Panoramic.
Half moon.
Uphill.
Human, horse, and dog prints in the sandy soil.
Another little ridge.
The next ridge from the top of this one, with some horse friends.
Mount Jordan again. It really is pretty with a dusting of snow on it.
Horse friends again. Luckily there was a good spot to step to the side and let them pass. Remember to say hello as well. Horses are social creatures. it is also preferable to step aside to the downhill side of the trail. Luckily it was pretty flat though.
Little Cottonwood Canyon and Bell Canyon.
Mount Jordan.
Scrub oaks.
The next little ridge. I love that all of the trail use has worn down little saddles on them.
Looking back at it.
Another downhill trail joining up with this one.
More prints in the soft sand.
Another small ridge.
Back down the other side.
These little ridges make the trail very much up and down like a roller coaster.
Landslide. That side of the gully appears to be prone to them.
Mount Jordan.
Hoof prints.
Mount Jordan.
Bell Canyon.
Little Cottonwood Canyon.
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Panoramic.
Lets see, Little Cottonwood Canyon, Bell Canyon, Dry Canyon Middle Fork, Dry Canyon South Fork, Rocky Mouth Canyon, Big Willow Canyon, Little Willow Canyon, Bear Canyon, and Corner Canyon. We have explored a little bit into all of them, some as far as you can go, others not so much. But I think it is probably the mountain we have explored the most.
The clouds starting to turn pink.
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Another panoramic.
The next ridge.
We didn’t quite make it to that one since we hit 1.5 miles and decided to head back. I thought about pushing on to 2 miles, but we were already kind of pushing it with daylight.
If the guide that I found is accurate this is about halfway along the trail. We will need to come back and check out the other half of it sometime.
The gully.
One of the little ridges.
Heading back down.
The gully.
Fading light on the mountain.
Dry Canyons.
Pink clouds.
The next ridge.
The next ridge from this one.
Fun spooky tree.
Bird.
Despite some color to the east, there wasn’t much color to the west for sunset.
Fading light.
The next little ridge.
The top.
Another random trail up to the top. Aside from the Mountain View Trail none of these that we passed today are on the official map. There is one unnamed one, but it is further east than we went.
Scrub oak.
I love how during the sunset, the light climbs up the mountain.
Little Cottonwood Canyon.
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Another panoramic.
The next ridge.
Fading light.
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Because I didn’t take enough panoramics of the mountains yet.
Fading light.
The Pioneer Log Slide between Big and Little Willow Canyons.
Heading down the other side of the ridge.
View out west again.
Continuing along.
Across the gully.
Mount Jordan again.
Last light on the peaks.
Another ridge.
Scrub oak.
Prints in the soft sand.
Across the gully again.
Mount Jordan again.
Across the hillside.
Across the gully. You can also see the Mountain View Trail, which we will be hitting in a minute.
Okay, maybe a little quicker than I thought. Again, this split is signed.
Again, this trail lives up to it’s name.
The fenced restoration area.
Another horse, on one of the more thin trails above.
Primrose Point.
Mount Jordan.
The split to get back to the Sego Lily Trail on the left. Note the sign on the right. I think an additional sign between the trails would be a little helpful as well.
You have 2 options here, return the way you came via the Sego Lily Trail, or take the Mountain View Trail up to the North Rim Trail and down to the trailhead. If it was much darker, I probably would have opted for the latter. But, we were doing the Sego Lily Trail today so left it is.
Flanders Point.
Continuing along.
Across the gully.
Mount Jordan.
Just a couple little clouds left.
Again.
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Another panoramic.
Dry Creek in the gully below.
Again.
The gully and Mount Jordan.
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Another panoramic.
The thin trail along the steep slope section I don’t love. Again, I made it through.
Before long it is back along a gentle hillside.
13th East and the valley below, just starting to light up.
The Badger Cove Trailhead on the other side again.
Continuing along.
Sad sunset.
Mount Jordan.
Another trail split I was not 100% sure about, but figured at this point we should probably be going uphill again, so right it is.
Short little climb.
Mount Jordan again.
Almost to the North Rim Trail. Phew!
The small side trail where we connected on the way in.
And the North Rim Trail (AKA Dimple Dell Trail) where we were supposed to start haha.
There is a sign, but in my opinion it is on the wrong side of the trail. But whatevs, there is a sign. Its one of the newer ones too that I have only seen starting today.
Oh. There is another neighborhood connector here as well to Edge Cliff Drive. I haven’t noticed it before. So, that is another option for this trail. But honestly, it won’t shave off a whole lot. Only about 450 feet or so, plus you know, no dedicated parking. I don’t think I would find myself using it unless the Wrangler Trailhead was closed for some reason. Or if we happened to live in this neighborhood.
Uphill.
Downhill, towards the trailhead.
One of the refreshed original directional signs. Which refers to the North Rim Trail, where as the new sign we just passed referred to it as the Dimple Dell Trail. So yeah, I guess it is interchangeable. It is one long trail that goes through the entire gully and called the Dimple Dell Trail. But the section here above 13th east is also referred to as the North Rim Trail. So I guess that is the distinction.
Back down to the trailhead.
The new year-round restrooms that were just installed last year. Plus a drinking fountain.
Oh, they updated the old trailhead map for the west side trail access. Fun. The old one was… super old haha. This new sign appears to show some things the online one does not. I will have to get a better picture next time I am here.
This is something I have been fascinated with recently. Like, all my life trails and trailheads never changed, they were just always you know, just how they have always been. And then, just in the last couple of years I am starting to see all sorts of updates and improvements. I wonder what exactly drove that.
I actually enjoyed this trail more than I thought I would! Even with the initial confusion of where we needed to go, and the short iffy section. Maybe because the last 2 trails we did paved city trails and I was just happy to touch dirt again LOL. But no, I really did enjoy it. The view of the gully and Mount Jordan were phenomenal! We only passed a few people (including a few on horseback). Plus it was nice to do something new in the gully, even if it will probably be one of the last new trails we do here. Anyway, 10 squirrels today! I really did like it!
As for difficulty, its is mostly flat, with some gentle rolling ups and downs, DR3.
Dogs are allowed, leashed. Please clean up after your furry friends!
