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I love our creeks, and over the years have explored as much of them as I can. Last time I posted about our Seven Creeks, which covered the main creeks of our watershed coming out of the major canyons on the east side of the valley. Today I am going to cover the additional canyons and creeks on the east side of the valley.
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From North to south our little canyons and gulches. I decided to divide them by the Seven Creeks: I used a topography map to help me locate them all. Some of them do not have full on creeks, in fact a lot of them are ephemeral run off creeks. But, I think this is a good place to start and organize stuff. So, here are my sections, you can use the following links to jump to each section. Forgive my... sometimes overly detail oriented, yet also easily distracted brain. o.O I hope the way I put this together makes sense.
Between City Creek and Red Butte CanyonBetween Red Butte Canyon and Emigration Canyon
Between Emigration and Parleys Canyon
Between Parleys and Mill Creek Canyon
Between Mill Creek and Big Cottonwood Canyon
Between Big and Little Cottonwood Canyon
South of Little Cottonwood Canyon
These little canyons all just have ephemeral runoff streams. I have passed through all of them doing the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) starting from just outside the county at the Tunnel Springs Trailhead in North Salt Lake.
- Spring Gulch
- Limekiln Gulch
- Dry Gulch
- Cephalopod Gulch
- Battle Gulch
- Spring Canyon
- Carrigan Canyon
- NA
Neffs creek comes down off of Mount Olympus into Neff’s Canyon. It emerges again in Olympus Hills Park . It flows through some private neighborhoods with a couple of glimpses I can find on Google maps, but then I completely lose it.
I was hoping with this article I could figure out where most of these creeks either entered the Jordan River, or one of the canals, but some of them, that just isn't happening with the tools I have.
- Tolcats Canyon
- Heughs Canyon Creek
Another creek coming down Mount Olympus. It flows into Heughs Canyon. Then it flows through Old Mill Golf Course. Then I lose it. it looks like it may have been diverted into the Upper Canal.
- Dry Hollow
This comes down off of Twin Peaks, flows into Ferguson Canyon, and then I lose it. It would appear to have been buried somewhere.
- Deaf Smith Canyon
This is another smaller creek coming off of Twin Peaks. It flows through Deaf Smith Canyon, then Willow Creek Country Club, where it joins Little Cottonwood Creek.
South of Little Cottonwood Canyon- Bell Canyon Creek
Bell Canyon Creek starts at the top of Bell Canyon, at Upper Bell Canyon Reservoir. It flows over the Upper Bell Waterfall. We haven’t been to either, and at this point probably never will. Its a tough, long trail.
The trail up to the waterfall offers additional views of the creek as well. Which is quite impressive during runoff.
Eventually it flows into the Lower Bell Reservoir.
The creek can be enjoyed a bit on the way up using the Boulders Trailhead.
Then it disappears briefly underground before emerging in the eastern part of Dimple Dell Regional Park.
It merges with Middle and South Fork Dry Creeks becoming Dry Creek. Around the corner in Dimple Dell.
- Dry Creek Middle Fork
- Dry Creek South Fork
- Dry Gulch
Dry Creek starts out as 4 creeks that come out of Bell Canyon, Middle, and South Fork Dry Creek and Dry Gulch. They flow into Dimple Dell Regional Park.
Back in 2020, the city worked with multiple agencies to allow the now combined, Dry Creek to flow longer throughout the year through the park when possible, which is amazing!
In some years in can flow all the way through the park to the west end even.
From there, it flows under ground and then appears again next to an apartment complex just below the Porter Rockwell Trail. You can follow it down past South Town Mall . They have even added some official trail to follow it, though it is currently a little… unclear where to go towards the east end.
I have been eyeing another small section that may be doable down to wards i15, as well as a neighborhood it flows through. Which I will probably get around to doing soon since we are entering the cold months now.
Then it flows through Creekside Park in Sandy, off of 94th South.
Then it flows briefly through River Oaks Golf Course, before joining the Jordan River near 9400 South.
Rocky Mouth Creek begins somewhere on the slopes of Mount Jordan.
After Rocky Mouth Canyon, it appears to join Big Willow Creek just below Wasatch BLVD.
- Big Willow Creek
Big Willow Creek comes down the side of Lone Peak.
Eventually coming out of Big Willow Canyon unfortunately, you cant to get too high up it due to watershed restrictions. And after the steep climb it’s not much of a view.
Below the canyon are some private areas it flows through, then Brandon Canyon then Hidden Valley Country Club. where it joins Little Willow Creek and then they become Willow Creek.
- Little Willow Creek
Also comes down along Lone Peak.
Into Little Willow Canyon. It then flows through the south end of Hidden Valley Park. Then goes through some private areas, and then Hidden Valley Country Club where it joins Big Willow Creek becoming Willow Creek.
- Willow Creek (combined Big and Little Willow Creeks)
Below Hidden Valley Country Club it goes through some more private area then through Draper City Park, and then below on the Willow Creek Trail.
Then it looks like you can follow it down through the neighborhood some, which I might check out soon.
Then it looks like it goes through some private land.
There is a newly accessible section called West Willow Creek. It makes me happy that the cities have learned that we like to have access to our creeks, and have stopped burying them for the most part.
Then it splits in some open space across from East Riverfront Park where part of it joins the Jordan River at the south end, and the other part just to the north of 106th south. which I have passed by, but didn’t realize it at the time.
- Bear Canyon Creek
Again, it flows down mount Jordan. It can be enjoyed in Bear Canyon particularly from Bear Canyon Suspension Bridge. Then it is diverted for culinary water purposes.
- Cherry Canyon
Cherry Creek comes down off of Lone Peak, down through Cherry Canyon. I have crossed over this run off creek on the way to Bear Canyon. Otherwise there does not appear to be much to it.
- Burnham Creek
This creek comes down the south side of Mount Jordan through Burnham Gorge. Before promptly joining Corner Canyon Creek.
- Coyote Hollow Creek
I just figured out the name of this one while viewing multiple maps to to help me follow some of the creeks. It appears to originate on the south side of Mount Jordan, coming down Coyote Hollow. There are a couple of trails that cross it, including the BST and Anns Trail, but we have only done a few of the ones in Corner Canyon. Below here it joins Corner Canyon Creek.
- Corner Canyon Creek
Corner Canyon Creek comes out of Corner Canyon. From what I can tell a couple of creeks join in the canyon to eventually become Corner Canyon Creek. This is another creek that is diverted for water usage so downstream can be pretty dry most of the year.
There is a small section I think we can explore along Andy Ballard Arena, then it goes through some more private areas.
Then it can be enjoyed on the Ebenezer Brown Trail, and Smith’s Field Park,
Short section through private area.
Another section I think I want to explore a bit more.
It eventually joins the Jordan River in Galena Preserve.
Spring Hollow is a little hollow in Draper that has a small stream.
- Maple Hollow
I have yet to explore this one, but it doesn’t look like much and is probably just a runoff stream.
There is not much to this one, also appears to be a runoff stream.
Well, this ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated! So, I am going to break here and save the west side creeks for another day. So Stay tuned for that! There are a couple of spots I might come back and update like most of my random broad idea articles., but here's what I have for now. Thanks for following along with my nerdy interests.
