I took a relaxed morning hike today along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail near Salt Lake City. Starting 30 minutes before sunrise I got to see the sky change with the sun rising on the east side of the Wasatch Mountains and the color was brilliant!
The Bonneville Shoreline Trail follows what was the shoreline of an ancient lake called Lake Bonneville. The lake was once absolutely enormous and thousands of years ago shrunk to what is now the Great Salt Lake.
The part of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail I took this morning started at Hidden Valley Park in Sandy, Utah. Rather than go north toward Rocky Mouth Falls, I followed the trail south to the Bear Creek Suspension Bridge in Draper, Utah.
The trail follows the base of the western side of the Wasatch Mountains. It is several hundred feet above the Salt Lake Valley floor and looks down over Sandy and Draper, just south of Salt Lake City.
The Wasatch Mountains rise dramatically to the west and does through areas of woods and crosses several creeks. Parts of the trail almost feel like the old sandy beach of Lake Bonneville, but most is dirt with a lot of rock. At one point the trail goes through large boulders that feels a bit like a cave.
Just before the suspension bridge a loop takes off toward the mountains. The trail rises to a nice overlook with a great view of the suspension bridge before dropping to a small bridge that crosses Bear Creek. It then continues to the sough side of Bear Creek Suspension Bridge. Rather than continue south toward Corner Canyon, I turned around, crossed the suspension bridge and headed back to where I started.
There are many places to hop on to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Each section offers something different and it is fairly easy to hike. The trail is extremely popular for hikers and bikers.
This morning’s hike was a very leisurely hike of under 4 miles and I gained just under 600 vertical feet.
Leave a comment