BST: Emigration Canyon to Dry Creek

Dogs Unknown

Features River/Creek · Views

There isn't much shade along this trail.

Although this trail is pretty runnable, the surface can get pretty rough and rocky at times.

This trail starts out with a nice little climb to get up out of the Emigration Creek drainage and onto the Bonneville Shoreline bench. From the start, there are several options for getting from the trailhead to the main trail, and the one shown on the GPS track accompanying this description is just one of the options. This portion of the trail is mostly a wide singletrack and ascends through some scrub oak which can offer some shade at times.

After climbing about 200 feet in 0.3 miles, the trail exits the scrub oak and meets up with a dirt road with a barrier to keep people from going down to "This is the Place Monument" (where running/entrance without paying is prohibited). From this trail junction, head right (northeast) up the hill, and once at the top of the hill, take a left (northwest) to continue along the trail, heading towards the University of Utah. There are lots of trail junctions along this section of Bonneville Shoreline Trail, which can be confusing at times, but there are also frequent signs (although they are sometimes small and hard to notice) to indicate that you are still on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. The Bonneville Shoreline Trail is also often easy to recognize because it is generally much wider than other trails—generally the width of a dirt road.

The trail continues to undulate as it heads toward the University of Utah, passing through large fields of golden grasses with some good views of Mount Olympus and some of the other mountains in the Wasatch if you look to the south, and some views of the Great Salt Lake in the distance to the west.

Between 1.5-2 miles in, the trail passes by the Natural History Museum and some other University buildings, and crosses a road. At 2 miles in, the trail goes over Red Butte Creek, where there is a nice section of shade in an otherwise dry and exposed trail. After crossing over the creek, the trail has a section of pavement as you go around Red Butte Gardens, then you have to head up the Red Butte Canyon Road for a few hundred feet, and then you turn left onto an obvious dirt road to continue along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.

The section between Red Butte and Dry Creek has some decent climbing, but is still pretty manageable and has some more good views of the Salt Lake Valley, along with some trail spurs heading up towards Mount Van Cott. This section of the trail ends at a little dirt lot near the mouth of Dry Creek.

Deer, some wildflowers in early spring.