Utah is famed for the beauty of the land and its residents are frequently found in the great outdoors. People rock climb the crags of St. George, scale the side of Mount Timpanogos, or ski the slopes of Park City. North Salt Lake City is a particularly beautiful spot, with plenty of hills on which to hike and gaze out at the Great Salt Lake.

A top priority for North Salt Lake Trails and Active Transportation committee is the construction of a trail connecting the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and the Wild Rose Trail system. In a meeting March 13, City Council members unanimously approved the submission of an application for a $15,000 grant from the Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation’s Outdoor Recreation Grant (UDORG) program. The money will go toward the construction project; an approximately 1,300 foot extension of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail crossing from North Salt Lake into Salt Lake City proper, and an approximately 1,300 connection between the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and the Wild Rose Trail system. North Salt Lake will match the grant, contributing the rest of the funds for the $30,000 project.

Currently, the Bonneville Shoreline Trail is 173 miles, spanning the bench left by the prehistoric lake from the Idaho border to just beyond Spanish Fork. When the trail was built in Davis County it was done without any connection to a previously existing trail head.

 “It went right up to the county line and then just ended,” said Sherrie Pace, Community Development director for North Salt Lake. This forces hikers to trek up a steep hillside by a human-made trail, through vegetation and loose rocks, in order to get to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. This is a major safety concern. These safety concerns make the construction of a trail connecting the Bonneville Shoreline with the Wild Rose Trail system a top priority for city officials. 

North Salt Lake will own the trail and be in charge of maintenance and development, but ownership may be transferred to Salt Lake City at some point in the future. 

The land is currently owned by the U.S. Forest Service and so is subject to environmental review. The letter of approval for construction on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail in Davis County expires in 2026. North Salt Lake may be able to use the letter of approval to bypass some of the environmental reviews as they were done by Davis County under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In order for this to happen the project needs to be completed before the letter of approval expires. 

This construction will be the first of many trailhead projects for North Salt Lake. It is planned that $30,000 will be set aside in the city’s yearly budget for the maintenance of the connecting trail, and many future trail development projects.