Many rides on the Wasatch Front feel like riffs on the same theme. Wide-open grassy plains, sandy to rocky two-track, rolling hills. Yet in all consistency there’s also variety. Rolling out from Salt Lake, this ride takes you on (to quote the great Paulie Walnuts) a “Whitman’s Sampler” of the variety of terrain you can access right out your front door.
Based around the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and its offshoots, you’ll experience the diversity of ecosystems, trail surfaces, and land management practices that you can find in the North Salt Lake-Bountiful corridor. Chunky, exposed climbs give way to flowing, rolling singletrack in a sea of lowland brush and scrub oak. Climbing higher, coniferous forests give shade, aesthetic quality, and hold the moisture in the dirt.
And water! Who would have thought that in the dry Wasatch foothills, where water is so preciously regulated, you’d find a bubbling creek, ripe for refilling bottles and a dunking of the head.
Pairs well with: Fillo’s Walking Tamales, photo stops, freshly-filtered water, friends on all kinds of bikes, Nick Shoulders.
Season: Spring/Summer/Fall: with a good chunk of the trail riding in the shade, this is actually a decent option for summer riding (minus the obvious exposure on the tower climb and road sections).
Bike: You’ll probably get funny looks as most people that ride Mueller Park are on mountain bikes, but I’ve never had issues with gravel gearing or tires. There’s a few rocky sections on the BST that were nice on 45s, but not required.
Amenities: Tunnel Springs Park has restrooms and water (assume that this is seasonal). There’s filterable water in a few spots on the route- Mueller Park and North Canyon.
Route: The route below starts at the Victory Road trailhead, but there’s other options to get to the radio tower road depending on where you start from. There’s a short, steep section of hike-a-bike when you first drop down from the BST onto the Wild Rose trail. Once you get down Wild Rose, you can ride the road down to North Salt Lake/Beck Street, or climb back up to the towers and return the way you came.
Route below (click for GPX).
