Find the top rated birding trails in Spanish Fork, whether you're looking for an easy short birding trail or a long birding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a birding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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Slow upward grade from Coalville/Echo area to Park City., but not too steep. Since this is a Utah State park it would be great if more maintenance was done along the trail: cut back the vegetation overgrowth for example.
Overall, this is a great ride.
Worth inline skating on this trail - you can get some good speed and mileage outside of the busier areas & seedier areas of the trail.
Other posters are correct, the signage is limited but it's not a big deal.
I started at James Madison Park and went south about 15 miles.
The best part about this trail is that everyone is really friendly and will wave hello.
I thought the scenery on the canyon section of the ride to be pretty jaw-dropping, Bridal Veil Falls and Vivian Park a site to behold. I thought the lower section of the trail near Utah Lake to be rather nice but the middle section through town to be quite skippable. It seems that roots have grown under the asphalt and pushed the trail up making for some slow cycling (about 6mph) due to how uneven the surfaces was. I didn't like squeezing down skinny sidewalk sections through town, I didn't like stopping at cross-walks. I would recommend the Provo Canyon section of the trail only.
Rode south from Rose Park. There are quite a few road crossings, but the trail is well-maintained and pleasant to ride. There are several parks along the route that have restroom facilities. As others have said, the signage is bad, but just keep the river in sight.
visiting from WA State, found this route on TrailLink. A short 10 minute ride from the Air BNB I was staying at. beautiful ride. Rode south from South Jordan about 16 miles and back into town. Well kept trail, clear of goatheads!!, Great facilities/water every couple of miles. One of the nicest trails I've been on recently. Wish I had more time to do more of it.
Overall, it was a slightly frustrating experience, mostly due to the lack of signs. St. George, for example, provides excellent signage with distances, times to points of interest for both walkers and cyclists, and importantly arrows pointing the way. On the Jordan River Trail I made several false turns, that were quickly rectified by frequent reference to my GPS. If you are new to this trail, I would highly recommend bringing a GPS. Eagle Scout candidates: take note that adding signs would make an excellent project.
There were many sharp turns that forced a severe reduction in speed. There were some boardwalks and bridges with wood planks across the many river crossings. Many places had tree roots causing damage to the surface of the trail, and some places were only pedestrian sidewalks which were bumpy. Most of the trail had deep cracks every hundred feet or so. Lack of signage, sharp turns, bridges and general bumpiness caused maintaining speed to be very difficult, especially at the north end of the trail. Generally, the trail conditions improved toward the south but certainly were not ideal throughout the length of the trail. The Murdock Canal Trail in Utah County sets a very high standard.
The trail is mostly level, except near the south at the Point of the Mountain. At each point where I thought I might build and maintain speed, I was disappointed with a sharp turn accompanied and/or motorized vehicle barriers which forced speed reductions.
There are several very nice views along the way. It is an excellent alternative to riding in traffic. Mostly the trail kept me off the surface streets and importantly avoided busy road crossings with underpasses. There were occasional places with restrooms/water fountains, mostly toward the north.
Other reviewers mentioned safety concerns toward the north of the trail, to which I would agree there were a few sketchy people in sleeping bags at some of the parks adjacent to the trail. The rest of the trail I was generally greeted by the typically friendly gestures of other cyclists nodding/waving to each other.
Generally I would assess the Jordan River Trail as a pedestrian and non-serious cyclist trail. The trail is usable, but I would prefer something like the ride up to Snowbird, the Alpine Loop, Murdock Canal Trail, ...
This trail is not asphalt and concrete it is mostly gravel with some asphalt. It is harder to do gravel and you need a different bike. So I think the description that you see needs to be fixed.
I rode this trail from the Wanship parking lot to Main Street Park City and back--I avoided starting at Echo based on some of the reviews I read on this site about the soft state of the trail by the reservoir. Based on my trip, I'd say at least 75% of the trail was dirt and a bit bumpy, and the last 25% nearest Park City is paved. If you are wanting a paved route I believe you'd need to start where the trail crosses 248, or if you just want only a little bit of dirt trail you could start at the Promentory/Star Pointe trailhead. I rode a hybrid bike, and although I felt I did fine there were definitely a couple patches where the trail was pretty bumpy or gravely or had gopher holes. That said I wasn't anticipating a super groomed trail so it was pretty much what I expected. Scenery is fantastic... some farm land and river life on the front end (beavers, deer, lots of birds), open West landscape in the middle, and Park City on the end. If you are going to do a to-and-back I'd definitely recommend doing it the way I did going uphill for the first leg and downhill on the second leg (especially if it's hot).
Although the trail goes through some really beautiful countryside, it is extremely rough to ride, runs almost continuously along Interstate 80, and has very little shade. We rode only about 10 miles, from Coalville towards Park City, then had to turn around because the bumpiness was wearing us out! We ride hybrid bikes, with front suspension, but it was still very, very jarring.
I have ridden this trail many times (12-15). I start by taking the red line trax from ballpark(13th South) to gardner village. It is about 15 miles back to ballpark. I usually exit the trail at the international peace gardens, about 1000 south and ride east on 900 south and then south to the starting point. The trail condition varies as does the congestion. There are several parks with water and restrooms.
Have not ridden this trail in years due to the goat head thorns. With newer sections and connections added I thought I'd give it another shot. Many sections were really fun, some a little bumpy due to roots under the asphalt. I rode from 45th south, north to about 200 southish in salt lake where it looked like the trail ended. I turned around and rode south to "point of the mountain" area. After 5 or 6 wrong turns that took me off the designated route due to NO markings, and the goat head thorns I found in my tires when I got home, I.will not be going back soon.
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