A 14-mile paved trail along the Legacy Parkway provides miles of uninterrupted riding and has quickly become my go-to place to ride. The trail passes through Farmington (it begins near the Front Runner station), Centerville (where it overlaps the Denver & Rio Grande Western Trail), West Bountiful, Woods Cross, and North Salt Lake (where it connects with the Jordan River Trail).
I first stumbled onto the trail on a beautiful calm morning in April when the air was cool and the birds were singing. I returned the following day with Sunshine and later Cupcake and Panda. For a few weeks I experimented with distances and trailheads, as the trail offers multiple places to get on and off, with the closest only 2 miles from my front door. On May 9 I rode my first 20-mile-ride along the trail; today I rode the entire trail up and back again (a 28-mile trip)–with the ride from my home to the trailhead and back I passed the 30-mile mark.
The views to the west of the trail look over wetlands along the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake (including the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area), with Antelope Island in the distance.
At the south end, the wetlands include the Legacy Nature Preserve, 2,100 acres of bare mudflats, seasonal wet meadow, deep emergent marshes, and meandering open water channels. The preserve is not accessible to the public, but a 3-mile gravel spur of the trail gets you as close as possible.
The view to the east takes in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains.
Multiple bridges and boardwalks cross over creeks, marshes, and ponds with waterfowl and other life that add to the texture and variety of the experience.
This beautiful trail is the product of a legal compromise between the Sierra Club and the state of Utah. After construction began on a controversial highway through the wetlands in 2001, lawsuits soon stopped the work and a federal ruling declared the project’s environmental impact statement inadequate. Four years later, the compromise rerouted the Legacy Parkway away from the most environmentally sensitive areas (now the Preserve), reduced the number of lanes from six to four, and created the Legacy Parkway Trail.
See trail details at UtahTrails, AllTrails, TrailLink, and TrekPlanner (more photos here and here).
State Park
The south end of the trail connects to the north end of the Jordan River Trail, passing the Jordan River Off-Highway Vehicle State Park and adding another two miles to the ride, creating a 34-mile loop I call “Legacy Plus.”
Additions
- I first completed the “Legacy Plus” loop on June 8, 2020.
- On July 3, 2020, I rode the trail three times for a convenient fifty-mile experience.
- On May 14, 2022, I rode part of this trail during the Golden Spoke ride.
the Bikeswain 