Utah's Jordan River and its Water Trail

By Elliott R. Mott

Utah's Jordan River runs between Utah Lake and the Great Salt Lake and is an extremely important water source for the Great Salt Lake. This guidebook defines river access points for recreational boaters on this urban water trail. Divided into 18 sections across Utah, Salt Lake, and Davis Counties, this book identifies boat put-in and take-out sites and the connecting roads between those locations. Each water trail section is supported by a narrative and a map making it easy for enthusiasts to find the section of the Jordan River they are interested in. This book is the outcome of the author's many volunteer adventures introducing the river to boating enthusiasts. The Jordan River Parkway's paved path is included as it is a great way to scout the river before getting on the water. This 120-page book is in full color and includes 107 images.
When the State of Utah developed master plans for the state's sovereign rivers, he engaged to present the recreational users' perspective because identifying locations where infrastructure is needed is a key element in the planning-funding cycle. Water trails are a challenge because enthusiasts need to know where to put-in and where to take-out and the connecting roads between those locations. There was no definitive guide showing enthusiasts how to do this, so the author researched the river and began leading group events introducing enthusiasts to Utah's Jordan River. This guidebook is the outcome of many volunteer events the author organized to stay active outdoors in nature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 6, 2024
• ISBN: 9798350948424

Elliott R. Mott

Elliott Mott has over 40 years of experience helping sports enthusiasts enjoy the outdoors. As a volunteer, he has organized over a thousand bike rides, hikes, backpacking trips, and kayak tours. He crafted maps for his bike rides as a tool to keep riders on course, and later for river tours identifying put-in and take-out sites and the roads connecting those locations. To date his database includes 23000 miles of bicycle trails and 560 river water trail miles. Mott is an advocate for active transportation solutions, and the preservation of green space in urban areas. Other books by the author include "Cycling Possibilities," "Jordan River Water Trail & Bike Path," and "Bear River and its Water Trail."

Book preview

Introduction

A fundamental challenge rivers present to boating enthusiasts is knowing where to access the river, and the areas to avoid. In addition, to best enjoy a river’s water trail boaters need road access to put-in sites and to take-out locations. These core requirements form the essential foundation needed for water trail adventures. This book presents eighteen water trail sections to float meeting these requirements between Utah Lake and the Great Salt Lake. Each section is defined by an accessible put-in and take-out site, and most are along the Jordan River Parkway Trail. Sections range in distance from one-half of a mile to about four miles. Most sections can be combined for floats of up to ten miles, and by portaging gap C, see page 35, it is possible to paddle nearly eighteen miles or over twenty-four miles if an out-and-back paddle in Section 18 is included.

Today, it is not realistic to float the Jordan River nonstop lake-to-lake due to man-made obstructions in the river channel and access challenges, and perhaps it never was, as beavers remain active within the Jordan River corridor. (In 2018 a group float I was leading was blocked by a beaver lodge in Section 3 which wasn’t present the year before.) Today’s obstructions are mostly weirs and low-head dams constructed to divert water for agriculture, industry and flood control. These man-made structures present high risk navigation hazards to boaters, some of which can be portaged around, while others are impractical to portage. In other places multiple-drop water features have replaced dangerous low-head dams, but they too become navigation blockages at low water. Access across private property is a problem in other areas. In essence, the water trail sections defined in this book lie between Saratoga Springs in Utah County, and the City of North Salt Lake in Davis County. See the orientation maps beginning on page 41.

If you ride your bike from a point parallel to where the Jordan River passes under Saratoga Road in Saratoga Springs (a very short distance inland from Utah Lake), to where the river passes under Center Street in the City of North Salt Lake by the most direct route, which is along Redwood Road, it is a distance of about 33.2 miles. If it were possible to float the Jordan River between these two points it would be a water trail distance of about 46.3 miles. Across this distance river elevation drops about 280 feet (from 4489’ at full pool down to approximately 4210’) – and continues to drop as the Great Salt Lake recedes to record low levels.

Over time as interest in the water trail grows and as trailhead facilities are developed, I fully expect additional areas to become accessible and that sections in this book will be modified with improved water trail access trailheads, better street way-finding signs, and portage facilities.

In the not too distant future a majority of Salt Lake County residents will reside west of the Jordan River. Westside residents do not have the Wasatch Mountains in their backyards but instead have the Oquirrh Mountains, a mostly private landmass with comparatively few recreational opportunities; thus, westside residents will congregate in municipal parks and open spaces for relaxation, recreation and interaction with nature. Florence Williams, in her book, The Nature Fix – Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative elegantly expounds upon the benefits of incorporating regular outdoor activities in the natural world into our lives – and so the Jordan River corridor and its urban water trail – will gain increased importance. It most certainly will become the crown jewel among available open spaces within Salt Lake Valley as open space becomes increasingly rare.

A 2019 Utah Division of Water Resources report indicates inflow from the Jordan River basin accounts for 22% of stream flow into the Great Salt Lake, with the Bear River and Weber River basins providing the balance. This means the future of Great Salt Lake is unequivocally linked to the Jordan River and that a free flowing Jordan River is essential to a sustainable Great Salt Lake.

In this book about the Jordan River water trail, there are many related topics which might be included. Topics could range from the practical such as explaining why boats behave the way they do when you stop paddling, to the technical and exploring the pros and cons of flat vs. dihedral, curved vs. spooned paddle shapes. However, I have purposely avoided most of them to keep material focused on the water trail from a recreation boaters’ perspective. For this reason there are no chapters on wildlife or vegetation or waste water treatment. I don’t dive into low oxygen/riparian habitat issues, tackle water quality remediation solutions, or unravel the boondoggle of water share ownership. So, my apologies up front to my many friends who are experts in these fields.

This book begins with a brief discussion of rivers and of the influential role they played as humans transitioned from hunter-gather clans to agricultural communities to industrial societies. This historical perspective is helpful to understand the Jordan’s present condition – and how it backslid from the clear cold stream early settler’s enjoyed in 1847 to become the impaired warm water river that it is today. This leads to an overview of river classifications and how the Jordan compares to other area rivers using metrics from the American Whitewater Association, Oregon’s Marine Board, and cubic feet per second flow. This matrix empowers readers to appreciate how the Jordan River ranks with other regional rivers in terms of flow, navigation difficulty and challenge.

A synopsis of the Jordan River and the many variables influencing stream flow and water trail navigability comes next. This part expands upon the river’s many features and concludes with observations on boats most commonly used for Jordan River travel. A short list of best practices follows. This leads to a discussion of water trail maps and of this book’s Cycling Possibilities origins. A water trail overview chart on page 35 follows summarizing the eighteen water trail sections – showing individual and aggregated distance. Potential itineraries follow. These provide boaters with the option to combine water trail sections for longer floats, which, I almost always do on open call group floats. Six pages of orientation maps are presented beginning on page 41. These illustrate how the water trail sections are