SLC Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) Rehabilitation
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Background & Purpose
The Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) was conceived to provide a hiking and biking trail across the Wasatch Front that follows the shoreline of ancient Lake Bonneville. By connecting existing utility roads and user-made trails with newly constructed trail segments, the first 13 miles of BST created a continuous, natural-surface, non-motorized trail for hikers and bikers across the Salt Lake City Foothills. After 30 years of use with minimal maintenance, the BST needs rehabilitation work to fix erosion, ruts, and unintended changes in trail width.
In 2023, the SLC Trails & Natural Lands Division began its BST Rehabilitation project to return the trail to its intended purpose: a multi-use, multi-directional trail incorporating best practices for modern trail design.
Why is rehabilitation needed?
These photos illustrate the need for regular trail rehabilitation. Erosion, water control, and trail damage require maintenance for users’ safety and the trail’s sustainability.
Spring 2025: 19th Ave and BST Valleyview Rehabilitation
The 2025 BST maintenance work is complete as of May 1, 2025
Purple: 19th Ave Trail repair
Yellow: BST Valleview Trail repair
Orange: BST Valleyview Utility Road repair
Project Highlights
- The 19th Ave bike-only trail was built in 2021 and receives heavy use throughout the riding season. Trail surfaces, bike-specific features, and back slopes need to be maintained every 3 to 4 years. Maintenance makes the trail more resilient and creates a safer and more enjoyable user experience.
- BST Valleyview received maintenance to reduce erosion and rehabilitate the trail surface. This section of the BST was built in the 1990s as a shared-use trail and is heavily used throughout the year.
- The utility road section of the BST Valleyview also received maintenance to regrade the surface and maintain its use as an access road for equipment and emergency vehicles.
Spring 2024: BST Hell Canyon & West City Creek
Project Highlights
- BST Hell Canyon (the 1-mile BST section traversing Hell Canyon from the Radio Tower Utility Access Road to the western ridgeline of City Creek Canyon) received a complete 4′ wide re-tread and a 5′ wide bench. This section also received grade reversals and drain dips to reduce trail tread erosion and increase safety for multi-directional travel.
- BST West City Creek (the 2.1-mile section traveling from the western ridgeline of City Creek Canyon to the City Creek Canyon Road) also received 0.5 miles of re-tread and bench updating.
- The bottom 500 feet of the BST West City Creek was re-routed to access Bonneville Boulevard by crossing the hiking-only Lower City Creek Loop trail and avoiding the rock steps built in November 2023 at the City Creek Trailhead.
Fall 2023: BST West City Creek Access Repaired with Rock Steps
Project Highlights
- The lowest 200 feet of BST West City Creek just above the trailhead received major trail tread repair. This project mitigated trail damage from decades of water that had drained into the trail corridor, creating a runoff channel.
- SLC Public Lands contracted with American Conservation Experience (ACE), an experienced, national youth conservation corps with a local Utah chapter, to hand-build 20+ rock steps along this section to disperse water and eliminate trail erosion that runs into Bonneville Boulevard. Bike traffic is rerouted to a new alternate access trail 400 yards further south on Bonneville Boulevard. A project summary was provided by ACE.
Spring 2023: BST West City Creek Trail Rehabilitation
Project Highlights
- Spring 2023 trail rehabilitation projects prioritized a 1-mile segment of the BST on the lower west bench of City Creek Canyon. This section was in need of tread and cross-slope re-grading, and the addition of low-grade features like grade reversals, dips, and fans to better shed water from the trail. These enhancements reduced sediment displacement from erosion and will minimize standing water on trails.
- The project included repairs to 4 trail junctions, adding 3-4 culverts, and adding many low-grade dips for directing water runoff away from the trail. No trail realignments were needed.
BST Rehabilitation and the Foothills Trail System Plan
A Vision for Sustainable Recreation in the Foothills Natural Area
Ongoing restoration of the BST aligns with the 2020 Foothills Plan (“the Plan”). Creating and rehabilitating trails with the goal of making them environmentally sustainable, enjoyable, accessible, safe, and low-maintenance are the goals of The Plan.
The Salt Lake City Department of Public Lands took the lead to initiate and envision the 2020 Foothills Trail System Plan to develop a managed trail system that would be continuously reviewed, revised, and improved upon to balance the environmental needs of the Foothills with the recreational demands of our residents and visitors.