Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail State Park
Personal Notes
This page presents our personal notes on our visit to Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail State Park in Utah.
Sunday, June 29, 2003
We hiked out along the trail for four miles, then turned around and hiked back. We started at the Promontory trailhead and headed northeast, toward Wanship. From there the trail gradually goes down slope and into a canyon between the two lanes of I-80. Between the trailhead and the Interstate the trail passes through a wide meadow area with a few small marshy areas in the ditches along the trail. There are cattle and lots of birds.
Just before the Interstate you'll pass near a dairy operation with a feed lot. It gets a little stinky in that area. After passing under the Interstate the trail heads downward and the lanes of the freeway get closer. But in spite of the traffic noise there is a lot of wildlife. We spotted quite a few small marmots, a wide variety of birds, including shore birds, mountain bluebirds, swallows, and hawks. Much of the trail passes right along Silver Creek and there are stretches of flowing water interspersed with shallow, marshy ponds. A variety of riparian vegetation is apparent in this area.
There is little to no shade available along the trail. The surface of the trail is hard packed soil and packed gravel. It's a good surface but I've always had some blistering after a long hike on a continually even surface. I think it's the constant pounding without much variation. I ended the hike with a slight blister on the fleshy pad near the ball of the big toe on my right foot. My left hip was bothering me a bit, as well. Again, I think, from the steady pace.
Down in the canyon area we encountered some interesting volcanic formations above the freeway that added a bit of interest to a potentially uninteresting hike. It's our understanding that farther down the trail the canyon becomes more interesting and the end of the trail actually passes along Echo Reservoir.
There is an information kiosk and a vault toilet at the trailhead, and plenty of places to tie up horse. There was evidence of horses on the trail, but we didn't encounter any. We did meet several mountain bikers coming and going.
