Orem, UT

Bonneville Shoreline Trial: Hellspot Tower

Run Time: 60:06 + 2-minute kick

Back to the altitude. Life elevated, indeed. A sunny, beautiful Memorial Day. Too many people at the trailhead, but none of them went to this trail, which just ran along the feet of the mountain range, just above the houses. I could not figure out what they meant by shoreline until I realized they meant that this spot a few hundred feet above the valley floor might have been the shoreline of the ancient Lake Bonneville.

Most everyone was headed up the canyon to a network of trails. One group was wearing hardhats – not sure exactly what they had planned. They did not appear to have rock climbing gear. I guess there is sufficient danger from falling rocks to warrant looking goofy.

I had planned to return the following afternoon to explore some of the canyon trails, but after a long day of driving down to Cedar City to visit two distributors there after a visit to the dentist for a cleaning and a filling, I just stayed at the hotel and recuperated.

The “shoreline” trail was not long enough for my run. I ended up going back and forth. The first section was wide, with a cliff-like drop-off. It had a Wile Coyote vibe. Then the trail split, with a narrow path staying level, and an old cat road heading uphill.

The cat road had a crazy climb up a sidehill and over the point, so steep that it was hazardous just to walk it. I kept a good pace up it on the way out, and the slope was not quite so bad on the other side. On the way back, I was able to run all the way up the incline, but I had to pick my way down the edge of the road going back down the steep side.

A fork in the cat road angled back uphill, so I took that, and it wound back around the next point and down to the main trail. Then I ran out the lower footpath, which followed an old irrigation ditch.

They are always trying to build further up the west side of the Wasatch Mountains, which are quite erosive, if you ask me. It gives you a decent view, but Utah is a flash-flood state, which I was reminded of a couple times on this trip, when I got caught in thunderstorms while driving.

The real view, in my opinion, is from the valley floor, looking up at the mountains. Why you would want to be at the base of the mountain, looking down at the square miles of houses, with the lakes in the hazy distance, rather than down in the valley with a view of the snowy peaks, is beyond me.

I really appreciate mountains, now that I live in Michigan. I loved running around the wetlands by our house in Santaquin, with the mountains only a few miles away when we lived here. There are few places I have seen with such an abrupt transition from valley to mountain range. The Salt Lake valley might be the most impressive.