Draper's Corner Canyon offers a lot of riding. The trail system is close to
civilization -- a bit famous -- This page describes only the lower trails
between the Equestrian Center parking and the Corner Canyon Bonneville
Shoreline Trail. See the Corner Canyon
Overview Page for links to other trail pages for the Draper area.
Matt Flygare posts a turn on
the descent down Traverse Mountain. We've been riding these trails for a
long time!
Photo January 29, 2000. Latest page update by Bruce
in June 2019.
Some Corner Canyon trails are open year-round, regardless
of weather, while others will be temporarily closed when muddy. For
example, the main Access trail (a cindered doubletrack) in lower Corner
Canyon is open year round. See the Corner
Canyon trail closure page for the status of your intended trail.
Riding in squishy conditions can still damage these trails, so use good
judgment for the sake of your fellow riders!
Bruce heads uphill on the Lower Corner Canyon trail in
2017.
The trails in lower Corner Canyon are beginner to early-intermediate in technical skill
requirement. There are some rollers on the Rush
(Green) beginner downhill, but nothing tricky.
The climb to the Bonneville
Shoreline (BST) trail from the parking lot is 300 vertical feet over
one mile, making
the pitch tolerable even for beginners.
Most of the
trails in lower Corner Canyon are one-way for bicycles, which can make
navigation a bit more complicated if you don't have a navigation App on
your phone.
There are two routes uphill: the singletrack Lower Corner
Canyon trail (which joins the broad doubletrack trail after 0.6 miles),
and the broad cindered Access trail. Most riders will be on the Access
trail.
The main downhill routes are the Access trail and the
Rush Limelight and Rush Green trails.
Let's Go Ride!
First, get to the
junction of the Lower Corner
Canyon trail and the Access trail. If you're at the main parking lot, find
the paved path on the west end of the parking lot. Descend away from the
road until you see singletrack heading the other way. Now make a hard
left turn toward the underpass and go under the street.
This
is what things look like in 2017. The tunnel takes you under Highland
Drive. On the photo's right, a spur from the Bunny Bradley trail joins.
(Bunny Bradley runs over top of the underpass along the white fence. The
uphill trail will be a hard left turn after you exit the underpass.
If you're in the Bike Park
parking area, take the Bunny Bradley trail eastbound. As you approach the
big parking area, but before you cross the creek area, drop down to the
left to the underpass.
As you exit the underpass, decide which trail you want to take uphill.
The broad path straight ahead is the Access trail. If you make a left
turn, you'll climb up to a singletrack running near the sidewalk, which is
the Lower Corner Canyon trail..
Lots of nice trail here, but it can take some riding
to figure everything out.
The Access Doubletrack
The Access Doubletrack is straight ahead as you exit the
tunnel. It will be one mile and 300 feet of climbing before you reach the
multiple trail intersections at the Bonneville Shoreline area. This trail
is broad as a road, and like a road, It has two-way traffic. Keep right! Stay
to your right as you pedal uphill, and stay to your right as you descend
this trail.
View uphill on the Access doubletrack trail.
Here are the trails you'll come across as you climb:
300 ft on your R: Do not enter. Exit from
one-way Rush Green.
0.2 mi on your L: Do not enter. Exit from from Old
Creekview down.
0.2 mi on your R, before bridge: Entry to 2nd half of Rush
Green one-way.
0.2 mi on your R after bridge: Do not enter. Exit from one-way Rush.
0.3 mi, hard R: Entry to Rush Green one-way downhill.
0.35 on your R: Do not enter. Creekview foot
path.
0.35 on your L: Connector to Old Creekview down and to midpoint of
Lower Corner Canyon uphill trail.
0.4 on your L: Do not enter. Short downhill
meander off main trail.
0.45 on your L: Do not enter. Downhill from Lower CC ST
0.6 DT joins on L: L takes you to downhill trail near end of Lower
CC ST.
(continued
below)
Entry to the Rush Green trail at uphill mile 0.3 from
the underpass.
(continued from above)
0.8 on your R: Connector to Rush Limelight downhill trail
0.95 BST, 4 options!
L = eastbound BST to Gasline, Rattler, etc
straight on DT = to Canyon Hollow connector, Gasline, Ghost
Falls
NOTE! Creekview is now
one-way. You can't enter it on the BST end.
straight to ST = Do not enter (exit
from upper Rush)
R on DT = BST to Clark's, Canyon Hollow, Potato Hill
Hard R to ST = Rush Limelight downhill
View on the short connector between the Access
doubletrack and the Lower Corner Canyon singletrack trail. Just across the
bridge, left is one-way downhill, while straight takes us up to join the
Lower Corner Canyon trail.
Lower Corner Canyon singletrack
As you leave the tunnel from the parking area, turn left
uphill. follow the singletrack along the fence then climb up through a
series of turns. You're now on the Lower Corner Canyon Trail heading south
up the hill.
The trail will hug the hillside just below the homes for a bit. At mile
0.3, there's a connector to neighborhood streets on your left.
At mile 0.4, the trail on your right will split after just
a few feet. The left fork will cross the creek and end on the doubletrack
Access trail -- just across from the Creekview foot trail and a bit uphill
from the upper Rush Green entry.
The right fork is the Old Creekview downhill trail, and
will take you down to the Access trail near the entry to the bottom half
of Rush Green.
Heading
uphill through large gambel oak -- and the occasional maple -- on the
singletrack Lower Corner Canyon trail.
Continuing uphill through two tight turns, you'll pass the Carolina
Hills trailhead to your left. The trail then joins a broad doubletrack continuing south.
In a few feet, a downhill trail forks away on the right, and in 100
yards, the doubletrack joins the main Access trail heading uphill. You can
go either uphill or downhill on the Access trail.
At the top of the doubletrack, to
your left is the eastbound Bonneville
Shoreline Trail, which can take you up to Rattler.
(These are also all-weather trails.) Straight ahead is doubletrack that
can take you uphill to connect to Canyon Hollow
or Ghost Falls. To the right is the westbound
BST, which can take you to Clark's or the Coyote Hollow trailhead.
Bruce heads downhill in the oak of Corner Canyon on February 1st, 2000.
Creekview trail
The downhill half of the Creekview trail has been turned
into a hiking-only trail. In the middle, Rush Limelight has taken over a
segment. What remains is 1/2 mile of one-way southbound trail.
For those who don't live in the nearby neighborhood, the only remaining
function for Creekview is as a "bailout" from Rush Limelight to
go back uphill toward Coyote Hollow.
You can no longer ride the Creekview trail from the
uphill end. At this time, it functions as a "neighborhood
feeder" and hiking trail, although you could do a short loop on Rush
Limelight with a climb back on Creekview.
The Creekview trail has a connector from Burning Oak
Drive. In 1/10th mile, it meets Rush Limelight. At this intersection, the
Creekview hiking trail continues downhill across Rush, while Creekview
itself continues south uphill. At this point, it becomes a one-way uphill
trail for bikes.
View from the intersection of Rush
and Creekview. Rush is on the left (one-way, do not enter), and Creekview
is in the center of the photo, looking in the direction of allowed travel.
The climb up Creekview from the Rush Limelight intersection
will be 0.5 miles with 150 vertical feet of climbing. The trail ends on
the Bonneville Shoreline just east of the Coyote Hollow trailhead. To
return to Rush, turn left. To head for Clark's or Canyon Hollow, turn
right.
Creekview is a fairly smooth ride.
Rush Limelight and Rush Green
The Rush trail is covered in detail on another trail page.
The entry to lower Rush (called Rush Limelight) is on the Bonneville
Shoreline Trail just west of the 4-way intersection with the
doubletrack Access trail. When climbing the Access DT, pass the connector
to Rush at mile 0.9, and keep right as you approach the 4-way. At the
4-way, curve right to make a 180 degree change of direction into the
singletrack.
Heading downhill toward a table-top jump.
Rush has a lot of bumps that can either be done as rollers at lower speed,
or as launch pads at higher speed.
In 1/10th mile, pass the shortcut connector
on your right. At mile 0.4, keep straight to continue down Rush. (The
trail on the left goes to the local neighborhood street, while the one on
the right is the hiking-only portion of Creekview. A 180-degree turnaround
would take you back uphill on Creekview, which becomes a one-way trail for
bikes.)
An S-turn just below the Creekview trail fork, with
typical high banks to head you in the right direction.
At mile 0.9, the Rush Green trail comes in on your right, then a couple of
wiggles later, the trail hits the Access DT. Turn left and cross the
bridge, then immediately turn left onto the continuing Rush Green trail.
At mile 1.05 from the BST, Rush ends on the Access DT just uphill from the
underpass.
Entry into the lower half of Rush Green.
Beginners and early-intermediates can do
short laps here, climbing the Access trail to the uphill entry into Rush
Green. The entry into the lower half of Rush Green is just downhill from
the bridge, 0.2 miles uphill from the underpass, while the entry to the
upper half is 0.3 miles from the underpass.
Entry into the upper half of Rush Green, looking
downhill toward the city from the Access DT.
Older video climbing
Lower Corner Canyon and descending Creekview (now you must use Rush)...
If the above video does not appear on your
browser/device, you can watch it on YouTube by clicking
here.
Bottom Line:
Good ride for beginning bikers who are improving their skills but won't
last through a long uphill grind. Great for a quick after-work outing.
Steve Argyle descends through a grove of twisted
gambel oak with Jackie as the official pace-dog.
February 5, 2000.
Getting there: Take the Bluffdale exit from I-15 and turn
east towards the mountains on Highland Drive. Go straight past the railroad
underpass. Stay on Highland until you reach the parking area
for the Lynn Ballard park on your left. To
reach the trailhead from the north (Sandy area), take 13th East southward until it ends at
the stop sign just past the underpass. Turn left and drive 1/4 mile to the
main parking.
To find the trail, go to the
west end of the parking area near the trail kiosk. Drop down the hill on
the paved route, then make a hard left on a broad southbound trail. Go into the tunnel under the
road to ride climb either the Access DT or the Lower Corner Canyon
singletrack.
Facilities: Water and flush toilets at the Equestrian Center.
