The Hyde Park Canyon BST segment
Mouth of Hyde Park Canyon Free Opened August 2024
The Bonneville Shoreline Trail follows the old shoreline bench of ancient Lake Bonneville around the edge of the valley, and for years the piece above Hyde Park was a gap. That closed on August 3, 2024, when the city cut the ribbon on a 2.85 mile section at the mouth of Hyde Park Canyon. It was the largest single stretch of new Bonneville Shoreline Trail built in the region in years, and it is the reason this page exists.
On the ground it is an easy trail. The surface is graded gravel, the grade rolls gently up and down for about 400 feet of total gain, and the tread is wide enough for several people to walk abreast. It is well marked, and it reads as a walk rather than a climb, which is what makes it work for a wide range of legs. One thing to fix in your head before you go: it is an out and back, not a loop, so you walk as far as you like along the bench and turn around to come back.
The trail exists because the city of Hyde Park worked out an agreement with a willing landowner to route it across private foothills, and the build was paid for through the Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation grant program together with Cache County's Recreation, Arts, Parks and Zoos tax. That backstory is worth knowing, because it is also why the access rules below are not optional. You are a guest crossing someone's land, and the trail stays open only if walkers treat it that way.
The details
Two routes share these foothills
If you search the area on a trail app you will find more than one line drawn across this bench. They are not the same walk, and the difference matters for access.
| The route | What it is | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Hyde Park Canyon BST segment | The city built path, 2.85 miles of gentle gravel, wide and marked | Out and back, not a loop; the north half has no shade |
| Cedar Ridge and Hyde Park Canyon Loop | A longer loop mapped on trail apps through the same foothills | Crosses private property and has had erosion related closures; confirm access before you rely on it |
The graded city segment is the one to plan around. Treat the longer online loop as unconfirmed until you know the private stretches are open.
Finding the trailhead, and the gates
Up Hyde Park Canyon Road Two cattle gates Wild horses on the land
Getting there is simple, but the last part is unusual for a public trail, so it is worth spelling out. From the middle of Hyde Park, head east and follow Hyde Park Canyon Road up toward the mountains until the paved road ends and the surface turns to gravel. Keep going on the gravel. You will come to a cattle gate, and then a second one several hundred yards further on. Pass through both, park at the trailhead just past the second gate, and start walking from there.
The gates are the whole game. There are wild horses on this property, and both gates have to be shut and latched behind you, every time, going in and coming out. This is not a formality. An open gate that lets stock onto the road or off the property is exactly the kind of problem that gets a hard won trail across private land closed again. Leave every gate the way you would want to find it, closed and latched.
Once you are walking, the trail is easy to follow. It runs north along the bench with the valley opening out to the west. The catch is sun: the northern part of the trail is not shaded at all, so on a hot afternoon in July or August it is a long, bright, grasshopper filled walk. Early morning and evening are far more pleasant, and they are the right call for most of the summer.
Close and latch both cattle gates, watch the sun, and do not trust every loop you see online. The trail crosses private land with wild horses, so shutting both gates behind you is the condition the access depends on. The northern half of the segment has no shade, so carry water and hike it early or late in summer rather than at midday. And the longer Cedar Ridge and Hyde Park Canyon Loop mapped on trail apps runs over private property and has seen erosion related closures, so confirm those sections are open before you count on completing a loop. The graded city built segment is the reliable choice.
Getting there
From US-91 through the middle of Hyde Park, turn east and climb on Hyde Park Canyon Road; where the pavement ends, continue on gravel through the first gate, then the second, and park at the trailhead just beyond it. There is no fee and no staffed entrance, which is part of why the gate habit matters so much.
