The gulch Sandy
Six hundred and thirty acres of natural open space, unpaved on purpose
Dimple Dell, and the ravine that ignores the grid.
A long, narrow ravine running east to west across the middle of Sandy, with neighbourhoods on both rims, Dry Creek in the bottom and streets crossing it on bridges. Six hundred and thirty acres, more than 15 miles of trail, three trailheads and a tunnel built 14 feet high so a rider can pass under a road without ducking. None of it is paved, and that was decided by an argument in 2017 rather than by neglect.
Southern Utah is my home turf. Sandy is not, so these pages are researched rather than lived: checked against city, county and venue sources, and dated so you can see how fresh they are. For the on-the-ground work here I lean on a Salt Lake County partner agent.
Start here
Six hundred and thirty acres running the wrong way across the grid.
Salt Lake Valley is laid out on a numbered grid that runs north to south and east to west, and Dimple Dell Regional Park ignores it. The park is a ravine, long and narrow, cutting east to west across the middle of Sandy with neighbourhoods on both rims and Dry Creek in the bottom. It covers 630 acres and carries more than 15 miles of trail for walkers, cyclists and horse riders, and the streets above it cross it on bridges rather than running through it.
The consequence is the thing that makes this park worth a page. Once you drop off a rim you cannot see the city. The scrub oak closes over, the traffic noise falls away, and for the length of a walk you are in a piece of ground that behaves like open country in the middle of a suburb of nearly a hundred thousand people. It is routinely described as one of the largest undeveloped natural open spaces inside an American metropolitan area.
It is county ground rather than city ground, managed by Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation, and it is classified as natural open space rather than as a developed park. That distinction is not bureaucratic. It is why there is no lighting down there, no pavement in the bottom and no playground, and it is the outcome of a public argument the county lost in 2017.
Dimple Dell by the numbers
630
acres of natural open space
15+ mi
of trail, none of it paved in the bottom
3
trailheads, plus a park at the east end
14 ft
the width and height of the tunnel under 1300 East
Getting in
Three trailheads, and they are not equivalent.
The park's main address is 10600 South 1300 East, which is a useful thing to put into a map and a misleading thing to treat as the entrance. What you actually want is one of the three trailheads, and which one depends entirely on what you are doing.
| Trailhead | Where | What is there |
|---|---|---|
| Wrangler | 10350 South 1300 East | Parking, restrooms, picnic tables and drinking water. The fullest facilities and the usual first visit |
| Dimple Dell Road | 2765 East Dimple Dell Road | Parking and restrooms, serving the eastern half of the park |
| Mount Jordan | 2940 East Mount Jordan Road | Parking only, and the quietest of the three |
| Granite Park | At the east end of the park | Not a trailhead as such, but a parking area with restrooms, a playground, a pavilion and picnic ground where the trail finishes |
Facilities as published by Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation, checked 7 August 2026. County park operations is on 385-468-7275. Restroom availability at a natural open space is seasonal in practice even where it is listed as permanent, so plan on the assumption that the water at Wrangler is the reliable one.
Wrangler is the one to use first, and not only because of the water. It puts you within easy reach of the tunnel that carries the trail under 1300 East, which is the link between the two halves of the park and is worth walking through simply to see it. It is 14 feet wide and 14 feet high, sitting just north of 10600 South, and it was built at that size so that a person on a horse can ride through it without ducking.
The eastern trailheads are the better start if you want the upper part of the gulch, where Dry Creek runs more reliably and the ravine is deeper and greener. The western end is more open and drier. A one way walk between the two ends is a genuinely good outing, and it is the version most people never do because they park at one trailhead and come back to the same car.
Why it is dirt
In 2017 the county proposed paving three miles of it, and lost.
Salt Lake County put forward a plan to lay asphalt along about three miles of the unpaved North Rim Trail, using money from a parks bond. The argument for it was accessibility and year round use: a paved rim path would serve pushchairs, wheelchairs, commuters on bicycles and everybody who does not want to deal with mud. A county poll found that a majority of residents were in favour.
The argument against came from the people who use the park most, and the equestrian community led it. Their case was that asphalt changes who uses a trail and how fast they travel on it, that faster bicycles and horses on a narrow rim are a bad combination, and that a paved path through a natural area is a different thing from the natural area it replaced. Opponents delivered more than 6,000 signatures.
In May 2017 Mayor Ben McAdams dropped the plan. The county set up a task force to work out how to spend the 4 million dollars instead, and the money went toward restrooms, trailhead improvements, better signage and new trail rather than pavement. That is why the Wrangler trailhead has what it has, and why the bottom of the gulch has what it does not.
It is worth stating both halves of that honestly, because it is easy to tell this story as a simple victory. A majority in the county's own poll wanted the path paved, and the people who would have benefited most from a paved rim are the ones who now cannot use large parts of this park at all. The trailhead loop at Bells Canyon, a few minutes east, is the only fully accessible surface of any length on this side of the city.
This is why the park does not behave like the county's other parks. Most Salt Lake County regional parks are mown, lit, paved and programmed. Dimple Dell is deliberately none of those things in its interior, and the decision was taken in public and recorded. If you arrive expecting a park and find a ravine with dirt trail, unlit at night and muddy in March, that is the park working as intended rather than the county neglecting it.
The bottom
Dry Creek is a name that has become slightly less accurate.
The watercourse that cut this ravine is Dry Creek, and the name was earned: for most of its length and most of the year the bed simply sat empty, with water showing only in a few spots on the eastern half. Restoration work has changed that, extending the flow to close to year round, which has changed what the bottom of the gulch looks like and how it smells in the spring.
Around it the vegetation is scrub oak, which is the plant that does most of the work in this park. It grows dense enough to close over a trail, it turns properly in October, and it holds no shade worth the name once you are up on either rim. That is the single most useful thing to know about walking here in summer: the bottom is tolerable at midday and the rims are not.
The wildlife is what you would expect from a corridor of undeveloped ground running through a suburb. Deer, foxes and hawks are ordinary sightings, and the corridor works as a route for animals moving between the foothills and the valley floor exactly as it works as a route for people. That is a large part of the case for leaving it undeveloped, and it is visible on almost any early morning walk.
There is a piece of history down there too. The Spencer Homestead sits on the property, a reminder that this ground was farmed and settled long before it was surrounded, and it is the kind of thing you walk past without noticing unless somebody tells you it is there.
The streets cross this park on bridges, which is why you can walk it for an hour and forget where you are.
The seasons
Four versions of the same gulch, and two of them are much better than the others.
| Season | What it is like | The honest advice |
|---|---|---|
| March to May | The best of it. Green, the creek running, the oak coming into leaf and the whole park smelling of wet ground | Wait a few dry days after a thaw. Wet trail damages under boots, tyres and hooves alike |
| June | Long light, warm mornings, everything open and the rims already drying out | Early morning or evening. The middle of the day is already too much on the rims |
| July and August | Hot, dusty and shadeless on the rims, with the bottom noticeably cooler than the tops | Stay low, go at either end of the day, and carry more water than the distance suggests |
| September and October | The other best season. The oak turns, the light is long, and the ground is firm | The one month to plan a one way walk from end to end |
| November to February | Quiet, bare and short on daylight, with the bottom holding frost and mud | Nothing is lit. Work out your turnaround time before you drop off the rim |
Conditions vary with the year and with the winter. Salt Lake County park operations on 385-468-7275 is the place for current trail status, and it is worth a call after a heavy thaw or a storm rather than assuming.
The thing that catches people out is the temperature difference between the rim and the bottom. On a July afternoon those are effectively two different walks, and the mistake is to start on a rim trail because it looks like the obvious route on a map. Drop in early, stay under the oak, and come out before the heat rather than into it.
The other seasonal fact is mud, and it matters more here than at a paved park because the surface is the asset. A wet trail churned by boots, tyres and hooves stays churned once it dries, and the ruts last a season. Waiting three dry days is a small courtesy that keeps the park in the condition its users fought to protect. The same logic applies at the foothill trails on the east side of the city, where the canyon mouth page covers the ground under the wilderness boundary.
How to use it well
The habits that keep a shared trail network working.
Yield to horses, and do it early rather than at the last moment. A horse coming the other way on a narrow rim trail wants to see a person standing still and downhill of it, not a cyclist braking hard at ten feet. This is one of very few places in the valley where the equestrian use came first and is still primary, and the whole network works because that is respected.
Take the dog and take a lead. Dimple Dell is county open space rather than watershed, so it does allow dogs under Salt Lake County park rules, and it is the standing answer in this city for a household that cannot use Bells Canyon or either Cottonwood canyon. Bag the waste and carry it out; there is no service down in the gulch to do it for you.
Work out the exit before you go in. The park is long, the trailheads are far apart, and a walk that felt easy going east feels different at the turn. If a one way end to end walk is the plan, sort the second car or the collection first. And if the plan involves the last hour of daylight, remember there is no lighting at all. The transit page covers the rest of the city's getting around problem.
Keep reading
More of Sandy on The Local.
Things to do
The top 8, ranked
A rotating stage, a 630 acre gulch, an NHL practice sheet and a balloon at sunrise.
Read the guideThe canyon mouth
Little Cottonwood from Sandy
The approach road, the queue that forms on city streets, and the water under all of it.
Read the guideThe downtown
South Town and the Cairns
A 1986 mall bought whole for a sports campus, and a downtown built around a train stop.
Read the guideThe venue
Sandy Amphitheater
A city built itself a concert venue outdoors in 1999, and half the season costs nothing.
Read the guideThe train
Life on the Blue Line
Four stations, a line built to end here, and a park and ride turning into apartments.
Read the guideThe companion
Sandy, the whole picture
The canyon mouth, the gulch, the mall, the venue and the train, in one place.
Read the pageQuick answers
The gulch, answered.
630 acres, with more than 15 miles of trail for walkers, cyclists and horse riders. It runs long and narrow from east to west across the middle of Sandy with neighbourhoods on both rims, and it is managed by Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation as natural open space rather than as a developed park. It is often described as one of the largest undeveloped natural open spaces inside an American metropolitan area.
At one of three trailheads. Wrangler at 10350 South 1300 East has parking, restrooms, picnic tables and drinking water, and is the usual first visit. Dimple Dell Road at 2765 East Dimple Dell Road has parking and restrooms. Mount Jordan at 2940 East Mount Jordan Road has parking only. Granite Park at the east end of the park adds parking, restrooms, a playground and a pavilion where the trail finishes.
No, and that is deliberate. Salt Lake County proposed laying asphalt along about three miles of the North Rim Trail in 2017. A county poll found a majority of residents in favour, and opponents led by the equestrian community delivered more than 6,000 signatures against. Mayor Ben McAdams dropped the plan in May 2017, and the 4 million dollars of parks bond money went to restrooms, trailhead improvements, signage and new trail instead.
Yes, under Salt Lake County park rules. That is the practical significance of this park for a household in Sandy, because Bells Canyon and both Cottonwood canyons are protected watershed and prohibit dogs outright. Bring a lead and carry the waste out with you, since there is no service down in the gulch. It is also worth remembering that horses have priority on these trails and a loose dog around a horse is a genuine hazard.
A passage under 1300 East, just north of 10600 South, built 14 feet wide and 14 feet high so that riders, cyclists and walkers can move between the two halves of the park without crossing a busy road. The height is the giveaway: it was sized so a person on horseback can ride through it without ducking, which tells you how central the equestrian use is to how this park was designed.
More than it used to. The name was earned, because for most of its length and most of the year the bed sat empty with water showing only in a few places on the eastern half. Restoration work has extended the flow to close to year round, which has changed the character of the bottom of the gulch, particularly in spring. The vegetation around it is scrub oak, dense enough in places to close over a trail.
Yes, the trails are open to cyclists as well as to walkers and horse riders, and the network is popular for it. The condition is that horses have the right of way and this is a narrow, blind ravine in places, so it rewards riders who expect to stop. Riding a wet trail after rain or a thaw does lasting damage to the surface, which in a park whose users fought to keep it unpaved is worth taking seriously.
March to May, and September to October. Spring gives you green oak, running water and firm ground once the thaw has passed, and autumn gives long light, dry trail and the oak turning. Midsummer works early and late but the rim trails are shadeless and hot in the middle of the day. In winter the park is quiet and bare, and nothing down in the gulch is lit, so plan the turnaround before you drop in.
A Salt Lake County park, managed by county Parks and Recreation rather than by Sandy City, which is worth knowing because it decides who answers a question about it. County park operations is on 385-468-7275. Sandy City runs the city's own parks, its recreation programme and the trailheads over on the east side of the city, so a question about Dimple Dell and a question about a Sandy park go to two different governments.
A ravine through the middle of a city changes what a street is worth.
Properties backing onto Dimple Dell trade on that open space the way other properties trade on a view, and how a specific street sits relative to the rims and the trailheads is not something a portal listing makes clear. Tell me what you are weighing and I will put you with a Salt Lake County partner agent who knows this ground, and stay on the file for the homework and the financing side.
Referral disclosure. Outside Southern Utah, I connect home sellers and buyers with partner agents I trust in their area. If you choose to work with an agent I refer, that agent's brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee. The fee comes out of the agent's compensation; it is not an added cost to you. You are always free to choose any agent you wish, and using a referred agent is never required.