The river West Haven
The corridor's west end, the city's own campground, and everything nobody publishes about either
The river trail and the camping beside it.
The Weber River crosses the top of West Haven and a trail runs with it, free, flat and open all year. One body gives it 5.50 miles and a plan from 2010 gives it 2.2. Its published west end is the corner of the city cemetery, and just north of that the city rents overnight camping spots on the path itself, by telephone, four days a week. This is what the west end actually is, and what nobody has written down about it.
The short answer
The Weber River crosses the top of West Haven and a trail runs beside it, free, flat and open every day of the year. The trail organization of record calls it the West Haven Trail, grades it easy and gives it 5.50 miles; a county pathways plan from 2010 gives the same trail 2.2 miles of asphalt, and nobody has reconciled the two. The published west end is 1500 South 2350 West, at the corner of the city cemetery, and just north of that cemetery the city rents a handful of overnight camping spots, arranged by telephone on 801-731-8882 Monday to Thursday. There is no published parking, no published surface and no lighting anywhere on this end. Checked August 2026.
The live question
How long is this trail, and where exactly does it start?
Take the length first, because it is what people arrive with. The Trails Foundation of Northern Utah, the organization that keeps the trail records for this corner of the state, gives the West Haven Trail as 5.50 miles and grades it easy. The Weber County Cooperative Pathways Master Plan, a planning document endorsed in 2010 and never formally adopted by the county, inventories the same trail at 2.2 miles of asphalt and calls it a key connecting pathway feeding the Centennial Loop. Two and a half times the distance, and neither figure has ever been reconciled against the other in public.
The trail organization's figure is the current one and it is the one to plan around. The 2010 number is worth knowing anyway, because it is where a lot of the shorter mileages in circulation come from, and because it is sixteen years old and was written for a plan the county never adopted. Either way the practical advice is the same: walk it out and back from the west end rather than committing to a one way distance, and turn around when you have had enough. Nobody at any body publishes a surface for this reach, so do not assume asphalt the whole way on the strength of a plan written before most of this city was built.
Now the start, which has a clean answer. The published west end is 1500 South 2350 West, which is the corner of the city cemetery, and the cemetery is the landmark everybody uses because it is the only address on this end of the corridor any body puts in writing. From there the corridor runs east toward the freeway and on to where the Weber and the Ogden rivers meet, which is Ogden city ground and belongs to the region's river page along with the whole through route.
One flag before you plan a family outing around it. The same trail organization marks the Ogden River Parkway upstream as adaptive friendly and marks this reach as not adaptive accessible. Horses are not permitted; hiking, biking, dogs, electric bikes and winter use are. Winter use permitted is not the same thing as winter maintained, and no city, county or trail body publishes a snow clearing commitment or any lighting for a single foot of this end.
The silence
The city will rent you a campsite on the trail and will not tell you the trail exists.
Three bodies publish something about this reach and they publish completely different things. Setting them side by side is the fastest way to see what belongs to West Haven and what belongs to the corridor, and it explains why so little practical information about this end of the river exists anywhere at all.
| What is recorded | West Haven City publishes | The trail organization publishes | Who to follow |
|---|---|---|---|
| That a trail exists here | No trail name and no mention of the river anywhere in its parks text, though it does offer a downloadable trail map | A named record, the West Haven Trail, grouped under other Weber County trails rather than with the parkway records | The trail organization, which is the only body that names it |
| How long it is | Nothing | 5.50 miles, graded easy. A 2010 county plan says 2.2 miles of asphalt | Both figures, printed together, because nobody has reconciled them |
| What you may do on it | The citywide park rules, which govern the campground on it: no alcohol or glass, smoke free, no fireworks, pets leashed, no motorised vehicles on lawns | Hiking, biking, dogs, electric bikes and winter use permitted; horses not permitted; adaptive access marked no | Both, because they answer different questions |
| Where you can leave a car | Nothing at all. Its only parking rule is that there is no overnight parking in any city park | Nothing for this reach | Nobody. No stall count for a West Haven trailhead exists in any current record |
| Sleeping on it | A number of overnight camping spots on the trail just north of the city cemetery, booked through Parks and Recreation | Nothing | The city, and it is the only city on this river that offers it |
| What surface it is | Nothing | Its record served its distance and its permitted uses and no surface | Nobody yet. Assume nothing about the surface until a body publishes one |
| Winter clearing and lighting | Nothing | Winter use permitted, with no maintenance commitment attached | Nobody. Treat the reach as unlit and uncleared and you will not be wrong |
| Closures | No open closure published | No open closure published | Both, and this is the most perishable line here; check before a long ride |
City rows from the West Haven parks and cemetery pages, read 27 August 2026. Trail rows from the Trails Foundation of Northern Utah's own record for this trail, read the same day, and from the Weber County Cooperative Pathways Master Plan, endorsed in 2010 and never adopted. The corridor as a whole, its through route and everything upstream of the confluence live on the region's river subject rather than here.
Read that table and the shape of the city's relationship with its own river comes clear, and it is genuinely odd. West Haven describes itself, in its own words, as having developed an extensive system of parks and trails enjoyed by residents and visitors alike. Its parks page then lists ten parks, publishes its rule book, publishes its pavilion bookings, offers a trail map you can download, and never uses the words river, trail name or parkway once in its text. The one thing on that page that touches the water is the sentence offering you a place to sleep beside it.
There is nothing sinister in that. A city that turned thirty five this year, with departments running a four day week and eight thousand new residents in five years, writes down the things people ring up about, and nobody rings the city to ask how long the trail is. But it does mean that the practical facts here are thin, and that the honest thing for a page like this one to do is say which are missing rather than borrow them from a listings site. That is why the phrase not published appears as often as it does here.
The west end at a glance
5.50 mi
in the trail organization's current record, against 2.2 in a plan endorsed in 2010
1500 S 2350 W
the published west end, at the corner of the city cemetery
0
published parking stalls, drinking fountains and lights at any West Haven access point
6 AM to 10 PM
the hours that govern every city park on this end, campground included
Walk the west end
Start at the cemetery corner and head east toward the freeway.
This is the quietest good walk in Weber County and almost nobody knows it is there. The corridor runs along the bottom of the city, out of sight of the section roads, with farm ground on one side for much of it and the back of the city's newer streets on the other. It is dead flat, which on this ground means genuinely flat: the elevation across the whole of West Haven varies by about twenty five feet, and the difference between the cemetery corner and the campground is roughly the height of a two storey house.
The move is an evening one. Park considerately near the cemetery at 1550 South 2350 West, walk east, and turn around when you have had enough, because you do not know how far it goes and neither does anybody who publishes about it. Take water. There is no fountain published at any access point on this end and no shop within walking distance of the corridor. And take a light if you are out after dinner, because nothing here is lit and nobody has committed to lighting it.
What is upstream is somebody else's page and deliberately so. The confluence of the two rivers, the trailheads in Riverdale, the kayak park and the argument about how long the whole thing is all live on the region's river page, and Riverdale's own page keeps that city's reach. Two published access points further east, River Cove Trail Head and the trailhead the 2010 county plan put at 1200 South, are Marriott-Slaterville's ground rather than West Haven's, and that city has its own pages coming.
The details
Getting there
Aim for the city cemetery at 1550 South 2350 West. It is the only address on this end of the corridor that a public body puts in writing, it is easy to find on the Ogden grid, and the trail's published end is immediately beside it. From City Hall at 4150 South 3900 West the drive is about five miles north and east on flat section road, ten to twelve minutes. Coming off the freeway, the 21st Street interchange is the nearest door into this corner of the city.
Before you go
- No parking is published for any access point on this end. Park considerately on the street and never overnight, which is a citywide park rule.
- Adaptive access is marked no on the trail record for this reach, which is worth checking against your own party before you set out.
- Horses are not permitted. Dogs on leashes, bicycles and electric bikes are.
- Take water and a light. Nothing on this end has a published fountain and nothing is lit.
- Spring is the season to check the weather and the river before you set out, because nobody publishes a condition report for this reach.
Sleep on the trail
Prevedel Park Campground, booked by telephone, Monday to Thursday only.
West Haven City publishes one sentence about this and it is worth quoting in full, because it is the whole of the record: the City has a number of overnight camping spots on the trail just north of the city cemetery that are available. That is it. The parks page lists Prevedel Park Campground among the city's ten parks at 1300 South 2300 West, gives it the same hours and the same rules as every other park, and says nothing more.
So here is what a person actually needs to do. Call Parks and Recreation on 801-731-8882, at 2825 West 3300 South inside Country Park, Monday to Thursday between nine and five. There is no Friday, no weekend and no online booking form. Ask four questions on that call, because the city answers none of them in writing: what does it cost, how many nights may you stay, how many spots are there, and where are you supposed to leave the vehicle.
That last one is not a trick question. The same parks page that offers overnight camping also carries no overnight parking among its citywide park rules, and it does not reconcile the two. Somebody at the city knows the answer; nothing published does. Ask when you book, and get the answer from the person taking the booking rather than from a listing site.
What you can safely assume is modest and that is fine. This is a spot on a path in a city park, under park hours of six in the morning to ten at night and a rule book that bans alcohol, glass containers, fireworks and unleashed pets and puts the parks under video surveillance. Take what you would take to a primitive site, take your own water and light, and let the telephone call correct you upward if the reality is better than that.
The details
Getting there
The campground sits at 1300 South and 2300 West, in the city's northeast corner, with the cemetery at 1550 South 2350 West as the landmark just to the south. On the Ogden grid the street signs do the navigating, which is the one real advantage of a city laid out on section lines. The booking office is on the other side of the city at 2825 West 3300 South, so sort the reservation by telephone before you drive out here.
Before you go
- Book on 801-731-8882, Monday to Thursday, nine to five. There is no Friday and no online form.
- Ask the fee, the night limit, the number of spots and the parking. The city publishes none of the four.
- The citywide park rules apply: no alcohol or glass, smoke free, no fireworks, pets leashed, no motorised vehicles on the lawns, and video surveillance.
- Park hours are six in the morning to ten at night, which is the only published timing attached to this ground.
- Century Mobile Home and RV Park at 1483 West 2100 South is the year round alternative a few minutes east, with 192 sites and full hookups.
The city offers overnight camping and bans overnight parking on the same page, and does not say how both can be true. West Haven's parks page carries the camping sentence and, in its list of citywide park rules, the line no overnight parking, including semis and other large vehicles. Nothing published reconciles them, and this is the single most likely way a trip out here goes wrong: a camper who assumes the vehicle can stay beside the site may be reading a rule that says otherwise. Do not solve it yourself and do not solve it from a directory listing. Call Parks and Recreation on 801-731-8882 during the four day office week and ask where the vehicle goes, then write down what they tell you.
The ground on the water
Ten acres opened in 2013, and the only piece of city land that fronts the river.
The city cemetery at 1550 South 2350 West is the landmark for everything at this end of the corridor and it has a record of its own worth having. The city publishes that it opened in 2013, covers ten acres and will provide up to 6,500 plots, and it runs an interactive map online for finding a specific plot. The office keeps the same four day week as everything else here, Monday to Thursday from nine to five, and appointments go through 801-731-8882.
The fees are published in full, which is more than can be said for anything else the city rents. A plot runs from 550 dollars in the flat area or 650 dollars raised for a resident, and 1,000 or 1,100 dollars for a non resident. Opening and closing runs from 200 to 500 dollars for a resident and 300 to 750 for a non resident, and it varies with the day of the week, which is a detail worth asking about rather than assuming.
For a visitor rather than a family, the cemetery matters for one reason: it is the reference point. Every published description of this end of the trail is given relative to it, the camping is north of it, and the trail's published west end is at its corner. Ten acres of open ground on the river, opened the year this city really started growing, and the newest city land in Weber County to hold a public record this complete.
The details
Getting there
The cemetery corner is at 1550 South and 2350 West, in the northeast quarter of the city, five miles or so from City Hall on flat section roads. Come here first if you are trying to find the trail's west end or the camping, because it is the address every other description hangs on and it is signed as what it is.
Before you go
- Office hours are Monday to Thursday, nine to five, by appointment on 801-731-8882.
- Opening and closing charges vary by residency and by the day of the week. Ask rather than assume.
- The city runs an interactive map online for locating a plot, which saves a walk in bad weather.
- The cemetery's own rules sit in the city code rather than on the page, so ask the office about decorations before you bring any.
- The trail's published west end is at the corner of this ground, and the camping is just north of it.
If you keep going west
The wetlands start in the next town, and since July 2026 you need a permit to walk on them.
The river keeps going after the trail's published end, out across the flats toward the Great Salt Lake, and so does the curiosity of anybody who has driven the section roads on this side of the city. What is out there is Ogden Bay Waterfowl Management Area, and the honest answer for West Haven is that it belongs to Hooper: the wildlife area's published north access at 4786 South 7500 West sits in Hooper city, with about two and a half miles of Hooper ground between it and West Haven's western boundary near 5100 West.
What has changed, and what catches people out, is the access rule. Since 1 July 2026 the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources requires anyone aged eighteen or over to hold either a free digital access permit or a Utah hunting, fishing or combination license to be on a wildlife management area. The permit costs nothing: you watch the division's short educational material about these areas, show proof you finished it, and the permit lasts 365 days. The division publishes the rule and the sign up on its own wildlife management area page.
Two more things from the same rule, because both decide how a visit goes. Motor vehicles, including class two and class three electric bikes, are allowed only on marked roads. And the division closes some of these areas seasonally and publishes the specific dates on its own interactive map rather than in the rule, so check the map for the week you are going. Everything else about Ogden Bay, from the roads in to what you can see there, belongs to Hooper's own pages rather than to this one.
Living with it
A free trail at the end of the street, and nobody at all to ring about it.
For a household on the north side of this city, the corridor is the amenity that never closes. It costs nothing, it has no hours beyond the park hours at its access points, it is flat enough to ride with a small child, and on a summer evening you will meet almost nobody on it. That combination is rare enough in a growing suburb that it is worth understanding before choosing a street, because a bike ride to the river is a very different daily life from a drive to a park.
The trade is that nobody owns the experience. The city runs the campground and the rule book and does not name the trail. The trail organization names the trail and does not maintain it. The county wrote a plan in 2010, endorsed it, never adopted it, and has been quoted on the mileage ever since. So there is no closure notice to subscribe to, no condition report, no ploughing commitment and no lighting plan, and if a stretch washes out in a wet spring you will find out by walking to it.
None of that is a reason to weigh the corridor lightly. It is a reason to walk the reach behind a street before you buy on it, in the season you would actually use it. The page on moving here covers the rest of what an address on this side of the city asks, and the parks page carries the ten parks, the four bookable pavilions and the rule book that governs all of them.
The city publishes a place to sleep beside the river and never publishes the river. That gap is the most West Haven thing in the whole record.
Keep reading
Five more West Haven pages, and what each one is for.
Things to do
The top 5, ranked
Five picks, ranked, from a night on the trail to the fourth weekend in June.
Read the guideThe calendar
West Haven Days and the year
A rodeo week, five recurring rules, and an arts council with three shows.
Read the guideThe parks
The parks and the pavilions
Ten parks, four bookable pavilions, one rule book, and a barn that seats 124.
Read the guideThe water
Which district serves the address
Four culinary districts, eight irrigation sources, and no city water utility.
Read the guideMoving here
Moving to West Haven
Half the houses are newer than 2011, and some of the growth is not in the city.
Read the guideThe whole set
West Haven, in full
Ten parks, a trail with campsites, four water districts and 25,000 people on flat ground.
See all six pagesQuick answers
The trail, answered.
Two bodies give two answers and neither has been reconciled. The Trails Foundation of Northern Utah, which keeps the trail records for northern Utah, gives 5.50 miles and grades the trail easy. The Weber County Cooperative Pathways Master Plan, endorsed in 2010 and never formally adopted by the county, inventories the same trail at 2.2 miles of asphalt. The trail organization's figure is current and the county's is sixteen years old, so plan around 5.50 but walk it out and back rather than committing to a one way distance.
Its published west end is 1500 South 2350 West, at the corner of the West Haven City Cemetery, which is the landmark every description of this end uses because it is the only address on the reach that a public body puts in writing. From there the corridor runs east toward the freeway and on toward the confluence of the Weber and Ogden rivers. There is no published parking at that end or anywhere else in the city, and West Haven's only published parking rule for its parks is that overnight parking is not allowed.
Yes, and it is the only place on the whole corridor where a city offers it. West Haven publishes a number of overnight camping spots on the trail just north of the city cemetery, at Prevedel Park Campground, 1300 South 2300 West. Booking runs through West Haven Parks and Recreation at 2825 West 3300 South on 801-731-8882, Monday to Thursday from nine to five, and there is no online form. The city publishes no fee, no season, no night limit, no site count and no site amenities, so ask all of those when you ring.
No body publishes a surface for this reach today. The only surface description in the record is the 2010 county plan's 2.2 miles of asphalt, which is a sixteen year old figure in a document that was never adopted, so there is no current surface to plan around. Turn up expecting whatever the last few winters left. On accessibility the trail organization is explicit: it marks the Ogden River Parkway upstream as adaptive friendly and marks the West Haven Trail as not adaptive accessible. Horses are not permitted here. Hiking, biking, dogs, electric bikes and winter use are all permitted.
Nobody has committed to either in writing. The trail organization lists winter use among the permitted activities, which means you may use it, not that anyone clears it. No city, county or trail body publishes a snow clearing policy, a maintenance schedule or a lighting policy for this reach, and West Haven's parks pages carry nothing about the corridor at all. Treat the west end as unlit and uncleared from November onward, carry a light after dark, and expect the surface to be whatever the last storm left.
There is no answer in any current published record, and that is the honest finding rather than an omission. West Haven publishes no parking statement for Prevedel Park or for any other city park, and its only parking rule is that overnight parking is not allowed. The two stall counts that exist anywhere for this corridor come from the 2010 county plan, and the one it labels at 1200 South sits on Marriott-Slaterville ground rather than West Haven's. Park considerately on the street near the cemetery, and ask Parks and Recreation before leaving a vehicle overnight.
If you are eighteen or over, yes, since 1 July 2026. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources now requires either a free digital access permit or a Utah hunting, fishing or combination license to be on a wildlife management area, and Ogden Bay is on the list of areas covered from that date. The permit costs nothing but is not instant: you watch the division's educational material about these areas, show proof of completion, and the permit then lasts 365 days. Motor vehicles, including class two and three electric bikes, are limited to marked roads.
No, it is reached through Hooper. West Haven's westernmost boundary sits at about 5100 West, and the wildlife area's published north access is at 4786 South 7500 West, which is Hooper city, with roughly two and a half miles of Hooper ground in between. What West Haven has is the drive out and the wetland horizon at the end of the section roads. The area's acreage, its seasons, its roads and its parking belong on Hooper's own pages, and this site prints no acreage for it because the two figures in circulation differ by fourteen thousand acres and neither comes from the division.
Plenty, and almost all of it belongs to other pages on purpose. The whole through route, the confluence of the two rivers, the county's fort and pond beside it, the kayak park and the mileage argument across the entire corridor sit on the region's river parkways page. Riverdale keeps its own 1.90 mile reach, its trailheads and its bike park. Two published access points east of West Haven, River Cove Trail Head and the trailhead a 2010 plan put at 1200 South, are on Marriott-Slaterville ground and belong to that city. West Haven's share of this river is the west end, and the west end is what is here.
A free trail, a campground, and a city that has not got round to writing about either.
The corridor is the reason a lot of people look at the north side of this city, and it is exactly the sort of amenity that is easy to overvalue from a listing and easy to undervalue from a map. Walk the reach behind the street you are considering, in the season you would actually use it, and note what is not there as carefully as what is: no lighting, no published parking, no condition report and no closure notice to subscribe to. Then look at the rest of what a West Haven address asks, from which water district serves it to whether it is inside the city at all. Tell me what you are weighing and I will introduce you to a Weber and Morgan partner agent who works these streets, and stay on the file for the research 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.