Rail Trail - Legacy Trail

I had a goal to ride from one end of the paved portion of the Rio Grande rail trail in Clinton to the other end of the Legacy parkway trail in Salt Lake.  On May 28th, Tom and I met at the North end and rode to the south.  Here are a few pictures and comments on the trip.  Thanks to Tom's Garmin, we have the GPS track of the ride.  The total distance on the trail was 27.9 miles. 

The North end of the trail ends/starts at the county line on the Roy city limit.  It is just north of 2300 North in Clinton.  We have been told that Roy is going to start paving their section of the trail this year.  We will call this mile 0. 

Here is the screen capture from Google Earth.  

The pictures are from my IPhone.  Sorry they are so crappy.
Here is the North end of the trail.

I took a few photos along the way of some interesting areas.

At mile 2 there is a very nice pond

In my mind these first few miles of the trail were the most beautiful.  

At Mile 3.1 you run into an interesting problem.  In the middle of the block, you come to a chain link fence that that has a no trespassing sign.  Do you go back, do you go forward?

What do now?  Look around, and you will see how others have solved the problem.  Pick up your bike and do a little cyclocross down the hill and around the fence.   I'm not sure why the trail can't cross this rail spur (not a main line).  I'm sure there is a good reason, but it doesn't seem like anyone is deterred by the short piece of chain link fence.

After you get across the tracks, then the trail gets long and boring.  It's a great time to do some sprint training between the road crossings.

The next major feature is at mile 14.4.  This is the end of the pavement for the rail trail.  Just as you pass the Davis County Fairgrounds there is a 0.7 mile cutoff trail that takes you over to the Legacy Parkway Trail.

Here is the end of the rail trail.

This next picture shows the cutoff trail heading east.

Looking back from the East end of the cutoff trail.

The cutoff trail dumps you out on State Street in Farmington just west of I-15.  You have to ride along the sidewalk and do one road crossing in order to get on to the Legacy Parkway trail.

The Legacy Parkway trail is well used on the weekends, so be careful of other cyclists, boy scout troops, joggers, and walkers.  

The South end of Legacy Parkway Trail ends just after you go under I-215.  Chevron donated some money to continue the trail about another mile to the south to join up with the Jordan River trail.   Unfortunately, there is still about another mile of unfinished trail before you get to the paved portion of the Jordan river trail.  Hopefully, someday, this piece will be finished as well.   We turned around at the end of the pavement.  The total distance from the north end to the south end was 27.9 miles.  

End of the line.

Overall, it was a very fun and relaxing ride.  You are not going to set any speed records on the trail, there are too many road crossings and too many people.  But, it is a nice ride and we are fortunate to have such a nice trail along the Wasatch Front.