Tales From My Trekking Poles: Wagner Spring

This is another Hike of the Week from the Salt Lake Tribune, originally published 5/6/2012. It is easy, and would be fun for children. It is a little under 3 miles round trip, and took me 1 1/2 hours, but that included finding 4 geocaches. If you are a Geocacher, be sure to download the geocaches in the area. There are some cool ones. ( You can use GC1KCQ3 as a target geocache for your Pocket Query http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC1KCQ3_solsbury-hill-wasatch?guid=123daf70-f583-439a-a62b-db9d4e81568a. Click to see some cool pictures of the area. That cache is at the destination, the top of a hill.) The trailhead is right across the street from Hogle Zoo on Sunnyside Avenue. Turn left into the first possible parking lot after you pass Pioneer Trail State Park. The trailhead parking is immediately to your right after you turn in, next to the Zoo North Lot. (GPScoordinates N40 45.054 W 111 48.693) Park your car and walk through the gap in the fence. If you go left, you will be on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, but instead go right, and up the hill. You will come to a trail junction at .23 miles. There is a sign post, but no sign. Go to the right. Now just follow the trail for a while. If you are a geocacher, be sure to look for the geocache called Big Beacon 2. http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2GD1Q_big-beacon-2?guid=7858280a-dbce-4b75-a1b0-8ac465120771 It has a very cool container. Even if you are not a geocacher, you can look for it; Here's how: Less than 1/2 mile from your vehicle, you will have a great view of what looks to be a dog park down below on your right. When you are about even from the restrooms at the dog park, you are maybe 100 yards from the cool geocache. After a clear, straight portion of trail, you will come to a Gambel Oak maybe 5 feet tall on your right. Below that Oak is a rock, pictured below. Turn the rock over and you will be surprised. It is one of my favorite geocaching containers! Be sure to reposition the rock the way you found it! If you have children along, that would be a fun thing for them to look for. If you find it using my description, please let me know! About 1/2 mile into the hike, you will see a large concrete tank on your left. This is Wagner Spring. It has kind of a cool view. If I were a Freshman at the U, I would set up a candlelight dinner here for a fun date! There is another pretty good geocache maybe 20 feet North of the tank. http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCWKYN_wagner-springs-tank-cache?guid=851af906-f7f4-4795-b7d1-d7d351f1369e
Continuing past the tank, in a couple of minutes you will reach another junction. Go to the right up the hill. At the 1 mile point, you will reach a buried crude oil pipeline, marked by several signs.
Apparently, the owner of a black wide tip permanent marker, who has anger problems and a foul vocabulary, does not like the oil pipeline for some reason. (He missed a few of the signs farther up the hill though.) At the pipeline, turn right and head up the hill. At the top of the hill, you will come to another intersection. Go right, and head toward the higher hill that has a dirt road going straight up it. It looks like it should be difficult and tiring, but I found it to be quick and easy. There is a bright yellow bike trail marker on top, and another geocache. http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC1KCQ3_solsbury-hill-wasatch?guid=123daf70-f583-439a-a62b-db9d4e81568a I enjoyed the view, but did not stay too long, because there was some lightning headed that way, and I did not want me and my aluminum trekking poles to be the highest things around! I went down the way I came. At the trailhead, I noticed a hand written sign that I had not seen at the beginning. It said, Caution. Mountain Lion was seen on trail on 8/22/14 at 2:15 PM. One week almost to the minute, from when I hiked this trail!