It’s been quite some time since I run in Salt Lake City. We were here over Thanksgiving visiting friends so I used this opportunity to run.
During the last ice age, Lake Bonneville (a pluvial lake), was covering large part of what is today Utah. The Great Salt Lake is all that is left today. Bonneville Shoreline Trail is running along the Wasatch Mountain range along the edge of the ancient lake. While I did run along this trail before, it was further South, so this qualifies as new running route. Snow fell couple of days before and the morning temperatures were in the low 20s. Naturally, this did not stop me. I got my Garmin GPS and went running.
From my hotel, I went straight up to the trail, then turned left, heading North. I followed the trail few miles, then came back more-less the same way. Snow was covering part of the trail and it was quite slippery at few places. I timed this run perfectly, so I was able to capture spectacular views of the Salt Lake valley and the lake in the sunrise colors.

Bonneville Trail Run

Bonneville Trail

Wasatch Mountain Range

Salt Lake Valley

Great Salt Lake

Our house in Salt Lake City was above the Foothill Drive, few blocks from the edge of the town. Most days, Maggie and I would run up to the Wasatch Drive and from there either go south, to the I-80 and back, or north, to the Bonneville golf course and back. Both of those routes were about 3 miles. For longer runs, we went the southern route first, and then instead of turning left to go home from Wasatch Drive, continue north to the golf course. Maggie loved the golf course. Wide open green and the lot of wild life (foxes, bunnies, seagulls and deer). Since we always ran very early, we never saw any people the golf course (we did see a lot of animals though). Every time when we went the southern route first, Maggie would start pulling to the right as we are getting closer to our street on the way back (we would turn left there if going back home). She really wanted to go to that golf course each time.

One morning, the gate for our back yard was open and Maggie ran to the golf course and back into the house all by herself. We would have never known that happened, had it not been for our neighbors who followed her back to the house and told us what happened.

Even though most of the running was on the streets, these were very nice routes. The neighborhoods these routes go through are very nice, views are absolutely incredible and there is very little traffic, especially early in the morning. There were a number of trails near our house, but they were all quite steep and rocky. Running up would be hard, but running down would be very dangerous.