Marvelous City Creek Canyon

Mere steps from downtown Salt Lake City lies City Creek Canyon, a seemingly small, unassuming canyon that I have visited more than 1,000 times. Why do I keep returning there when there are so many other options? The answer is simple. City Creek happens to be a marvelous place brimming with incredible wildlife and landscapes. 

 One day, at noon, by mile marker 1.5, on that small hill, bold as the heat in a Thai curry, a bobcat stared at me with a grouse hanging from his mouth.

 Another time, summer, afternoon sun barely peeking out between remnants of a storm front, I watched a mink fishing in the creek like a glossy black eel moving through the shallows.

 I met a cougar there, once, a powerful, elegant creature whose silent strength will always remain solid in a wave of translucent memories.

 Large and long-legged, tarantulas traipse across the trail and road in the fall, hunting for mates, and I carry them out of danger, knowing they will be as gentle and relaxed as I am with them.

 Two baby raccoons once scrambled up a tree in front of me, hissing and squeaking in a frightened attempt to intimidate me, making me hurry on my way.

 For a while I recorded the songs of dippers along City Creek. Gray-brown and plump, dippers are one of the few songbirds that dive underwater. While most dippers have disappeared from the area, you can still sometimes find their bubbling, endless song riding the sound of the creek to your ears.

I have always found beauty and tranquility in City Creek Canyon. Quite obviously, the gambel oak and maple hillsides pop with color in the fall and the creek becomes dotted with yellow, orange, and red. In the winter, especially after a fresh snowfall, the canyon transforms into something else entirely. Ethereal and sparkly, the white reflecting thousands of tiny stars. Or, when the trees drip with melting snow, and the entire world is bursting with the scent of SPRING, a smell both universal and indescribable. So go, as soon as you can, and experience the wonder. Drink it in and forget your “real world” stress and worry. This canyon can heal us all.

By Maria Goller