Santaquin: Life on the Edge

Today we started the “real” episodes of State of the BST! March in Utah being March in Utah, after our nice spring weather three weeks ago, we started today hiking in several inches of snow. Half of it had melted by the time we finished.

We had to skip a couple miles from our last jaunt because of private property concerns. One of the rules we are living by is to only hike sections where we would be willing to let all of you visit, which means no trespassing on posted private property. So, we started this morning in the southeastern corner of Santaquin, along the big diversion channel built after the mudslides of 2002, which were a result of the “Mollie” forest fire on Dry Mountain in 2001. So it seemed a great place to talk about the nexus of natural hazards we seem to have along the BST (the Wildland-Urban Interface or “WUI”), and I know the perfect guest to talk about hazards, my office neighbor, Dr. Matt Bekker.

Matt is a physical geographer who specializes in dendrochronology (tree rings), but he also teaches a general education course called “Landscapes of Disaster.” We had a very interesting congregation about the recurrence of fire, floods, debris flows (mudslides), landslides, and earthquakes along the Lake Bonneville benches, the irresistible pull of the views, the woods, and the wildlife that draws new housing developments up into these areas (including what looks like another subdivision preparing to be built), and how we are (or should be) trying to mitigate the hazard that results from this collision along the line that is the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.

The Trail, you say? Well, we got a mixed bag. On the east side of town, there is an ATV track between the edge of the subdivisions and the base of the mountain that can (at least for now) suffice as a BST. Some of it is on city-owned property, but most is on private property, so who knows if and when it will be developed. Also it is a steep climb from the northeastern corner of development at East Side Park (just below the actual Bonneville shoreline at 5000ft) up to the southwestern corner of town at the end of Oak Summit Drive at 5300ft. So we went looking at a route further up in the hills where development will likely never occur; even though it is far above the shoreline, more of it is on public lands and it could be taken in a more level route all the way around the city. I had hiked this route before and remembered a pretty good trail, but today, even though we were following it exactly on the State of the BST Explorer map, it was all bushwhacking along a deer path. At least the views were great, and it seemed a good route for future development. It crossed some very large geotechnical trench scars, so it looks like someone is planning a development right up against the mountain (P.S.: I found out later, it is called Scenic Ridge Estates, and apparently they were trying to find the Wasatch Fault to buffer the houses away from it. See, a perfect place to talk about natural hazards!) Looking at the 2016 Santaquin Parks and Trails Plan, it looks like the intended route of the BST might climb from Peter Rabbit Spring (270 South Oak Summit Dr) up to the higher bench.

After a gap of several miles to avoid the gravel pit north of Santaquin, we started at the Picayune Canyon Trailhead (National Forest) and went south for 1.6 miles and back overlooking Spring Lake. The northern end, in National Forest Land, was a very nice (if unofficial) trail built by local horseback riders that could instantly be designated as BST. The next half mile, on private (but not posted) property, was a stretch of very roughly plowed firebreak from the 2018 Bald Mountain Fire (a good precaution even though the fire never actually came down this side of Dry Mountain). It was clear of trees and not too steep, and used a lot by horseback riders, but it would need some work to be a decent trail. The southern half mile was along a narrow doubletrack just outside a tall fence surrounding a large orchard. I believe this fence was put in after the 2018 firebreak was cut through here, even though the same person owns the property on both sides of the fence. Does this mean he is allowing public access on the mountain side? This trail has a lot of steep up and down along the fence, so we tried to find an alternative trail in the hills, but this turned into another bushwhack. So, tonight I’m editing the map to take out a few trail segments that I had thought were in better shape, but I’m also adding a few that we found. I guess the trip accomplished its purpose.