Temple quarry and little cottonwood creek trail is a 8 7 mile heavily trafficked out and back trail located near sandy utah that features a river and is rated as moderate.
Little cottonwood canyon granite quarry.
The trail is paved and wheelchair accessible and on top of the beautiful nature around you there are signs along the way that help you learn the history.
Catherine armstrong if you continue on down little cottonwood trail be aware that it s heavily used by mountain bikers.
Mining lumbering and quarrying drew hundreds even thousands of people to towns that have since died.
Little cottonwood creek branches off temple quarry trail and you can continue on another 6 5 miles if you d like to explore more of little cottonwood canyon.
The trail offers a number of activity options and is best used from march until october.
All of the granite from which the salt lake city temple was constructed came from the giant boulders here at the base of the canyon.
The temple quarry trail at the mouth of little cottonwood canyon near salt lake city is a great short trail for families.
This is a fun out and back that heads up the canyon mostly parallel to the canyon road and the creek.
Little cottonwood canyon granite quarry.
In the late 1800 s and early 1900 s this was a busy place.
If you ve ever been on a temple square tour you ve probably heard about the salt lake temple granite quarried from little cottonwood canyon roughly 20 miles south of temple square the area is today known as the temple quarry trail.
Interpretive signs along the way paint a picture of what life was like in this area in the late 1800s.
The first half mile is pretty loose and sandy.
Park at the temple quarry trailhead which is on the south side of little cottonwood rd at the mouth of the canyon.
The granite mountain records vault also known simply as the vault is a large archive and vault owned by the church of jesus christ of latter day saints lds church excavated 600 feet into the north side of little cottonwood canyon the granite mountain facilities feature a dry environment controlled facility used for long term record storage as well as administrative offices shipping and.
Visible still are drill holes made by the pioneers and a plaque explains that a small town once.
Graniteville wasatch hogum tannersville central city alta and emmaville are gone but the stories and evidence of.
Little cottonwood canyon lies within the wasatch cache national forest along the eastern side of the salt lake valley roughly 15 miles from salt lake city utah the canyon is part of granite a cdp and community council designated by salt lake county the canyon is a glacial trough u shaped canyon carved by an alpine glacier during the last ice age 15 000 to 25 000 years ago.
At the mouth of little cottonwood canyon i bike to the temple quarry park.
Early settlers to the salt lake valley quarried granite for the lds salt lake temple from this area.
This flat paved loop trail is less than half a mile long and is wheelchair and stroller accessible.
History has left its mark on little cottonwood canyon.
