City Creek Canyon

I don't know about you, but finding new running routes is both fun and scary at the same time.  Back in Boston, I had my standard routes.  The Comm Ave carriage road for when I wanted hills and the river path for when I wanted flat ground.  I knew these routes like the back of my hand and could tell you where every water fountain was located and how many miles it was until the next bridge.  Now in SLC, I have to find all new running routes.  And while there are endless choices, its still a bit intimidating to check them out.  I'm a creature of habit and don't like change (shocking since I just picked up my life and moved some 2,600 miles west!). 

We are lucky to be living at the mouth of City Creek Canyon which literally opens right into downtown Salt Lake.  I can't think of another place where you can be standing in the center of a city next to skyscrapers and within 1 mile, be in the mountains.  Totally cool!  There is a paved trail for the first portion and then it turns into a dirt trail (or so we've been told, we haven't actually made it that far yet!)

The other day, I took my iphone with me to snap some pictures of our 5 mile run.  These totally don't do it justice, but its the best I can do (Bryan flat out refused to run with his DSLR camera with the zoom lens...wimp!)

We start from our house with a steep 0.4 mile climb before a decent into the base of the canyon.

Within 1 mile from our house, we're on the canyon trail and in the woods.  The trees are excellent shade from the sun that feels 1000 times stronger out here than it did back east! 

The canyon road is uphill pretty much the whole time but most of it (at least where we've been) is fairly gradual.  This does not make it easy when you're at 4,500 ft!  Needless to say, there's not a lot of talking on the way up.  After about a mile, you come out into a clearing with the most amazing views.  The city is behind you, the rest of the canyon is ahead, and there are mountains on either side of you.  And we're only 2 miles from downtown at this point!

After a pretty constant climb up, we turn around and enjoy the nice downhill...and finally some talking since we aren't gasping for breath!  The picture below is the canyon from street level where we live one block over.

I know I said this before, but we are very lucky to be living in such an awesome location.  I have a feeling Heartbreak Hill is going to feel like a small bump after training up here!