By Justin Adams | [email protected]

Herriman City officials held a groundbreaking ceremony last month for the Juniper Canyon Recreation Area.

The new recreational area is located in the city’s south, which has grown a lot in recent years. The entrance to the park will be located at the corner of Sentinel Ridge Blvd. and Autumn Spring Drive, just next to the new Lee’s Marketplace and down the road from what will be a shared satellite campus for the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College.

“Juniper Canyon will be a key part of our trail system in the southeastern side of our community. The trailhead is situated to get hikers and other trail users up to our existing trail system while also being ideally located near existing and future commercial development that will allow visitors to our city to spend dollars in our city,” said Herriman Mayor Lorin Palmer.

The full 72.6 acre open space stretches across both sides of Mountain View Corridor, but the first phase of the project will focus on the space on the east side of the highway.

The first phase will include standard park amenities like picnic tables and pavilions, but what sets it apart from most parks is its focus on bikes. There will be a “bike playground” with obstacles for bikers of all skill levels to test their skills against. Some of the obstacle course features will be made from mining equipment that has been donated by Rio Tinto. There will also be a pump track, a looped track with a series of rollers and banked turns, which allow riders to continuously traverse the course using just their momentum.

There will also, of course, be some bike racks and even a bike service station to help riders pump up a flat tire or make simple repairs.

Future phases will focus on building trails on the west side of Mountain View Corridor, eventually connecting all the way to Yellow Fork, Rose Canyon and Butterfield Canyon recreation areas, making it a true mountain bikers' paradise.

The price tag for the first phase of the project is $2.2 million, the bulk of which comes from Park Impact Fees. (Park Impact Fees are paid by developers, and go into a fund designated to build parks to support the newly developed communities.) A portion of the project’s funding also comes from grants from the SL County Tourism, Recreation, Cultural and Convention Commission and the Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation. Future phases of the project will be built as funding becomes available.

Construction is expected to have minimal impact on nearby residents, though street parking along Autumn Spring Drive will not be available throughout the course of the project.