The Heber Valley lies just south of the expansive trail systems in and around Park City, Utah. For years, Heber Valley locals, including Eric Porter and others with the Wasatch Trails Foundation (WTF), have advocated for the development of singletrack trails in their valley.
As WTF continues to expand the trail systems it manages, it is prioritizing trail connectivity. This connectivity push includes an ambitious project they are calling, for now, the “Heber Valley Halo.”
MTB trails in Wasatch County
WTF, first organized as the Wasatch Trails Alliance, was founded around 2010-2011. Now known as the “Wasatch Trails Foundation,” the organization manages over 175 miles of trails in Wasatch County, most of which are in the Heber Valley, home to Heber City.
“When the Wasatch Trails Alliance first started, it was in part because there was this established trail system in Park City, but the people who were moving into the Heber Valley wanted their own trail system,” Mia Yue, Executive Director of WTF, told us. “So a handful of people started building singletrack trails here in the Heber Valley.”
While WTF is a multi-use trail organization, most of its leadership is deeply rooted in the area’s mountain bike community. The Wasatch Over Wasatch trail, or “WOW” as the locals call it, was one of the first major projects the organization undertook. WOW spans a massive 10 miles, climbing and descending over 2,000 feet and topping out at over 8,300 feet, and offers some of the most breathtaking views of the area.
Yue pointed to their neighboring trail organization in Park City, the Mountain Trails Foundation. Without early partnership from them, there was potential that WTF may have never gotten off the ground. The two organizations continue to partner and strategize, connecting Yue with donors and funding, which have allowed her to step into the position full-time. In doing so, Yue has been able to take a broader look at WTF, hoping to establish the organization in the Heber Valley for years to come.
The two organizations continue to work together on trail development, with recent and ongoing projects building connections between trails in Wasatch and Summit (Park City) Counties.
WOW to Bonanza Loop Trail (BLT)
“Technically, this will be the first open connection from Wasatch County to a Summit County Trail System,” Yue said.
The majority of the WOW trail stretches north to south, leaving only a handful of miles between the northern tip of the trail to the Bonanza Loop Trail (BLT). The Mountain Trails Foundation built BLT in 2024 at the southern edge of Park City.
Yue informed us that a connection between WOW and the Park City trails has been in development since 2019. However, hiccups and setbacks continued to push the project back, and the folks at WTF began to wonder if a connection would ever be built.
But, with the completion of BLT and a consistent push between the trail organizations to connect systems, WTF finally broke ground on the connector trail in the fall of 2024. At the time of our interview, Yue reported that the connector was approximately 40% complete.
As the project gained traction, however, a simple connector trail turned into two trails, then three, and eventually four.
“We started hiking around up there, and we realized that there’s some really amazing terrain,” Yue told us. “When we were designing this trail, we were literally just hiking around the woods, finding big rocks and [asking] how we get to the rocks.”
The connector will be an entirely blue trail, spanning over three miles. The northern side of the trail, connecting to BLT, will climb roughly 700 feet, while the side coming from the south (WOW trail) will gain approximately 1,000 feet. It is on this side that this once-simple connector trail will provide options for riders.
To descend the nearly 1,000 feet to the WOW trail, WTF is constructing a dedicated downhill-only trail. This will connect back to the multi-use route that can be used for climbing back to the top, providing a lapable loop on the WOW/BLT connector.
“It’s downhill flow. There are jumps, there are a ton of big rocks. We’re working with a contractor who has a company called Coyote Canyon Construction to do a bunch of wood features in there as well. It’s going to be blue, but there will be black options, essentially,” Yue said.
Both the downhill and uphill trails will be approximately one to two miles long. Yue also noted that the DH trail features some larger slabs and rock formations, which are relatively unique to the area.
WTF will also be hand-digging a hike-only trail that will provide more options for other trail users in the area and reduce trail conflict.
WOW connector to Deer Valley East Village
While the WOW/BLT connector heads toward Park City to the northwest, WTF has also built another connector trail off WOW to the northeast. This trail connects WOW to Deer Valley Resort’s East Village.
“It’s a little tricky right now because it was supposed to be open this spring, and then they shut all of it down for construction,” Yue explained. Deer Valley is currently undergoing a massive expansion, adding ten chairlifts and 100 new ski runs over the next two years. Unfortunately, the area where the lifts are being installed is where the new connector trail is located. For safety reasons, the trail was shut down until construction is complete. Yue said the connector is called Tricky Pickle, appropriately named for the situation they find themselves in.
Tricky Pickle doesn’t perhaps have the same flash as the WOW/BLT connector trail, as it is simply an intermediate trail connecting the trail systems. It climbs and descends roughly 600 feet before connecting to Deer Valley.
However, this connector trail allows for easy access to the Deer Valley bike park, enabling Heber Valley residents to ride from their garage for some laps at the bike park. The Deer Valley trails and Park City trails are so integrated that uphill travel is allowed (on climbing trails) in the bike park.
“You could pedal from [home], all the way up to the top of Deer Valley where you drop into the bike park,” Yue said. “There are multiple access points to pedal on to the lift-serve riding.”
Aside from the bike park, Tricky Pickle connects to about 50 miles of multi-use trails in Deer Valley and even more trails in Park City’s trail systems.
“Heber Valley Halo”
As WTF continues to establish connections to Park City trail systems to the north, they’ve also been considering how to connect more of their trail systems around the entire Heber Valley.
“One of our pillars is to connect our community,” Yue said. “So we’re working on a feasibility study and stuff like that. And people have been asking for that connection for a while.”
The “connection” Yue is speaking of is a massive undertaking they’ve dubbed, for now, the “Heber Valley Halo.” This (mostly) singletrack trail would circle the entire valley, providing trail access to communities like Midway, Charleston, and Daniel.
Currently, in Heber Valley, trail access means driving to a trailhead. WTF hopes to provide more opportunities for folks to ride from home. While it is still in the earliest stages of planning, the result could be many miles of singletrack surrounding the entire Heber Valley, potentially transforming the area into the next great bikepacking destination.
“We’re working towards accessibility. We’re working towards less crowding and spreading people out, and more options for those who live in different places.”
1 Comments
1 day ago
WTF also grooms many miles of ST for fat biking in the winter as well. Money well spent to help fund them.