The Parley’s Trail will soon offer some great alternatives to driving a car.

Parley’s Trail is named for the pioneer explorer and surveyor whose Golden Pass Toll Road led thousands of westbound immigrants through the Wasatch Mountains and into the Salt Lake Valley.

When it is finished, Parley’s Trail will open up new opportunities for many more thousands of people to move through the valley on a safe, paved bicycle and pedestrian trail that will connect Parley’s Canyon to the Jordan River Parkway.

Building a non-motorized pathway across a highly developed urban area is a huge challenge, one that has taken over a decade to plan. Some segments are finished, such as the one in Parley’s Historic Nature Park that connects to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Others are funded and being designed now, including the rail-trail section in the Sugar House Streetcar Greenway.

Building the rest of the trail depended upon the support of Salt Lake County voters in this November’s general election. A passed proposal of nine million dollars from a  regional parks and trails bond will provide the necessary funds to finish Parley’s Trail, including the critical section along Parley’s Creek from Tanner Park to Sugar House Park and on to the new streetcar line.

The trail will pass through residential neighborhoods and bustling business nodes, providing transportation and recreational choices to tens of thousands of people in Salt Lake County. Parley’s Trail is lined with parks, schools, clinics and churches. New residents will soon be moving into housing developments in Sugar House and South Salt Lake, and when the trail is complete, they will have the option to leave their automobiles at home and use the trail to access those services and amenities.

A recent Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation survey shows that 80 percent of respondents felt trails were the most important recreational amenity the county could provide. Another portion of the Parks and Trails Bond will go to finish the Jordan River Parkway. The River Trail and the Bonneville Shoreline Trail provide connections to every other major pathway in the County, creating a broad network of multi-use trails throughout the region. It’s a plan that would have made Parley Pratt proud!

Go to www.parleystrail.org to see a map of the trail and its regional connections.