I went for a drive into Snake Creek Canyon near Midway on Sunday. In the upper end of the canyon someone had posted the public road with no trespassing signs and the old gate was dragged across the road. The road is public, and the land is public (Wasatch Mtn. State Park). This was not all. Farther up the road somone has had a cat up there widening the road, removing rocks and this is the really bad part: they have destroyed several legal road closure barriers and have improved the closed roads. This land has a conservation easment on it, so maintanance of existing, open routes is allowed, but not improvement. We spoke with both Wasatch Mountain State Park and Wasatch county, and neither agency has done the work, but the State Park was very, very concerned over it and was unaware of it. The newly opened (illegally) routes appear to have been driven by ATV's and have been widened only sufficiently for ATV's or very narrow jeeps. My suspicion, and what concerns me is that a group of ATV enthusiasts has taken the land use of the area into their own hands. If this is the case it will only be hurting the four-wheeling community. Part of my reason for posting this is that I drove the routes with a man who has been heavily involved in the land use controversies in that area and is a member of a conservation group who bought much of that land and thus prevented Brighton from developing it. So what I'm saying is that I know for a fact that these routes were "re-opened" illegally. Does anyone have any information about this?
illegal improvements made to routes in Snake Creek
- Thread starter jeff788
- Start date
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
Who's property is it on?
First step is to offer to take the managing agency (USFS, NPS, etc) up there and show them what your referring to... they must know who had a cat up there... Are you sure is wasn't used to access private property?
First step is to offer to take the managing agency (USFS, NPS, etc) up there and show them what your referring to... they must know who had a cat up there... Are you sure is wasn't used to access private property?
It's been a year or so but last time I was up there I noticed an increase of work being done to access what appeared to be private land, this was in the area below where the road crosses to the South side of the drainage and climbs out of the canyon to the south, (same upper end of the canyon you are talking about right?) and as i recall has been worked on to some degree for several years. I would be more suprised that the state park didn't know about it than I would be if someone is doing illegal construction activity.
iceaxe, I think we are both talking about the same part of the canyon. The guy I was riding the trail with spoke to the director of the State Park and they had no part or knowledge of the barricades being destroyed, or the signs being put up. In fact he said that they were probably going to fingerprint the signs and look into finding out who had posted them and done the tractor work. The routes where the work was done were legally closed and barricades had been installed. Even if the work were done to access private land, or if someone disagreed with the closures, this is not the way to go about it. They are cool roads and would be great to ride, but as long as they are legally closed, that should be respected.
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
jeff788 said:
Thanks for the update... let me know if you need any help or contacts within the USFS... I can get ahold of the AF Rangers and see if they know anything...
Glad your keeping a watchful eye on the trails
Update: we found out what happened. Some guy bought a section of land in the upper canyon and seems to be extremely confused as to where his land and authority end. He put the gate up and locked it even tough the gate was about 2 miles from his property and on public land. He says that the gate is on his property but it is not even close. He hasn't had the land surveyed so he is really just assuming (wrongly) that it is on his land. The State Park is taking action on this. All of the road work he did is also not on his land and he did not obtain permission to do it, and again he thinks it is on his land. I also found out why some of the routes in the area were closed. There were many problems with ATV's ripping up the land very badly including widespread cross-country travel, so the State Park decided to close the routes by installing barriers.
If anyone would like further information on this PM me and I can put you in contact with people that are more informed than myself. Thanks for all of you comments.
Jeff
If anyone would like further information on this PM me and I can put you in contact with people that are more informed than myself. Thanks for all of you comments.
Jeff
- Location
- South Carolina....no public land
good job detective. It will be interesting to see if that guy gets charged with any crimes.
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
BlackSheep said:
Ditto... way to follow through with the investigation Jeff. Hope it all turns out for the best in that area.