Tom and I live in between two reservoirs:  Alum Creek Reservoir and Hoover Reservoir.  Recently we have been taking advantage of our proximity to these two areas and doing some hiking and exploring.

We get done with drive-in church at 10:45 on Sundays and leave immediately after church is over.  But, what to do?  It is too early for lunch and we don’t feel like going straight home.  So we have been taking some long walks.  We have to drive by Alum Creek Reservoir on our way home and it has miles of good hiking trails.

The most popular walk at Alum Creek Reservoir is the dam walk.  There are parking lots on both ends of the dam as well as a recreation and picnic area at the bottom of the dam.  You can park at either end and walk out and back across the top of the dam.  Or you can park at the recreation area and walk up a tall, steep set of steps to the top of the dam.  There are also trails cut into a meadow beside the spillway.

The dam is very long and built in an “S” shape that decreases the water pressure against one particular point.  Walking from end of the dam trail to the other is about 1.75 miles, so a nice 3.5 mile walk total.  The first time Tom and I walked this trail, we could see people walking on other trails.  This made us curious to explore more.

Turns out there are about 10 miles of hiking trails along the sides of Alum Creek Reservoir.  The best trail map we found was on a kiosk close to the beach.  The Visitors Center is closed on weekends, so we couldn’t ask for a paper map there.  The trails are easy to find although they are not clearly marked.  The easiest trail to follow, beside the dam trail, is the Storybook Trail.  The Storybook Trail follows a story about bees, In the Trees, Honey Bees! by Lori Mortensen.  Tom and I had fun walking it and reading the simple story.

Even though drive-in church is over, Tom and I hope to keep up our Sunday walks.  There are lots of good trails in the area to explore and each season brings its own beauty.