City Creek Canyon extends from downtown Salt Lake City (the State Capitol is located on one of its benches) to the ridge of the Wasatch Mountains, a distance of about 12 miles. It is conveniently divided into four sections. The first mile from its mouth at 4600 feet elevation is Memory Grove Park, closed to motor vehicles. A paved road then extends about six miles up canyon to Rotary Park at 6050 feet. It is accessed from 11th Avenue and B Street on a one-way loop. From late May to October this road is open to motor vehicles on even-numbered days for a fee of $3 per car. Just above mile marker 3 is the SLC water treatment plant. This section, which I refer to as the lower road is relatively wide and well-maintained for access to the water plant. From there to the end the upper road is much narrower and more windy with relatively few cars using it for access to picnic areas. Above Rotary Park is the upper canyon, a little traveled area in which a single rather overgrown trail heads to the ridge at 8300 feet. The canyon is home to deer, moose, bear and cougar in the mammal department, and to at least 330 plant species.

   Lower road area has been very heavily impacted by construction of the water treatment plant, a reservoir (now dismantled), and a pipeline that crosses it at about the 1.5 mile point. These activities have been the source of many invasive species that dominate the once lovely meadows. SLC has begun a major program to try and bring these under control, but it is a monumental task. Morgan Flats, where a sign indicates that it had been recently revegetated, is completely devastated: of 28 species I found in the revegetated area only 3 were native!

    The upper road is much less impacted except in the immediate vicinity of picnic areas, while the upper canyon has relatively few places with significant invasion.

    Highlights for the native plants were Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) and the best patch of Large-flowered Collomia (Collomia grandiflora) I have ever seen, just below the Pleasant Valley picnic area where the soil has been disturbed as part of the reclamation work (see post of 6/29/08 for photo of plant). In the following list, a few of which were not actually blooming, plants are color coded:

                            Native            Introduced, relatively benign            Introduced, invasive