East Canyon State Park
A Weber Basin reservoir in a walled canyon on the Mormon Pioneer Trail, half an hour from the Wasatch Front.
East Canyon · Morgan County · Wasatch Back
State Park 730 acres 6,000 ft high point Est. 1966 Utah Division of State Parks Dark Sky Park
Overview
East Canyon is a reservoir in a narrow-walled canyon about thirty miles north-east of Salt Lake City — close enough to the Wasatch Front to be a weeknight destination, walled enough to keep a sky. The Mormon Pioneer Trail runs through here; the wagons came down this canyon in 1847. The park's own surveys put it at Bortle 4 and an SQM-L average of 21.14 in 2020, and it is one of very few parks in this corpus with a genuine before-and-after: it measured 21.07 in 2016 and 21.14 in 2020. The sky got darker. That almost never happens, and it is worth saying out loud.
Getting in
When to go
Best: Jun, Sep, Oct
Summer for the water, autumn for the sky. Winter brings ice fishing and inversions.
Safety & conditions
Activities
Stargazing
Certified 2020. Bortle 4, SQM-L 21.14 (2020), up from 21.07 in 2016. A walled canyon thirty miles from Salt Lake City, with regular ranger night-sky programmes.
Season: Year-round; new-moon best. Avoid inversion nights.
Camping
Campgrounds on the reservoir.
Regs: Reservable through Utah State Parks.
Fishing
Stocked rainbow trout; ice fishing in winter.
Hiking
Shoreline trails and a section of the Mormon Pioneer Trail.
Night Sky
Dark Sky Park Certified 2020 Bortle 4 21.14 mag/arcsec² across 3 sites
Bortle 4 — a rural/suburban transition sky, and the park says so plainly. The canyon walls are what buy it: the Salt Lake valley is thirty miles away and the park is down in a slot. What moves the number: moon, the season, and — this being the Wasatch — winter inversions.
What the sky does here
-
Typical
Bortle Class 4: The Contested Sky
Under a Class 4 sky, the Milky Way remains visible overhead, but obvious light domes occupy parts of the horizon. Wilderness and development are both present, and the emotional experience changes depending on which direction a person faces.
-
Only when
Bortle Class 5: Wilderness with an Address
On a winter inversion night, when the Salt Lake valley’s light is trapped under a lid of cold air — the same effect Antelope Island measured costing it nearly three tenths of a magnitude.
Geology
A narrow canyon cut through folded and faulted Wasatch sediments — the walls are the whole reason the park has a night sky.
Province: Wasatch Range — Middle Rocky Mountains
Rock types: sandstone, limestone, conglomerate
Major formations
Also present: Echo Canyon Conglomerate
Ecology
Biomes: montane shrubland; Gambel oak and maple; riparian along East Canyon Creek
Flora
- Gambel oak
- bigtooth maple
- sagebrush
Fauna
- mule deer
- elk
- moose
- beaver
- osprey
Wasatch Back canyon country. The park makes an explicit case for nocturnal wildlife in its certification.
History
East Canyon lies within the ancestral homeland of the Shoshone and Ute peoples, whose connection to this country continues. The Mormon pioneers came down this canyon into the Salt Lake valley in 1847, and the Donner-Reed party cut the road they used. The reservoir was built in the mid-1960s under the Weber Basin Project.
Modern issues
-
Wasatch Front growth
Status: ongoing
Thirty miles from a metro area of two million, and the canyon walls are the only thing between them.