Big Cottonwood Trail in Cottonwood Heights: What’s Open

If you've walked the paved path near the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon in the last month, you've probably hit a barricade, a detour sign, and a mild flash of irritation. What you probably haven't done is walked far enough past it to notice that the closed section is short. The reroute feels like it swallows the whole trail. It doesn't.

Here's the actual shape of what's happening, and why the detour is worth taking on foot instead of skipping the walk entirely this month.

The Crossing That Keeps Coming Back

The current work is specific: the city confirmed that ACME Construction began reconstructing the Big Cottonwood Canyon Trail crossing at 3000 East on July 13, 2026. The scope is a full rebuild of that single intersection point, not the trail itself, new concrete curb neckdowns on both sides of 3000 East, ADA-compliant crossing facilities, sidewalk work, upgraded street lighting, and a decorative crosswalk. Drivers should expect lane closures and slower travel through the area. Trail users are asked to follow posted detours.

As of today, that puts the project at just under four weeks in.

This isn't the first time this exact stretch has had cones out. Back in August 2024, the city posted a notice steering drivers away from Fort Union Boulevard and Big Cottonwood Canyon Road because of work tied to the Cottonwoods Connection pipeline, a separate, much larger $84 million project run by the Metropolitan Water District to link the Big and Little Cottonwood water treatment plants. That project is expected to wrap by fall 2026, according to KSL's reporting, though Metro Water has said additional impacts along the pipeline's route are expected over the next two years. By January 2025, a local trail blogger documented a detour already in place near the same 3000 East crossing, routing walkers onto the shoulder of Big Cottonwood Canyon Road or around the reservoir to avoid a blocked section.

Three different projects, three different agencies, one recurring intersection. If you live near this corridor, you've been rerouted here before and you'll likely be rerouted here again before the water district's larger pipeline work is done.

What The Detour Actually Costs You

The barricaded section itself is small, roughly the width of the crosswalk and the curb work on either side. The rest of the corridor, the part most people assume is closed along with it, is open. Two workarounds get you through without much added distance:

• Cut over to the shoulder of Big Cottonwood Canyon Road for a block, then rejoin the trail south of 3000 East.
• Loop around the west side of the small flood-control reservoir near the covered bridge, then pick the path back up on the far side.

Neither adds more than a few minutes. The frustration isn't the detour length. It's that most people don't realize how short it is until they've already turned around and gone home.

Old Mill Park Is Still the Reason To Keep Walking

Push past the crossing and you land in Old Mill Park, sometimes called Spencer's Pond, which the city describes as blending recreation and history in one setting. The pond itself is a catchment basin for debris coming down Big Cottonwood Creek and tends to be fullest in spring, but the covered footbridge and shade trees hold up fine in August. Along the eastward stretch of trail here, informational plaques narrate the area's early settlement history, including the story of the old Cottonwood Paper Mill the neighborhood took its name from.

This is the part of the walk the detour is protecting you from skipping. It's also the part most drive-by visitors never see, because they hear "trail closed" at the crossing and never make it this far.

The Other Parks in This Neighborhood's Rotation

Old Mill Park isn't the only green space worth folding into a longer loop this season. A few others sit close enough to make sense as an extension or an alternate route entirely:

Mountview's East Jordan Canal Trail is a different path system entirely, not a continuation of the Big Cottonwood Trail, so it's worth treating as its own outing rather than an extension of the same walk. Worth knowing if you're mapping out a week of different routes instead of the same one on repeat.

One more thing worth flagging before you bring a dog along: sources disagree on the rules here. A detailed trail log of this corridor describes leash-and-clean-up stations along the way, suggesting dogs are welcome on leash. A separate mapping listing for a trail carrying the same name states dogs aren't permitted at all. Signage in the field is the better call than any single source, ours included, so check what's posted before you commit to bringing one.

Where The Walk Ends

Part of what makes this corridor worth the detour is what's waiting at either end of it. Market Street Grill sits right along the trail, close enough that a walker can cross under a bridge and be at the door within a few minutes. It's the kind of stop that turns a walk into an actual outing rather than just exercise.

If you're looking for something newer, Saola Restaurant & Lounge sits a short distance away at 7307 Canyon Centre Parkway, describing itself as sitting in the "City Between the Canyons," at the base of both Big and Little Cottonwood. They've got a Labor Day weekend event on the calendar this year, which lands on September 7, giving the long weekend a built-in reason to make the walk part of the plan rather than an afterthought.

And if you've got a kid enrolled in Cottonwood Heights Tumbling, their fall session runs September 14 through October 19. It's a small thing, but it's one of the clearer markers that the neighborhood's after-school rhythm is about to reset for the year.

The Short Version

The trail isn't closed. One crossing is under construction, the detour costs a few extra minutes, and everything past it, the footbridge, the pond, the plaques, the restaurants at either end, is exactly where it's always been. This particular stretch of Cottonwood Heights has been under some form of construction signage for the better part of two years now between the pipeline work, the earlier trail detour, and this current crossing rebuild. None of it has actually taken the walk away. It's just made it slightly less obvious that the walk is still there.

If you're weighing what a home near this corridor is actually worth, not just today's listing price but what daily life looks like once you're the one walking this route instead of reading about it, Ashley & Andrew Wolocatiuk know Cottonwood Heights block by block. Contact Us when you're ready to talk through what's next.