Dimple Dell Road

There is a road in Salt Lake County that I like to drive. Dimple Dell Road.  It starts in a community called Granite near Wasatch Boulevard, around 10000 South.  Sometimes when I am not in a hurry or I am in a contemplative mood, this seems to be the perfect road to drive coming home from work.  Its more of a meander than a drive. It is an especially nice byway on a blue sky autumn day.  Yesterday was one of those days that seemed to call out for Dimple Dell Road.

I took the east loop home from downtown Salt Lake ending up on Wasatch Boulevard.  In terms of miles this way home from work is a little longer, but you seldom have the car crashes and traffic jams that you seem to occur every day on I-15. This time of year that part of Wasatch Boulevard that passes the entrance to the La Caille Restaurant is beautiful.  The colors of the changing leaves are dramatic; beautiful. There are reds, yellows and oranges mixed among green trees.  The trees are seemingly calling for me to stop for a while and enjoy their beauty. But like Robert Frost’s poem “I have miles to go before I sleep” so I head past them, sorry to see them fade out of view.

After passing La Caille, the road inclines up to 10000 South.  If you left turn at 10000 South you head up toward Little Cottonwood Canyons and Snowbird and Alta ski resorts, a majestic canyon. To go to my home, you stay on Wasatch.  A few hundred yards downhill from 10000 South is the cross street of Bell Canyon Road.  There is no stop sign or stop light here, just a cross road at the bottom of the hill.  I take a right hand turn heading west and in about a half mile or less Bell Canyon Road dead ends into Dimple Dell Road.  At this point you have to turn right or left.  I turn left and now I am on Dimple Dell Road.

Dimple Dell Road is an up and down, winding road bordering hills and running through a valley.  On the right side of the road is the Dimple Dell Recreational Nature Park.  This park is 644 acres of natural area with multiple trails for hiking, biking, and horseback riding, natural history study areas, interpretive sites, ponds and streams, and native plants and wildlife.    From the park’s website I learn

“The park is long and narrow, running from 3000 East down the Dry Creek drainage to 300 East.  There is a tunnel beneath 1300 East that is 14-foot wide, 14-foot high passage way allowing equestrians, bikers and hikers access to both sides of the park just north of 10600 South. Granite Park Trailhead occupies the northeast end of the park. It is a neighborhood park with picnic facilities. There are ten additional trailheads.”

Yesterday the drive around Dimple Dell Park on Dimple Dell Road was spectacular. I drove slowly, there was not much in the way of traffic but there was plenty of beauty to behold. A wide variety of trees, scrub oaks, aspens, pines and many others creating a mosaic of nature.  Somehow the trees all seem to be perfectly placed as though there was some grand plan with each tree placed according to that plan.

Dimple Dell Road is not a long road, three or four miles at the most and it finally becomes 2000 East in Sandy City. The drive down 2000 East is nice but it is a residential drive, not a park drive.  But yesterday it was pleasant none the less. At the point where Dimple Dell Road turns into 2000 East I am only 10 minutes from home.  As I drove yesterday, it was nice to see folks out walking or working in their yard.  Many children were playing on this sunny day and I could hear the music of their voices.  The voices of children at play outside, unencumbered by commands and demands of parents does sound like music to me.  Laughing, singing, shouting and talking about those things that are in the minds of children. It makes me think back to an earlier time of life.

Finally I am home.  I am in the driveway sitting in my car watching the garage door open and happy to see the Lovely Sharon’s car in the garage.  She is home. I am ready to give her a hug and a kiss and hear about her day.