The Cottonwood Canyons outside of Salt Lake City are a tremendous natural resource for literally millions of residents and visitors. They provide clean drinking water, clean air, world-class recreation (hiking, skiing, and more), and a tourism economy. It is also extremely susceptible to human impact, since it is so highly visited and oh-so desirable for development. In fact, by the early 1900s, nearly every tree in the canyons had been cut down for logging and mining, rendering the water undrinkable and the steep slopes unstable.

As a Forest Service ranger, volunteer youth field trip guide, and ski instructor, I have shared the importance and fragility of our canyons with a wide variety of visitors. In order to share this significant information (as well as plenty of fun facts about snow, wildlife, and human history!) with more people, I designed and installed 9 educational signs along the winter snowshoe trail around Silver Lake. Thousands of locals and tourists snowshoe on this trail every winter.

The signs were installed in December 2024. The wonderful Cottonwood Canyons Foundation paid for the manufacture of the signs, the US Forest Service’s Salt Lake Ranger District provided design and content guidance, and the Solitude Nordic Center encouraged their installation.

Check them out for yourself!