We like urban hikes, and it doesn’t get much more urban than Lagoon Trail in Farmington. This trail runs about a mile before it connects onto the larger Farmington Creek Trail system. You can walk on this trail for quite awhile, all the way into the mountains, but we picked the Lagoon Trail portion for our young family.
We began hiking near Lagoon’s parking lot. You can also start on the other side, as explained at the end of this post. We took the Lagoon exit off of 1-15 and headed onto 200 W, not toward Lagoon. Take a left onto State Street and then a right onto 400 W before you go over the freeway. There is a small parking lot near a gazebo and a monument to Ezra T. Clark. This is where we started the Lagoon Trail.
The trail starts out right next to the 1-15, but it is shady as you begin. Then you cross the road toward the Lagoon parking lot. You’ll walk next to the parking lot, and then take the trail that walks right across the fence from the Lagoon Campground. There is no shade as you walk the paved trail right here, but we saw some cool birds and looked for fish in a small stream.
This first half mile isn’t that exciting, but when you get to the entrance of the real “Lagoon Trail” things start to be fun! You walk next to the animals that reside at Lagoon–some buffalo and elk. We also met a horse on the other side of the trail. The trail next to Lagoon is very shady and cool.
You also walk next to the Rattlesnake Rapids ride and we watched the people getting on and off the ride for a minute before we continued on to the end of the trail. The Lagoon trail has benches and picnic tables along the way so you can stop for a rest.
The end of the trail is at 300 N. We weren’t quite ready to be done yet, though. So we turned left and walked down (west) the road to continue on the Farmington Creek Trail. We came back and hiked this trail another day because it is about 1.0 mile more to Farmington Pond.
This is the upper end of Lagoon Trail so you could also park and and walk the trail backward from here. Just park here on 300 North and find the sign that says Lagoon Trail. Then you can enjoy the short half mile shady hike past the Lagoon Zoo and turn around. In addition, you could avoid the first part of the hike that is less shady and not as exciting.
The trail that we walked from start to finish was 2.0 miles roundtrip. Half mile to the Lagoon Trail sign, and 1/2 mile on the Lagoon Trail. Our boys loved seeing the animals so it made the hike extra fun. This trail is entirely paved so anyone can walk this trail.
