Completion of the Canyon Rim Trail

We can all agree that if you run, ride or walk on the Canyon Rim Trail it would be nice if the trail was connected. According to the Times News the Twin Falls Parks and Recreation Commission endorsed a proposal to fill in the gaps in the Canyon Rim Trail.

Dennis Bowyer, city parks and recreation director, and Mitch Humble, community development director, outlined recommendations by the Magic Valley Trails Enhancement Committee at the commission’s meeting Tuesday.

In the end, the completion of four missing segments of the trail was unanimously endorsed by the commission. Two sections could be completed by the fall of 2014; the other two are contingent on negotiations with the developer of a 350-acre parcel west of the Evel Knievel ramp on the canyon rim.

The Twin Falls City Council recently allocated more than $200,000 toward the project.

“The council has been generous with us with all these funds,” Bowyer told the commission.

Bowyer is applying for grant money from the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. He said he will find out if the city will get the money in late May or early June 2014.

The first two proposals include an 1,100-foot trail through the proposed Pillar Falls development north of Pole Line Road to Eastland Drive, a 200-foot trail around the intersection of Pole Line and Eastland, and a neighborhood park and trailhead near the intersection.

The base of the Pillar Falls trail was partially completed by a developer some time ago, before the development fell through. The cost to finish that section is estimated at $50,000 plus $27,000 for fencing, Bowyer said.

That will be the easy part, he said.

The third proposal is going to be more diffucult becasue it includes a mile-and-a-quarter trail over undeveloped land called the “Preserve”.

Bowyer has the third and fourth trails only penciled in on his map for now, and there are no cost estimates for the proposal.

The trails enhancement committee is made of 200 community members. The goal of the group is to finish the Canyon Rim Trail from Washington Street to Dierkes Lake east of Shoshone Falls. This could happen by 2015, Bowyer said.