Built to last

Photo: Wasatch Trails Foundation.

On any given day, the trails spidering across the Heber Valley foothills buzz with life. Hikers grind up climbs, mountain bikers navigate switchbacks, trail runners float through sagebrush and, when those hillsides are covered in snow (as they are now), snowshoers and fat bikers hit the trails to savor their own version of a powder day. From Wasatch Mountain State Park and the Jordanelle Ridge, to Big Pole and Blue Sage Ranch, these routes have become year-round favorites to residents and visitors alike. But this celebrated network didn’t simply appear. It grew from vision, persistence, and countless hours of planning, negotiating, building, and maintaining what is now a network of 175 miles of singletrack (and counting), thanks in no small part to the Wasatch Trails Foundation (WTF).

“Heber had trails before [Wasatch Trails Foundation], in places like Dutch Hollow,” said Scott House, WTF board president, “but no one was taking on the maintenance of those trails.”

In 2011, leaning into a vision of maintaining and expanding the Heber Valley’s existing trail network, as well as reaching over the Wasatch Range to connect with Park City’s extensive trail system, a cadre of non-motorized trail advocates, including former Park City councilperson, Becca Gerber; current Wasatch County trails planner, Don Taylor; former Mountain Trails Foundation Executive Director, Carol Potter; and others, came together to launch WTF’s precursor, Wasatch Trails Alliance.

“The vision for the WOW (Wasatch Over Wasatch),” said House, referring to the singletrack connection from Heber Valley to Park City, “was really what brought the Wasatch Trails Foundation to life.”

Running for more than 10 miles and 2,900 feet of elevation change between Heber Valley’s Wasatch Mountain State Park to its Guardsman’s Pass high point, the WOW Trail is one of Central Wasatch’s must-do mountain bike routes, considered in the same class as the Crest Trail, which connects Park City to Salt Lake City’s eastern foothills, and the Mid-Mountain Trail, running at or near 8,000 feet above sea level between Park City Mountain’s Canyons Village slopes to Deer Valley Resort. WTF began working on the WOW trail in earnest soon after the foundation was established, collaborating with Mountainland Association of Governments Wasatch Region Trails Planner Don Taylor to get it included in the Wasatch County Regional Trails Masterplan in 2016. And thanks to support from Mountain Trails Foundation, Park City’s well-known trail building and advocacy organization, most of the WOW trail was completed in 2017.

Except for House’s brief stint as WTF’s part-time Executive Director in 2021, for most of WTF’s existence volunteers led 100 percent of its progress. Then in 2022, the group recruited the organization’s current Executive Director, Mia Yue. 

Mia was born and raised in Minnesota, attended University of Colorado at Boulder, and moved to Utah in 2013. Before taking the helm at WTF, she’d worked in hospitality management, co-founded a vegetable gardening business, and served as Director of Operations for RMU Outdoors––an outdoor recreation gear retailer with community gathering hubs in Whistler, Canada; Truckee, California; and Breckenridge, Colo.

Mia joined Heber City’s Parks, Open Space, Trails and Trees Committee (POSTT) because she “got tired of working on everyone else’s community building” and wanted to work on her own. House invited Mia to serve on WTF’s board soon after they met through POSTT. “But then Scott said, ‘You can serve on the board, or you could apply to be [WTF’s] Executive Director.’ I knew nothing about running a nonprofit at the time,” Mia said. “But Scott said he’d serve as board chair if I went for the ED role and so, I agreed to apply and was chosen for the job.”

Since then, progress toward WTF’s mission to “maintain and build a healthy trail system, connect our community, and be built to last” has shifted into high gear. Mia, and WTF’s Board of Directors, worked with a consultant to fine tune WTF’s board governance policies and complete a strategic plan. The nonprofit now employs a fulltime crew of four to build and maintain trails in the spring, summer, and fall, and one part-time trail crew member to perform winter trail maintenance.

Beefing up WTF’s staff, as well as clarifying its short- and long-term goals, has translated into big dividends for Wasatch County trail users, particularly during the 2025 trail building season. Last November, WTF hosted the grand opening of the Whoa Trail, Wasatch Mountain State Park’s first hand-dug, advanced/expert downhill-only trail, accessed off the Maple Grove Trail. With support from Mountain Trails Foundation, WTF also finished the long awaited connector trails between the WOW and Bonanza Loop Trails, dubbed Wowza and Tall T, with a connection that includes a hikers-only trail, called Boulderdash, thereby capping off a dream more than 10 years in the making to connect Heber Valley and Park City via singletrack. “The original [Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation] grant to complete this connection was written back in 2019,” Mia said. “After hitting a lot of snags and filing three grant extensions, we finally got it done late last fall and are looking forward to holding a grand opening for the connector trails in the spring.” A Wowza and Tall T ribbon cutting ceremony will likely be held sometime after the Bonanza Loop trail reopens July 1, 2026.

Mia is also particularly proud of the near-complete, all-abilities, pump track at Southfield Park, an effort made possible by a large-scale collaboration with Wasatch County Parks & Recreation, Heber and Midway cities, Wasatch Community Foundation, Heber Valley Chamber, Gravity Coalition, Heber Valley Brewing, Park West Landscaping, Legend Engineering, and the Taylor Family. “This project was designed with all rolling users in mind, and speaks to the accessibility piece of our mission, particularly for low-income users,” Mia said. Last October’s cold snap thwarted WTF’s plans to have the pump track done by fall 2025, but trail builders are looking forward to asphalting the pump track later this spring as conditions permit.

Looking to the future, WTF recently received a $40,000 grant from Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation to complete a feasibility study for a valley foothills trail that would run from Wasatch Mountain State Park to Soldier Hollow. “We’ll get the feasibility study done in summer 2026 with hopes of starting trail construction in 2027 or 2028 depending on funding,” Mia said.

Even now, as the Heber Valley’s trails hibernate under a blanket of white, WTF continues to feed the stoke of the area’s active trail user community. WTF grooms from the Wile E. Canyon Trailhead into the Jordanelle Ridge Trail System for snowshoeing and fat biking all winter long, and collaborates with Friends of Wasatch Mountain State Park to host events like Moonlight Snowshoe Hikes and the annual Wasatch Mountain State Park Winter Festival (February 7, 2026).

“I am an avid trail user, which helps keep me excited about my job,” said Mia, “but what motivates me is [WTF’s] positive community impact. Trails have been proven to increase physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing––so providing that space for people is what it’s all about. My hope for WTF is that it continues to thrive as an advocate for trails for generations to come.”