HOME RUNS

Some of the best trail running lies right outside your door.

By Michael Lanza

Photographs by Peter and Maria Hoey

PUBLISHED 04/30/2009

Salt Lake City
With at least 900 miles of footpaths spiderwebbing the Wasatch Mountains, local runners have a lifetime of terrain to explore. But they don't have to venture farther than City Creek Canyon, 10 minutes north of the city center.

Try This Trail: From Memory Grove at the canyon's bottom, just east of the state capitol, run a mile on the flat, paved City Creek Canyon Road to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, which climbs steadily for three miles up the west side of City Creek Canyon through forests of scrub oak that stay cool in summer. Bonneville Shoreline Trail, bonnevilleshorelinetrail.org.

Dallas
The city has 150 miles or more of easily accessible trails in its immediate vicinity and a similar amount across a broader swath of North Texas. The trails surround a system of lakes framing the city that provide plenty of places to take in the big Texas sky.

Try This Trail: A favorite of local runners is the Northshore Trail on Grapevine Lake, which follows the lake's convoluted shore for nine miles from Rockledge Park to Twin Coves Park, winding through rocky hardwood forest with numerous little ups and downs and views of the lake from bluffs. North Texas Trail Runners, nttr.org.

Boston
Dozens of state parks and forests and conservation lands ring Beantown, protecting several hundred miles of trails. These trails traverse upland and bottomland forests, meadows, bogs, and many rough and rocky hills. But the biggest of them, with the best running, are the 2,575-acre Middlesex Fells Reservation (www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/fells.htm) north of the city, and the ruggedly hilly, 7,000-acre Blue Hills Reservation (www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/blue.htm) just south of Boston.

Try This Trail: The seven-mile Middlesex Fells Skyline Trail, which follows a meandering loop through the western side of the Fells showcasing quiet woods, countless rocky ledges, and some stunning views of the Boston skyline.