Ogden City will permanently close an unofficial trail through Mount Ogden Golf Course.
Residents like Chloe Reynolds appreciated the trail for how flat and wide it was. Since Ogden first closed it in late April, she and a small group of trail advocates have met with city officials to develop a route that would avoid crossing the path of flying golf balls while still being accessible for people who can’t tackle rougher, steeper trails.
She was optimistic that the city would open a similar path. They’d gotten as far as talking about budgets, she said.
“It wasn't a question of if we were going to get this done,” Reynolds said. “It was when.”
In December, though, that changed. She found out via email from Ogden City Engineer Taylor Nielsen, with whom her group had been working, that the city had decided against a new trail through the golf course. Nielsen cited a survey that launched in September.
It asked, “Do you support a trail route that prioritizes the safety of trail users and golfers by minimizing the number of locations where interactions can occur?”
Some who answered “Yes” wrote in the comment field that trail users should stay off the golf course, while others argued for reopening the existing unofficial trail. The same was true in reverse: some “No” respondents wanted to keep a trail, while others wanted to eliminate it. A couple of the respondents said they were confused by the question.
In the end, with just under 900 responses, the vote was close.
“What we found was approximately 52% did not align with the idea of a trail going through, of a footpath going through Mount Ogden Golf Course,” said Ogden City spokesperson Mike McBride.
He acknowledged there was room for interpretation but thought the question was fair. The number of responses suggested that many cared about this specific topic.
“We engaged with a third party, Logan Simpson, and asked them to create a survey which we believed was not biased, not leading and very simple to do,” he said.
Reynolds doesn’t buy it. She noted Mayor Ben Nadolski apologized at the May 6, 2025, city council meeting for how he handled the trail closure, and she said this is worse.
“That was not a fraction of the grievance that I think this survey is now,” she said. “I mean, it is, it's just laced with dishonesty.”
She felt the city had made up its mind before working with her group on a potential solution.
Ogden staff sent the survey to 25,000 people in the city’s golf database and posted QR codes at the city’s two golf courses. While McBride noted the city has no database of trail users, Reynolds said she never saw a QR code posted at trailheads. The city relied on social media and news coverage to spread the word to the general public.
The decision wasn’t just about public opinion, though. McBride said an important factor was safety, which was their original explanation for blocking off access in the spring. The city asked its insurance provider to look into potential safety risks. The agency recommended they keep pedestrians, cyclists and off-leash dogs off the course.
Golf was also a factor. Usage of Mount Ogden Golf Course hit a 20-year high in 2025, and the city wants to protect course conditions and keep things safe for players, according to Nielsen’s email to trail advocates.
Even with a 20% increase in golf rounds over the previous year, the 2025 season saw a dramatic decrease in damage to the grass, and no flags or stakes were stolen. The city credits that to the lack of mountain bikers and dog-walkers on the course.
Still, Reynolds hasn’t given up. She and others plan to speak up at the Jan. 6 city council meeting and look into other potential ways to get a trail back.
“It's about the trail, but it's also about accountability on the city's part, to own up for this,” she said.
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
