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A kayaker floats past the trestle bridge on the Provo River Friday, July 18, 2025.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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The trestle bridge over the Provo River is shown Friday, July 18, 2025.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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Kayakers float past the trestle bridge on the Provo River Friday, July 18, 2025.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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The trestle bridge over the Provo River is shown Friday, July 18, 2025.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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Anyone who has floated down the Provo River between Deer Creek Reservoir and Vivian Park is familiar with the trestle bridge at Wildwood.

While experienced river floaters know how to navigate under the bridge, which is where Provo Canyon’s railroad tracks used to cross the river, it is customary for most people to get out of the water and go around the bridge to avoid the pillars and their dangerous currents.

Some less-experienced rivergoers still end up under the bridge, though, and can find themselves in treacherous situations.

One recent public incident occurred on June 28 when a paddle boarder got stuck under the bridge and a video was captured of a Utah Department of Natural Resources officer rescuing her.

Sean Meyers, the owner of Provo River rafting and tubing outfitter High Country Adventure, said they staff people by the bridge to help people to shore and advise their customers to get out. But he said there are still issues every year, particularly when the water level is high.

High County Adventure is one of several entities which would prefer to have the bridge torn down.

“For a long time, we hoped when they stopped running the bridge train up and down the canyon that they would either redo the bridge or take it out,” Meyers said. “It’s been talked about for 30 years, getting that bridge out of there.”

It may not be going anywhere for the time being, though.

The bridge is owned by the Utah Department of Transportation, and UDOT Region 3 spokesperson Wyatt Woolley said the state agency would prefer to remove the bridge, but that it cannot because UDOT is entangled in litigation with a nearby property owner.

“We’d probably be impeding on that litigator’s property, so we’d have to work with him. … We’re looking into seeing what we can do. But currently, our hands are kind of tied,” he said.

A few years ago, UDOT funded the Provo Canyon Parkway Trail Gap project to extend the Provo Canyon trail from Vivian Park to Deer Creek. As part of the project, the trestle bridge would be removed and a bridge with no pillars in the water would replace it.

According to Heber Valley Railroad Director Mark Nelson, UDOT determined the best way to build the trail was to remove the train tracks from the section and use the railroad as a right-of-way to build the trail and then put in new tracks for the railroad alongside the new trail.

The Heber Valley Railroad, an independent state agency that has a lease to operate the railroad, agreed to remove the tracks in the canyon in 2022.

However, Woolley said the project, which would have started in 2023, was held up by the litigation with the property owner.

“So the construction has never started, and poor us, the Heber Valley Railroad is left without tracks from Vivian Park to the dam, essentially,” Nelson said. “And so there sits the Wildwood Bridge.”‘

Nelson believes if the project was completed, it would benefit the community by giving year-round canyon access on the railroad and offering a bike path all the way through the canyon.

He also acknowledged the dangers of the bridge still standing.

“That bridge was originally built in 1899 … but the course of the river has changed somewhat, and so the river flow does not flow perpendicularly, straight through under the bridge,” Nelson said. “It’s coming in at a bit of an angle, which, in my personal opinion, is why everyone is ordered to take their rafts out of the river and walk around the bridge. Because it’s hard to go through it.”

In theory, the bridge could be taken down without the trail project going forward, but it would require jumping through some hoops.

Woolley said UDOT has brought it up with the Attorney General’s Office to see if bridge deconstruction could be pursued. It would require contacting the property owner they’re still in litigation with, because they may have to access his property on the south side of the river to fully remove the bridge.

“We’d have to make sure he’s OK with us going over there and removing it,” Woolley said. “So that would be step one.”

Step two involves working with all the state entities who would have an interest in the bridge or river. Those include Wasatch County, where the bridge resides, any water agency that oversees the river, because it is a main source of water into Utah Valley, and the Division of Wildlife Resources.

“If we were to remove what is there, we want to make sure we preserve the sanctity of the river itself,” Woolley said. “So we have to make sure that we can do it safely and in an environmentally friendly manner.”

But Woolley said the legal situation with the nearby property owner remains the main hurdle.

“If it weren’t in litigation, this bridge wouldn’t be there; it would be long gone,” he said.

Meyers is skeptical and said UDOT had plenty of chances to remove the bridge prior to the litigation and failed to do it.

“They didn’t do it, and then it went into litigation for other reasons,” Meyers said. “The litigation doesn’t have anything really to do with that bridge. … It’s unfortunate they didn’t get the bridge out years ago when they should have.”

In the meantime, High County Adventure will make do with the current system of having tubers and rafters step out of the water, walk across a dirt path and getting back in.

It wasn’t much of a hassle for Tyler, a visitor from out of town Friday.

“I think they prepared us for it pretty well. I wasn’t too worried about it,” he said. “And we exited before we even came up to the bridge so it wasn’t even too big of an issue, and then we saw later that they had people on the water waiting for us.”

A High County Adventure guide, Tessa, said most people who go through the bridge come out safe, but that she’s seen some get stuck because of the current.

Her advice to any future rivergoers? Go around the bridge.

“You don’t want to take a risk that is going to cost you your life,” she said. “And most of the time it’s OK, but there are a few cases that you get stuck and you can’t get out.”