Canyon Guard, a local nonprofit that has been fighting the Little Cottonwood gondola, has rolled out a new virtual tour that drops UDOT’s approved tower locations and stations straight into the canyon. The result is hard to ignore: a string of towers and cabins that one activist has likened to “a 40-person bus” cruising above neighborhoods and popular trailheads.
Virtual tour lays out the towers, station by station
Canyon Guard’s “Under a Steel Sky” tour plots each of the roughly 22 planned tower locations from UDOT’s decision into a Google My Maps experience, complete with tower fact sheets, renderings, and a timed video, according to Canyon Guard. The group’s executive director told KUER the goal is to show how massive the project would be and to spell out how cabins and towers would pass over homes, campgrounds, and climbing areas. Viewers can click through tower by tower to see reported heights, photos, and how the structures would show up from key viewpoints.
What UDOT's records actually allow
According to the Final Environmental Impact Statement, the selected Gondola Alternative would rely on roughly 22 towers, with heights ranging from about 131 feet up to 262 feet and an 80-foot-wide easement centered on the cables, per UDOT's Final EIS. The document also notes that tower bases would be fenced, construction would require vegetation clearing and temporary access in some areas, and angle-station work near Tanners Flat could involve several acres of site work. Supporters say the system would boost winter reliability for canyon access. Opponents counter that the towers, maintenance access, and permanent visual change would amount to a lasting reshaping of the watershed and recreation corridor.
Lawsuits and local pushback persist
Concerns about water quality, views, and land acquisition are already playing out in court. Salt Lake City, Sandy and the joint Metropolitan Water District have sued state agencies over the project’s environmental review, arguing the study did not fully weigh drinking-water risks, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Homeowners’ associations and conservation groups have filed related complaints over property use and procedural issues, and residents have continued to show up in force at city meetings and in public comment processes. Those cases are still moving, and their outcomes could influence whether, when and how physical construction starts.
What comes next
UDOT’s Record of Decision lays out a phased strategy that starts with ramped-up bus service, mobility hubs, and related improvements, while leaving full gondola construction dependent on future funding and further design work, according to UDOT's ROD. Backers of the new Canyon Guard visualization say it translates dense technical maps into a block-by-block view that hits closer to home, a perspective that could matter as lawsuits play out and budget fights heat up over what Little Cottonwood’s future should look like.
