I’m a happier person when I’m outdoors, the fresh air is intoxicating – that’s probably what growing up in New Hampshire does to you.

These are some of our favorite hikes in the Salt Lake City area. There’s a lot of trailheads no more than a 10 minute drive from our apartment, so we’ll be able to do a lot of them, especially considering I’m working East Coast hours and can hike after work!

We use AllTrails to find and track our hikes – it works everywhere in the world, and explains the length, elevation gain, and difficulty level.

EASY HIKES

Ensign Peak
This hike is short & steep (less than a mile), and it gives an incredible view of Salt Lake City and Great Salt Lake below. (11/3/19)

Bonneville Shoreline Trail
This is essentially a walk along a dirt path that’s a work in process – an organization is working to secure the entire 280 miles that once made the bonneville bench, formed by the ancient lake. The section we did after work was a 1.5 mile loop from just behind the U of U, and were able to angle off onto a number of other trails from this one. (11/7/19)

Middle of the Road Hikes

Sentry Loop
This hike is interesting because you won’t see it listed on AllTrails – we only found it because it was on the Antelope Island State Park paper brochure that they hand you when you enter. Sentry loop is 9 miles total, 1,079 feet in elevation gain, 100% exposure in the sun, and a few picnic tables along the route, and it took us about 2 hours with lots of stopping for photos. This hike isn’t particularly steep (in fact, it’s a lot of long switchbacks), but it is more challenging than not because for about 1/3 – 1/2 of the hike you’re hiking up steeper, sand covered trails, which was surprisingly difficult. If you’d prefer you can ride a horse up this trail! (11/16/19)

Centerville Canyon via Deuel Creek Trail

This was a 4.3 mile, 1,300 foot elevation gain trail about 20-25 minutes north of Salt Lake City proper. We got a bit lost (but really I wasn’t paying attention to where the trail started) – there’s a gun range and a ATV/dirt bike area in between numerous trails, none of them marked well.

This was a great hike and one of our favorites in the area so far. It was longer and had some good elevation gains, but it didn’t feel overly strenuous.

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The first part of the trail was dirt, but as we climbed up the hillside, snow slowly took over the trail, which made for some very slippery spots. We made it through though 🙂

Hard Hikes

Mount Van Cotte
We’ve been hiking after work a couple of times per week. Over by Red Butte Gardens is a section of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, which runs into the Mount Van Cotte Trail Loop. We accidentally started in on it right before sunset, so we couldn’t do the full 2.9 mile 1,151 elevation gain hike, but we’ll be back to finish it. It’s a steep climb, and we’re not used to the SLC elevations yet, but beautiful views of the Valley and the Great Salt Lake below. (11/5/19)