Utah

Amazing hiking in Utah

Utah has so much to offer! We’ve started to detail out some of the adventures we’ve had in Utah, but have lots more to add. We took one family trip here, but Brian has also visited Salt Lake City and Zion multiple times and has more to share about those trips as well.

This trip took place July 2020.

We visited SLC as part of a Yellowstone and Grand Teton Trip (and Idaho, and Montana!)

To see the whole trip, check out our vlog:

During the trip to Salt Lake city, we visited a few wonderful sites:

Cecret Lake Hike

This is an absolutely beautiful hike and one we would highly recommend. To make a day out of it, it’s also very close to Snowbird (more on that later!)

This hike is about 50 minutes outside of SLC, and takes Little Cottonwood Canyon Road to get there, right into the mountains. The hike starts at about 9,500ft so it’s a good summer hike. The trail is 1.8 miles with 465ft elevation. It crosses over some beautiful meadows and forests, with sweeping mountain views the whole way. It’s not challenging necessarily, but for those of us that live at sea level, starting at nearly 10k feet can make it a bit harder to breath on the steeper sections near the top.

Getting to the top is worth it though, with the most crystal clear lake waiting for you. There is a nice, flat path around the lake where we stopped to have some snacks and enjoy the view. We loved the variety of scenery on this trail.

Snowbird

Snowbird isn’t just for skiing and snowboarding! It also has amazing summer activities. We spent the whole afternoon here after our morning hike and the kids loved the various activities. The passes are expensive (way more than when we went 5 years ago…) but an all day pass for weekends is $75 for older kids/adults and $68 for non-weekends. Smaller children are a bit cheaper.

This does cover a bunch of things though, including mountain coaster, alpine slide, ropes course, bungee trampoline and more. At the top of the gondola you also have incredible views. If you’re an adult that wants to go and watch, but save money, kids can just get passes and you can watch.

Donut Falls Hike

This was a beautiful hike just about 35 minutes outside Salt Lake City along Big Cottonwood Canyon Drive. Once you leave the city and start driving into the mountains, the scenery is so beautiful and lush!

This hike is either 1.5 or 3.3 miles out and back and has about 500 feet of elevation gain. I say either because – there is a parking lot up closer to the start of the trail that holds maybe a dozen cars. If you have to park closer to the main road, it will be over 3 miles. We did this hike in the afternoon in June and we found parking in the closer lot.

The hike takes you through the forest and along the river until you reach the end, which is Donut Falls! Bring shoes you don’t mind getting wet, as you’ll have to walk across some rocks, and even up close to the waterfall if you choose to.

Our kids loved this hike as it had lots of places for them to play and see a waterfall up close. It was a crowded hike, but not overwhelming.

Downtown SLC

  • Temple Square – here you can see the Salt Lake Temple, which is the largest temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s a really nice building with manicured gardens. It’s a nice place to walk around, and a famous spot in the city.
  • Utah State Capitol – Seeing the Capitol Building is also a nice stop while in SLC and close to the temple if you’re walking around. It’s one of the prettiest capitol buildings I’ve seen, and you can schedule a tour if you book in advance.
  • City Creek Center – a nice shopping and eating area
  • Natural History Museum – A really nice museum for the whole family. It’s open 10am-5pm and you need a timed reservation. Tickets cost $23 adults/$18 young kids.
  • Tracy Aviary at Liberty Park – a really nice aviary located in Liberty Park. Tickets are $15/adults and $11/kids and you can see a variety of different birds.
  • Antelope Island – $15 day pass for carload, hot in summer, bison, visitor center and small or long hiking trails

Living Room Hike

The Living Room hike is a great hike for sunset views over Salt Lake City. It’s a very popular trail at sunset, for good reason. This trail is not easy though, at 2.3 miles and 1000 feet of elevation gain. It is very pretty the whole way up though, with mountain and city views. There were a few places with some loose rock and some drop offs, but overall seemed very safe for our family. The hardest part was just how incredibly steep it was.

Once at the top there are lots of places to sit for sunset. Some of the rocks have been made into makeshift furniture, hence ‘the living room’. It was dark on the last half of the trail down, so we’d recommend bringing a flashlight or headlamp.

Ensign Peak Hike

Ensign Peak is another very popular hike right near the downtown area of SLC. You’ll pass the Utah State Capitol building on the way there, so it would make for a good stop before or after your hike.

The hike itself is very exposed to the sun, so if it’s a super hot day it would be challenging. It’s just less than 1 mile in total and about 400ft of elevation gain, all of which is going straight up to the peak. There is a nice flat, concrete area at the top to take pictures (with all the rest of the hikers!)

Bonneville Salt Flats

Some of the most fun pictures our family has taken came from the Bonneville Salt Flats. It’s a bit of a journey, at 1.5hrs outside of SLC and once you’re out there, you probably only need 15-30 minutes depending on how long you want to take pictures, so it would be a lot of driving for a short visit. But – look at the pictures! We did this as part of a larger road trip heading up to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park, so we added this on as part of that journey. You drive straight outside of SLC until you reach the Salt Flats Rest Area Westbound. You can park at the rest stop and take 5 steps and you’re out on the salt flats.

You can see the salt stretching out as far as the eye can see, with beautiful mountains in the background. The salt flats cover 30,000 acres! This area was formed when an ancient lake was in this area. Most of it has dried up, leaving Great Salt Lake as just a small, leftover portion. Where you can walk on today used to be covered in a giant lake.

You can actually drive on it in designated areas, but we were not about to bring a rental out there, just in case. In fact, some of the fastest land speed records over the years have been recorded here on this flat, dry area!

If you’re lucky enough to come after it has rained, it will also look like a huge reflecting pool. When we visited, we didn’t see any water, but we did get to run on the salt flats!

Additional SLC Hiking Recommendations

Zion National Park (guide coming soon)

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