While making my lil poster for our 100+ miles of hiking goal for this summer, I read about this hike. All excited about hiking to a spot where they've made chairs out of the rocks, I inform Derek. His reply consisted of informing me that he already knew about this hike and that his co-workers hike it often "any rock you come across on a hike you can sit on. If your reaction to this news was also "Say Wha?!" then you sir now know my shock and now also understand why Derek was put into a brief hiking timeout.
So me and my hiking coreligionist Andrea went on the Living Room Hike adventure.
The gist:
Mileage: 2.5 RT for us, but there's lots of other little trails that lead into it and other ways up to the main part of the trail so it could be more or less.
Time: It took us less than 2 hours- including the time we spent at the top chillin.
Difficulty: HARD. Unless you're not in the best of hiking shape like we are, then VERY HARD. If you are in decent hiking shape then it's moderate. The trail is straight up, no switch backs.
Dogs: All the sings ask you to keep your dog on leash. However, out of the 15+ dogs we ran into, none were on a leash.
Directions: So there's 2 ways you can take to get there; brace yourself, I get carried away when giving directions.
The straight-ish way:
From I-15 take the 400s/University Blvd exit and head East on 400s ALLLLLLLL the way down past U of U, past the SLC cemetery, past the VA hospital, the name of the road will change to Foothill. Turn LEFT at the light onto Wakara Way (this brings you into Research Park).
The SLC scenic route:
This route really only works if you are heading South on I-15 into Salt Lake. Ok you can take it if you're coming North on I-15 but I'm not going to give the directions for that way.
Take the Beck Street Exit. Follow it ALLLLL the way down. Turn LEFT onto Victory Rd going up the hill (the bar called "Garage" will be on the west side of the light).
Now the scenic part kicks in! As you come up on top of the hill, to the east is our lovely Utah State Capital. If you're not in a hurry, take a minute to check it out. Turn LEFT at the light at 300N. When you come to the round about, turn right to go down the hill on State Street. Continue down the hill going under "the Eagle's butt".
Evidence...
More Evidence...
Turn LEFT onto South Temple.
As you go down this road, on the North Side you will pass the Cathedral of the Madeleine, the First Presbyterian Church, and the Governor's Mansion. All places to check out so put it on your SLC to do list. Follow this road in the right hand lane ALLLL the way until you are FORCED to turn RIGHT onto 1300 E. Continue until you reach the light on 400s/Univeristy Blvd and turn LEFT. Go past the U of U, the name of the road will change to Foothill. Turn LEFT at the light onto Wakara Way (this brings you into Research Park). Follow ALLLL the way down (watch out for pedestrians). You will come to a 4 way stop. The Red Butte Gardens will be straight ahead, another spot you should add to your SLC to do list.
This is the 4-way stop... when you see this water feature ahead and to your left you know you're close!
Turn RIGHT onto Chipeta Way. You will pass the Fort Douglas Cemetery on your left. Some interesting history up in there. Turn LEFT on Tabby lane (see picture below).
Follow Tabby all the way to the end to Colorow. Turn RIGHT.
There is no real parking lot for the hike, nor signs. It's super popular so just look for all the cars.
The trail head is on your left.
Behold your trail head.
Hiking Ho!
The hike was super easy to find even though there were no trail head signs other than the "clean up after yourself and your dog". The hike was crowded so we didn't have to worry about getting lost.
Your first fork in the road. Doesn't matter which way you pick it takes you to the same place. To the right you cross a little stream.
Just follow the trail. When you see this fork again it doesn't matter which way you go. Left is steep and less rocky. Right is steep and you climb over a boulder.
Now you are on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Turn RIGHT and carry on until you see this fork.
Hopefully that rock is big enough of a marker for you.
Turn LEFT.
Now that you are here. Go diagonal and to the left up.
Start Hiking.
Holy cow the trail was a LOT steeper than we had heard about. We had to stop often for my ankle. The trail wasn't that well taken care of, very rut-like.
We didn't bring the dogs with us because we didn't want to have to have them on leash. However NO ONE had their dogs on leash. No problem for us. We always hike off-leash. Our dogs rather chase each other all over in the "wild" and tree animals. But my lil Ragnar loves people and believes they are here on this earth to play with her. So she might have gotten in the way of some of the more "serious" hikers. Thus she stayed home. Frieda, Andrea's dog, is more chill and likes to blaze her own trails instead.
Good spot to take a breather! Continue on UPwards.
Go LEFT.
Getting close...
So CLOSE!
The top. Was not disappointed. We had maybe 5 minutes at the top to ourselves. The view of the valley as pretty awesome and the chairs weren't that bad. It was a victorious adventure!
The Living Room.
Chilling and looking over the Salt Lake Valley.
In conclusion:
Weber Trails are like a million times better than Salt Lake trails.
Still not sure if the time spent on this trail was worth the end result- mainly due to the fact that the trail is super crowded. In Ogden a crowded trail is seeing maybe 5 other hikers. On this trail there was probably 30 other people. Great leg hike.
