Last weekend, though it was overcast, the weather was fairly nice! It felt like spring was finally around the corner – yet as I write this fresh snow sits on the ground outside so clearly I was wrong.

Anyhow, we took the opportunity to do a short hike in the bench above the University of Utah to a spot locals call The Living Room. It’s a quick hike, but steep, ascending roughly 1,000ft. over less than 2 miles. There are two routes up – a steep trail over a ridgeline or a more gradual one through a ravine. We took the gradual route since I have knees that I love and want to keep.

The trail we used starts down the street from the Natural History Museum of Utah, although you can begin at the museum as well. It’s an unassuming start and leads up to a major trail in the area, the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST), which we hope to trek around later this year.

At the start

Already a decent view from the BST

Although there are no signs for The Living Room trail, it’s fairly easy to find once you know where to go. We got off the BST and headed north up a ravine. It was pretty muddy from the recent snowmelt but we were able to circumvent some of the muddier parts by walking up above. The trail continues steeply up the ravine and then opens up to the west before continuing north along a gradual ridge. From there we could see our destination which made it easy to power up those last few steep yards.

Starting up the ravine trail

Zach navigating the frozen path

A nice view as we came up out of the ravine

Snowy Wasatch to the southeast

From here we could see our destination on the next ridge

We came to a Y and took the trail to the west which shortly brought us to The Living Room. Even for an overcast day we had a pretty great view of the city below. We could see the Oquirrh Mountains to the southwest, the Wasatch shrouded in more snowfall to the east, and even the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island.

The gradual ridge we ascended

Almost there!

Ta Da!

The living room “furniture”

Relaxing in the recliner

Enjoying the view from the living room

It was the perfect way to get out of the house and get back into mountains without having to deal with snowshoes, microspikes, or avalanche danger. Now if only spring will hurry up…