The Living Room

The Living Room is a neat area above the University Of Utah in SLC. Someone or some people have built different pieces of furniture on the side of a ridge high above the Salt Lake valley. It offers incredible views to take in while relaxing on stone couches or armchairs. It is definitely a climb, but it’s a short so if you take your time it’s not too bad. I chose this trail today because it was shorter and I thought it might offer a view of the current inversion we have.

The Living Room furniture.

View from The Living Room.

Quick Details:

Length: 2.4 Miles out and back.
Difficulty: DR4 Definitely a good climb and rocky at times.
Elevation Gain: About 1160 Feet.
Restroom: No.
Dogs? Yes. Please clean up after your furry friends.
Other Info: There can be patches of ice on the trail in the colder months. Bring micro spikes.

To Get Here:

From the south Take I215 to Foothill dr. From the north take i15 to 400 S. Follow that up hill until it becomes Foothill dr.

Turn east on Wakura Way. Take that .6 miles and turn right on Colorow Dr. (Just before the Red Butte Gardens entrance) Just .2 miles down this street you will see the trailhead on the left (east) side of the road.

The Trail:

I found another one of those weird fake tree antennae's. It seems a little ridiculous not amongst pine trees.

The trailhead.

You start out hiking through a thick forest of scrub oak.

And eventually hit some open area that offers a view into Georges Hollow which is the canyon we’ll be climbing.

Eventually the trail leads to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and here we can already barely see downtown through the haze.

Ensign Peak to the left.

You want to hang a right on the BST and go about 20 yards.

Here is where you will turn left to head up Georges Hollow. Also this is where the trail starts seriously going up.

The trail split heading towards what I have dubbed ‘The Parlor‘ It has some neat stuff, but it isn’t the living room. This might also lead to the alternate trail that goes along that ridge.

Here you can see a few people along the ridge.

Starting to get up above the funk.

A long muddy section. Last time we did this trail there were a few sections that were iced over so be sure to bring micro spikes during the colder months just in case.

Last push to the sub ridge.

Definitely getting up above the funk. Yuck!

Panoramic.

And that is where we are heading. Just below that peak. But first we have to get to the ridge.

Downtown beyond the other ridge.

This ridge isn’t too bad. And we’re almost there.

Do you see the landslide just below the peak? The Living Room is on the ridge just to the left of it.

Looking down the canyon.

Last major trail split. You want to go left. Right goes to Mount Wire which is still on my list to explore eventually.

The inversion again.

Crossing through the landslide. This is probably the worst part of the trail, but it isn’t that bad.

Mount Olympus and Lone Peak.

And we made it! Phew! This is the other ridge that you can take to get up here. I noticed a couple that didn’t pass us on the way up and asked if they came that way, they did. They said it’s about the same, some more scrambling, and a little shorter. I might try it one day, but it looks a little too steep for my liking.

Downtown SLC through the haze.

People sitting on the various couches up here.

Panoramic view.

Loveseat with a view.

Another panoramic view from up here.

Red Butte Gardens below. We have hiked the Skyline Trail around the outside of the gardens, but have yet to go inside. I am pretty sure that is the quarry and the quarry house below that you can see better on that trail.

Ensign Peak again.

Before long we found all of the other people had made their way down and we had the living room to ourselves for a moment. So here is some of the stone furniture found up here.

This one is my favorite. Nice couch with a coffee table.

One last look at downtown while it starts to light up.

We decided to head back down so we could try to avoid getting stuck on the trail after dark.

Back down to the rockslide. We decided to investigate a little.

Neat little pile on a tick.

Oh wow. Someone has built an entire conversation pit out of the rocks. This is incredible!

Looking further up canyon.

And down canyon. Some Christmas lights below.

Starting to get a nice sunset.

Super pretty.

Downtown again.

More sunset.

I took a 3D 360 degree panoramic from the top of the ridge here. If you have 3D goggles and google cardboard you can view it here.

The sunset from further down.

Back to the muddy section.

The ridge on the other side again.

I love seeing the valley lit up from a canyon.

Closer to the Christmas lights.

The valley lights.

I am not 100% sure, but I think this is another way up to the alternate trail along the ridge. But, this might skip The Parlor if that is something you want to see, take the split I mentioned earlier.

One last view of the valley below.

We actually made it back to the car just before full dark so we timed it perfectly today. Got to the Living Room with light, got a nice sunset, got the city lighting up for the evening, and didn’t have to hike in the dark win win win.

This trail is a little tougher than I remember it being, but that might be due to the inversion today. It was cool to get above it and see the inversion line. I have some better pictures of that on the Wild Rose Trail. The Living Room is a popular trail and there are quite a few people on it, but if you are patient, you might get the Living Room to yourself. The view of the valley is incredible and the stone furniture is certainly unique and a nice place to rest after a tough climb. There is a somewhat confusing spider web of side trails, but the main trail is pretty obvious except for the 3 main splits I mentioned. 9 out of 10 squirrels today.

As for difficulty, this is certainly a climb! Long stretches of up but nothing too bad. DR4.

Dogs are allowed! Please clean up after your furry friends.