Ensign Peak

Ensign Peak is a great, super short trail to a low elevation peak above Salt Lake City. It is probably the quickest and one of the easiest peaks to reach around the valley. From the peak you have an excellent view of downtown Salt Lake City and the great salt lake. This is another one of those trails that has a great end prize for not a ton of effort so we have done it quite a few times.

View of downtown SLC from the peak.

Quick Details:

Length: About a mile round trip including short detour to Vista Mount
Difficulty: DR3, it has some tough spots, but it is super short.
Elevation Gain: 351 Ft.
Restroom: None
Dogs? Yes, leashed.

To Get Here:

Find your way to the capital building downtown. Take the street east of the capital (E. Capital BLVD.) north for half a mile (from the intersection with the rd behind the capital). Turn left on Edgecombe Dr. Continue it for .3 miles until the road becomes Ensign Vista Dr. Another .2 miles you will find yourself between a Mormon Church and the Trailhead. Park on the road and hike north. Or, put the following coordinates into google maps and let your phone do the work: (Lat:40.79185 Lon:-111.88825)

Ensign Peak from Beck St. (DBP).

The Trail:

The trailhead.

It starts with some neat historical markers.

Very quickly you will come to a trail split. If you want a super easy, shorter, completely paved option Vista Mound is pretty nice. It will also rejoin the main trail to continue on to the peak. I typically hit it on the way down.

The peak we are hiking towards.

There is a tiny little arch on the front of the peak.

Bank of fog across the valley.

There was a lightning caused fire here in August of 2016 and they have closed the off trail areas for revegetation. It seems to have come back pretty good so far, but I guess they want to give it some more time.

The peak from the east side. See, not a lot of evidence of fire. We happened to hike here not too long after the fire that year and got some shots of the burned areas.

I was a little concerned about mud today… holy crap I was not concerned enough! There was a LOT of mud on this trail! I was starting to think this was a bad choice today. However, as you will see soon it was a great choice today.

The trail swings around the back or north side of the peak.

Super muddy trail! The soil here must not be as fragile as it is around Ghost Falls as they don’t seem to have an issue with people hiking through it.

The radio towers. You can reach them from here, or from Tunnel Springs.

The Great Salt Lake viewpoint.

Normally you can see the lake… but the fog is obscuring it today.

It’s like something out of The Mist, crazy!

Getting close.

The fog rolling in. It reminds me of the coast.

Last push. The first time I did this trail, almost 10 years ago, I struggled through this section, but now it’s nothing to me.

Made it to the top! where you will find this neat monument .Also, usually a bunch of people.

The view of downtown.

A little closer.

That fence is new. Looks like they are trying to keep people from climbing the south slope.

I can see The Avenues Twin Peaks and Mount Van Cott from here.

The fog rolling in from the west.

A guy was flying a drone up here.

Loads of people coming up and going down. Very popular trail.

Panoramic.

I like the swoop of clouds next to Mount Olympus.

The monument and informative plaque.

I happened to notice this little deer running up over the ridge across the way. Not sure how considering how far away it was haha. I don’t think I have seen deer in this area before.

Panoramic of the fog bank coming in.

A little closer.

Well we had fun up on the peak but we decided to head on back.

I am just loving watching the fog come in.

Back down to the Great Salt Lake Viewpoint.

Super muddy! The worse part about that is when it cakes on like this you have all that extra weight on your feet. Meh, I am just happy I didn’t fall and get all muddy.

The peak from below.

Trail split out towards Vista Mound. This little detour will only add maybe 1000 feet or so to your hike and the connects back to the main trail.  It’s kind of neat so I think it is worth doing.

The fog is starting to hit downtown.

The little arch again.

The viewpoint. The fog is coming in fast!

The peak from the front.

The view from Vista Mount. The view from the peak is a little better, but this is not too shabby at all! Even with the fog.

Fog rolling in.

Panoramic view.

The fog is really starting to hit downtown. Bye bye capital.

I think this is the first time I got this viewpoint to myself for a minute.

As you can see the return trail is paved. So, as I mentioned if you want something super easy or maybe want to show a non-hiker the view this might be a good option.

Downtown is almost completely enveloped.

The boot scraper has been worn down, unfortunately.

Back down to the trailhead. The fog is really getting thick!

Driving down into it.

Driving down the hill really made me think of driving along the coast. Steep hillside, fog. Just imagine the ocean that you couldn’t see due to the fog to the left there.

Very Silent Hill looking. It’s creepy, but I love it! Mostly because it’s kind of a rarity in Salt Lake.

As usual, I love this trail. It’s great to have such an amazing end goal without a ton of effort. However, due to that, and it’s proximity to downtown it can be crowded at times, but the 3 amazing viewpoints and panoramic views of the Salt Lake Valley make up for it. 8 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, it is super short and not that much elevation gain, but there are spots that are a bit on the steep side. DR3.

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