slc's living room

Sunday we awoke still creaky but slightly less hobbled than the day before, and decided that an easy hike with a big view payoff was just what we needed. After fueling up at Sharon's Cafe (see prior post), we drove to downtown SLC, winding our way through the office complexes on the periphery of the U until we found a trailhead (there are several) on Colorow Drive. There were lots of cars: it was late morning on a beautiful day and folks were out and about with their running shoes and mountain bikes and well-behaved dogs.

Springtime sagebrush and wildflowers

Our goal was to find The Living Room, an overlook on a red sandstone ridge. The trails are not well-marked, and there are many of them, including the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, but the hiking books had given us a clue, and we headed up a well-used path that started in sagebrush,skirting first one side, then the other, of a ravine. Once we started meeting lots of people and their dogs (labs, goldens, pugs, Boston terriers, huskies, blue heelers, mutts) on their way back down, we figured we were going in the right direction.

H pauses to pose on the way up

After 45 minutes of steady climbing on easy footing, we reached The Living Room, so-called because people have constructed chairs, sofas, ottomans and coffee tables out of the natural slabs of red sandstone so that the great view may be taken in in comfort and style. And the view is truly fantastic: the whole valley stretched out before us, from Antelope Island and the Great Salt Lake all the way down past the Point of the Mountain, and the magnificent Wasatch and Oquirrh mountains lining the east and west sides. We picked out my office building and the Library downtown, found our seats at the U's Eccles-Rice Stadium, watched some plane traffic at the airport, counted the canyons in the Wasatches (City Creek, Red Butte, Emigration, Mill Creek, Little Cottonwood, Big Cottonwood, Bells). The trees are just starting to put out their leaves and everything was remarkably green - amazing for a city as full of people as this one.

Taking a break on one of the sofas

Some other hikers had arrived by then and one of them was awfully chatty, so we kept climbing a little higher to a second overlook. Most people don't bother going any higher so the trail was pretty sparse; it was much steeper than the trail to TLR and the footing was kind of loose, so it took us another 45 minutes roundtrip just for that portion. But up above gets you right on top of Red Butte Ridge, above what little snow is left in these south-facing hills, and you can see down into Red Butte Canyon and Red Butte Reservoir. After admiring the scenery for a while, we picked our way back down to the main trail and then fairly flew back down to the car in about 20 minutes - solid footing and an easy grade make for quick walking.

The view south along the east bench

We'd been good about drinking lots of water but at this point were a different kind of parched, deciding to stop in at Squatter's since we were in the neighborhood (sort of not really but close enough). After a couple of pints of Full Suspension pale ale, we headed back down south to home and, surprisingly, managed to get in a couple of hours of yardwork (raking, seeding, weeding, planting) before calling it quits for the day. Not surprisingly, it was early to bed that night. These activity-filled weekends are exhausting - it's great!