Hiking to the Window of the Wasatch

Hiking to the Window of the Wasatch

Hiking to the Window of the Wasatch is a perfect, short hike with amazing views of – you guessed it, the Wasatch Mountains!

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About

This hike is most easily accessed from City Creek Canyon and can be done as short at 4.6 miles RT, or turn it into more of an adventure and create your own loop or hike further up the ridge. You can easily connect the Window of the Wasatch hike to surrounding peaks like Meridian Peak, Dude Benchmark Peak, and more. It’s a fairly easy hike in my opinion, however, it does gain 824 ft in just 0.8 miles.

This may not be the best trail choice for humans and/or dogs with joint issues. The best time to hike this is in Spring when the snow is gone and the trail is dry, the flowers are blooming, and temperatures are not very hot. Start early to grab a parking spot!

Directions

It’s easiest to park at the City Creek Canyon Parking area. Note that getting into City Creek Canyon is a one-way road.

Trail Info

Distance: 4.6 miles RT
Elevation gain: 1,200 ft
Time: 2-3 hours
Dog friendly? Yes, on leash for the first half
Kid friendly? Yes, ages 10+
Fees/Permits? None

You could get to the Window of the Wasatch in several ways, but I think it’s easiest from the official City Creek Canyon TH. I’ve got a lot of gear on because my friend and I weren’t only hiking to the window viewpoint but turning this into a 10-mile loop (not shown on the map below). We started hiking around 6:45 am to beat the heat and the crowds.

Check out my map below for hiking to just the window viewpoint as described here.

At the first trail split, stay right heading Northeast.

It was so pretty early in the morning and the flowers were blooming!

Continue past the “foot traffic only” sign for another 0.6 miles.

At 1.5 miles from the City Creek Canyon TH, take a hard left, turning West and uphill. It’s across from a port-a-potty and #10 in City Creek.

From the hard left turn, it’s only another 0.8 miles to the Window of the Wasatch, but also 824 ft elevation gain! There was nobody around so we let Leo off leash but only until we saw other hikers. Charlie stayed home for this since we ended up doing 10 miles, not just to the window.

The views of downtown Salt Lake City are pretty cool with the Oquirrh’s in the distance!

Whew, that is a climb! Almost there, and we were starting to see more people but they were all coming downhill from the ridge.

Yay finally! I’ve been wanting to find the Window to the Wasatch for a few years now! Checked that one off the list 🙂

It’s really just an old sign holder, but it sure frames the Wasatch Mountains perfectly!

My friend and I took a decent break here to get pics, snack, and to prepare for more climbing. To make this a short day, return the way you hiked up. I needed to hit 10 miles for my 50k training, so we continued on to create a really fun, big loop.