Ensign Peak

If you’re in Salt Lake and you’d like to go for a quick hike, but you don’t have a lot of gear or time, Ensign Peak is perfect.

The trail head is just five minutes’ drive directly north of downtown Salt Lake City, behind the Capital Building and up the hill.

The hike is less than one mile round trip, and anyone can do it.

The view here is spectacular.

Ensign Peak is a prominent hill on the northern edge of the Salt Lake Valley. On July 26, 1847, two days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young and seven other pioneer leaders climbed the hill to survey the valley. From its summit they laid out in their minds the city they intended to build.

The men fastened a yellow bandanna to a cane and waved it from the mountain peak. Brigham Young named the spot Ensign Peak. The pioneers had carried two American flags with them across the plains. Within a short time a flagpole was erected and one of those flags was flown from the peak.

Utah's state capitol building stands on a shelf part way up the hill. Efforts to preserve the summit as a park began in 1908. In 1934 a monument was built, honoring the men who climbed the hill in 1847.

The view from Ensign Peak is amazing.

Brigham Young hiked this peak when the pioneers first arrived to get a view of the layout of the valley.  There’s a small monument at the top commemorating this event.