By Scott Buehler, Moving UtahMueller Park and Elephant Rock
Top of 1800 South Free Year round Directions
The best thing to do in Bountiful is five miles east of the middle of it, up on the national forest. Mueller Park is a developed picnic ground at the top of 1800 South, sitting at 5,400 feet, and it is a real facility rather than a gravel pull off: day use picnic sites for groups from sixteen to a hundred people, flush toilets, drinking water, paved roads and paths, and a volleyball court. The gate opens at 7 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m.
The trail out of it is why most people come. It climbs about six miles one way, gradually, through dense forest to a meadow called Rudy's Flat. Almost nobody walks the whole thing on a weeknight. Most turn around at Elephant Rock, about three and a half miles up, which makes roughly seven miles out and back, and the reward is a bench above the trees looking west over the city, the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island beyond it.
The thing that catches hikers out is that dirt bikes are allowed here. Mueller Canyon takes hikers, mountain bikes, horses and motorbikes, which is not how the Salt Lake canyons one county south work, and it changes what a summer Saturday on this trail sounds like. The second surprise runs the other way: the creek below the trail is part of Bountiful's drinking water, and dogs are still welcome, on a leash of no more than six feet, two per picnic site.
Why it ranks first
Because it is the one thing on this list that people drive into the city for rather than past, it works from the first dry morning of spring to the last of fall, and there is real plumbing behind it rather than a lay by with a sign. It also anchors the whole south Davis trail network, so once you know this trailhead you know the door to most of what sits above the city.
The small lot, and the hour that solves it
Parking is limited and it fills on summer weekends, with the overflow ending up on the shoulder of the approach road. The gate opens at seven, and the difference between arriving at seven and arriving at ten on a July Saturday is the difference between a space and a long walk up from the road. Weekday evenings run heavier with bikes than with boots.
The details
Getting there
Drive 1800 South east until it stops looking residential and starts looking like a canyon road. From I-15 it is the Woods Cross exit, a couple of miles of city street and then two miles of canyon. There is no street number at the trailhead itself, so map to the Mueller Park Trailhead or to the top of 1800 South.
Before you go
- Dirt bikes are allowed here. Expect to hear and meet them, and do not treat the trail as a quiet footpath with the odd bicycle on it.
- This is bear country, so store food as the trailhead signs ask. Fireworks, firearms and amplified music are all prohibited.
- The creek below the trail is part of the city's drinking water. Dogs go on a six foot leash, two per site, and waste leaves with you rather than into the drainage.
Bountiful Town Square and the ice ribbon
75 East 200 South Free to enter, small charge to skate Ice is winter Directions
An ice ribbon is a long looping path of ice that you skate along rather than around, and Bountiful has 520 feet of one, outdoors, a block off Main Street. That is the headline. The plaza it sits on is five acres, at 75 East 200 South, on the footprint of a school that used to stand there, and it opened in December 2020 as the closest thing this city has to a town square.
Worth knowing who runs it, because it is not the city. The South Davis Recreation District operates the ribbon, so its season, hours and admission come from the district, not the city calendar, and the two are easy to confuse when both carry a Bountiful address. Alongside the ice there is a fire pit, heated seating, tables and restrooms.
In summer the ribbon is a dry concrete loop and the square belongs to the market. The city runs a farmers market here on Thursday evenings through the warm months, and it takes SNAP and EBT. One rule catches people out: Bountiful Town Square is the one city park where dogs are not allowed. They are welcome on leash in the others, and not in this one.
Why it ranks second
Because it is the only thing in this city that is genuinely a destination in January, and a walkable outdoor rink two minutes from a downtown street is a rare thing in a Utah suburb. It ranks under the trailhead because the ice only runs part of the year, and because the square in July, pleasant as it is, is a plaza with a market on it rather than somewhere you would cross the county to reach.
Do not plan off last winter's date
The ribbon opens in late November most years and runs through February, but the exact opening date and the admission both reset every fall. Take them from the district for the winter you are visiting rather than from any figure printed the year before, this page included.
The details
Getting there
It is downtown, one block east of Main and one block south of Center Street, with the Tabernacle a short walk north and the art center four blocks on. If you are already parked on Main, walk to it. The rest of the county's paid days out are set side by side on the Davis County family weekends page.
Before you go
- Dogs are not allowed at Bountiful Town Square. The city welcomes them on leash in its other parks and names this one as the exception.
- The ice is run by the recreation district, not the city, so its hours and prices live on the district's site rather than the city calendar.
- You can book the ribbon for a group. Call the district ahead rather than turning up and hoping for open ice.
Handcart Days
A Friday and Saturday around July 24 Free to attend Two days only Directions
Once a year almost nothing in this city moves, and the last week of July is it. Handcart Days is the local festival, on a Friday and Saturday around July 24, and the striking thing about it as a visit is how little it asks: no ticket for the parade, no ticket for either park day, no ticket for the concert. The only money in the whole two days is on individual rides and games.
Friday is the park. Games, food and activities run at Bountiful City Park, 400 North 200 West, in the evening, and a free concert closes it out. Saturday opens with a fun run, then the parade at nine, park games through the middle of the day, and fireworks late at Mueller Park Junior High. The free side of the park runs to nine square, sack races, giant bubbles, corn hole and a candy drop; the paid side has a laser tag arena, a tall climbing wall, bounce houses and a little train.
The parade is longer than most people expect. It runs north up Bountiful Main Street from 1500 South to 400 North, then turns west to 100 West, 1.8 miles in all, and that last westward leg finishes beside Bountiful City Park, where the rest of the day happens. It is one of the bigger parades in the state.
Why it ranks third
Because it is the largest thing this city does, almost all of it is free, and it is the one weekend a year when the whole four block downtown is the event rather than the backdrop. It ranks below two permanent facilities for the plain reason that it exists on two days. If you are here on the 24th or 25th of July, it is not the third best thing to do in Bountiful, it is the only thing anyone in Bountiful is doing.
The chair rule
A chair set out along the parade route before nine on the Friday evening does not hold a spot unless someone is sitting in it. That is the most useful line on this entry: it tells you exactly when the front row becomes claimable, and that claiming it earlier will not stick. The one thing to plan around is parking, so leave the car well off the route and walk in.
The details
Getting there
Main Street closes for the parade, so the question is where you leave the car, not how you reach the route. The park end of the day is at 400 North and 200 West, about half a mile north of downtown on the same grid. Take the year's exact schedule from the city, since the dates and times settle a few months ahead.
Before you go
- The schedule settles each spring. Take the exact dates and times for your year from the city rather than from any listing, this one included.
- Handcart Days runs its own food rather than outside vendors: barbecue sandwiches, hot dogs, corn on the cob, nachos, ice cream, snow cones, scones and popcorn.
- Fireworks are at Mueller Park Junior High on the Saturday night, a different address from either the parade route or the park.
Holbrook Canyon
Bountiful Boulevard by the temple Free Best late summer Directions
The second canyon mouth is the quiet one, and everyone gives the same directions to it: just south of the Bountiful Utah Temple, on the east side of Bountiful Boulevard, behind a large brown sign for Sessions Mountain and Holbrook Canyon Trail. The main canyon walk runs about 4.7 miles, moderate to difficult, and it crosses the creek several times. Sections of it are easy to lose, which is worth saying plainly rather than smoothing over.
It behaves differently from Mueller Park in two ways that matter on the ground. The trail drops about a hundred feet from the parking area into the canyon before it starts climbing, so the last stretch of the return leg is uphill at exactly the point nobody wants it. And the creek crossings are a season rather than a feature: a real obstacle at high water in spring, a step across by midsummer. Plan the walk around which of those two canyons you are getting.
Numbers for this canyon come two ways, and they measure different walks. The 4.7 mile figure is the canyon walk most people do. Longer figures near ten miles with a few thousand feet of climb describe a full push to the ridge above, a different objective and a different day. Pick the one you are actually walking and do not split the difference, because the average describes nothing.
Why it ranks fourth
Because it is the walk locals take when the first canyon is busy, and it starts at the most recognizable landmark in south Davis. It ranks below the festival because it asks more of a visitor than the entries above it: no facility to speak of, a route that is easy to lose in places, and creek crossings that change character with the month.
The details
Getting there
From downtown, north on Main to 400 North, east through the 1300 East stop sign, and the road bends south and becomes Bountiful Boulevard. The trailhead and its parking are on the left just past the temple. Map to the temple and look for the brown sign rather than trusting a pinned street number, which is often off here.
Before you go
- Take the route seriously. Sections are easy to lose, and this is a very different walk from the graded, signed trail out of the next canyon south.
- The return finishes uphill, because the trail drops into the canyon from the parking area before it climbs. Budget for that at the end rather than being surprised by it.
- Some write ups call this an off leash spot. Treat the leash as the rule here, as it is in the canyon generally.
The bees, the bronzes and the museum
Main Street, 200 South to 100 North Free Year round Directions
Historic Main Street anchors this entry, and it is the one part of the list you can do free, indoors and out, in an afternoon. The city puts public art along four blocks of it, all between the downtown grid and Bountiful Town Square, and the result is a walk you can take without paying for a thing.
Two treasure hunts run along the same pavement, which is more than most cities of any size manage. One is bronze, one is digital. The bronze hunt hides six bees between 200 South and 100 North and hands out a free sticker at the finish. The digital one puts QR codes on shopfronts, each a short video about what stood on that site before, with a pin for finding six. Together they are an hour of downtown you will not find on a travel site.
The fixed pieces are six named bronze sculptures along the same blocks: Dad by Deveren Farley, Dauntless by Jim Green, Daydream by Dan Toone, Pig Iron by Damian Radice, Sentinel by Dan Toone, and Sharing A Story. Set into the same walk are the Tabernacle at Main and Center, finished in 1863, and the Bountiful museum at 305 North Main, which keeps a Bamberger model train from the late 1930s and a run of the Davis County Clipper going back to 1892.
Why it ranks fifth
Because it is the entry that is genuinely free, genuinely indoor and outdoor at once, and genuinely nowhere else. Two scavenger hunts, six bronzes, a museum and an art gallery inside four blocks is a real afternoon. It ranks here rather than higher because the museum keeps narrow hours, the art center closes between exhibitions, and a Monday visit finds most of the indoor half shut.
The hours are the catch
The Bountiful museum opens three afternoons a week, and two of those are short two hour windows, so Tuesday, when it stays open until 8, is your best chance of catching it. The Bountiful Davis Art Center, at 90 North Main, opens Tuesday through Saturday and closes on Mondays, holidays and between exhibitions. The bees and the bronzes are outdoors and there whenever you are. Everything else on this entry rewards a quick check of the hours first.
The details
Getting there
Park once on Main and walk the rest. The bee hunt and the bronzes run along the same four blocks and overlap for most of their length, so a single loop covers both. The museum sits further north at 305 North Main and is the one part of this entry worth driving to if you are short of time.
Before you go
- Check the museum's hours before you set off. It opens three afternoons a week, and two of those are only two hours long.
- The art center closes between exhibitions as well as on Mondays and holidays, so the free gallery is not a certainty on any given day.
- The shops named in the bee clues are independent and they change, so pick up the current clue set from the city rather than an old one.
Bountiful Ridge and the bench boulevard
2430 South Bountiful Boulevard Golf is paid; the drive is free Spring to fall Directions
Bountiful Boulevard is the bench road, running north to south several hundred feet above the city, and it is the most rewarding twenty minutes of driving in Bountiful. It strings together the temple, the Holbrook Canyon trailhead just south of it, the turn onto Canyon Creek Road toward the third canyon, and at 2430 South the Bountiful Ridge Golf Club. Nearly every west facing view anyone photographs in this city is taken from somewhere along it.
The course is the city's own, run as a city department. It is eighteen holes, it works as a pre paid facility where tee times are booked online before you arrive, and on site there is a clubhouse, a cafe that caters, a pro shop, lessons, junior clubs and both men's and ladies' clubs. The rest of what a golfer wants to know, the fee and the season, resets every year, so call the club at 801-298-6040 for the current numbers.
The honest version of this entry is a road with a view and a municipal course on it. A golfer books ahead and has a good morning; a visitor with an hour drives the boulevard, stops where the valley opens up, and has the better half of the entry for nothing.
Why it ranks sixth
Because the drive is genuinely worth twenty minutes and the course is a real municipal facility, but the golf takes a phone call to plan. That split, a free drive anyone can take and a round that needs booking, is why it sits in the middle of the list rather than at either end.
Ignore the river and the pecan trees
Online descriptions of this course mention rolling prairie, a wooded ridgeline, a river valley dotted with native pecan trees and a river alongside the finishing holes. None of that is in Utah. It is stock template copy borrowed from a course in another state, and it turns up even where a careful reader would trust it. Bountiful Ridge sits on a dry Wasatch bench. Anything you read about a river or a pecan grove came from that template, so take the real details from the club instead.
The details
Getting there
From downtown, east and uphill on 400 North to Bountiful Boulevard, then south past the temple and the Holbrook trailhead, and the course is on the left at 2430 South. Driving the boulevard end to end is the point as much as any one address on it, and the north end runs on toward Canyon Creek Road and the third canyon mouth.
Before you go
- It is a pre paid facility. Tee times are booked and paid online in advance, so turning up hoping to pay at the counter is the wrong plan.
- Call 801-298-6040 for the current fee, season and hours, which change year to year.
- Ignore any description of this course with a river or native pecan trees. That copy belongs to a different course in a different state.
North Canyon Trail 601
End of Canyon Creek Road Free Snowmelt to snowfall Directions
The third canyon mouth is the least developed and the most specific. North Canyon Trail 601 gains about 1,400 feet over roughly two and a half miles of national forest, rated moderate, and it takes hikers, mountain bikes, horses, off highway vehicles and leashed dogs. You will also see it given as about four miles, closer to a seven mile out and back: the shorter figure is the marked forest segment, the longer one the walk people actually do.
Two things matter more than any trail description. First, the old access road past the pavement is in bad shape and you should not drive it, which settles a question that comes up constantly. Second, the gate at the top of Indian Springs Road stops horses and motorcycles, so those users have to come in on the Mueller Park trail instead. If you are bringing a horse or a machine, this is not your trailhead.
There is no seasonal closure on 601. Any season you hear for this canyon is about snow, not a rule, and the window is the same as everything else on this bench: it opens when the snow goes and closes when it comes back.
Why it ranks seventh
Because it is a real trail with a real number, and the least ready of the three canyon mouths for someone who has not read about it first. No facility, an approach road to avoid, a gate that excludes two user groups, and two different lengths in circulation. A rider or a walker who knows all that will have a quiet morning. Someone expecting the first entry on this list will be disappointed within five minutes.
Where this entry stops
At the trailhead. Higher up, Rudy's Flat is where this trail, the Mueller Park trail and a third trail off the Salt Lake side all meet at one meadow, and that junction, the crest road above it and the shape of the whole bench belong to the Davis canyons page. This entry takes the trailhead, the numbers, the access rule and the road warning, and hands the rest over.
The details
Getting there
Get onto Bountiful Boulevard, then find Canyon Creek Road running east off it and follow it to where the pavement stops. The trailhead is a further mile on, up a rough road you should walk rather than drive.
Before you go
- Do not drive past the pavement. The old access road is in bad shape, so leave the car and walk the last mile.
- Horses and motorcycles cannot get through the gate at the top of Indian Springs Road and have to use the Mueller Park trail instead.
- Two lengths circulate for this canyon and they measure different things. Two and a half miles is the forest segment; four is the hike. Say which one you mean.
The South Davis Recreation Center
550 North 200 West Day pass or membership Year round Directions
The recreation center at 550 North 200 West is in Bountiful and it does not belong to Bountiful. The South Davis Recreation District serves five cities, North Salt Lake, Woods Cross, Bountiful, West Bountiful and Centerville, and inside the building are indoor and outdoor pools, an ice rink, basketball, racquetball, a weight room and classes, all covered by one membership.
The five city arrangement is the interesting part, and it is not how most of Utah works. A resident is anyone living in any of those five cities, so a Woods Cross address pays the same at the door and on a membership as a Bountiful one. A resident rate that ignores city lines says something true about south Davis that no map does: five city halls, one connected place, a set of shared institutions underneath them.
The district also runs the outdoor ice ribbon downtown and a program list that runs to junior basketball, water polo, swim lessons, figure skating and its own skating competition. The day pass and the memberships reset at the start of each January, so take the current figures from the district for the year you are in.
Why it ranks eighth
Because it is a municipal rec center, and a rec center is somewhere you use rather than somewhere you visit. It earns its place because it holds the only year round ice in Davis County and because the five city structure behind it is genuinely unusual. It sits last because nobody drives to Bountiful for a swim, and because the county family weekends page already prices it against every other paid day out in Davis.
What it means for a household
It means the recreation question in south Davis has one answer across five cities, and that answer sits at 550 North 200 West whichever of the five you buy in. It also means the membership decision is a real one, since the gap between paying at the door and holding a pass comes down to how many visits a year the household actually makes.
The details
Getting there
It is north of downtown on the 200 West line, a short run up from Main Street, next to the junior high it shares a gym with. Take the current pricing and public session schedule from the district, and see the county family weekends page for how it stacks up against everything else in Davis that charges at the door.
Before you go
- Resident here means one of five cities, not one. A Centerville, West Bountiful, Woods Cross or North Salt Lake address pays the same as a Bountiful one.
- Prices step up at the start of each January, so take the current figures from the district rather than one printed elsewhere.
- The same district runs the outdoor ribbon downtown at 75 East 200 South, a separate facility with its own season, hours and admission.
Three mouths, one bench
The three canyons above this city want three different things from you
Entries one, four and seven all end at a trailhead within four miles of downtown, they get described interchangeably, and turning up at the wrong one costs a morning. Here is what actually separates them.
| Mueller Park | Holbrook Canyon | North Canyon | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A developed forest recreation site with a gate | City land at the mouth, national forest above it | National forest trail 601, no facility at all |
| What is provided | Flush toilets, drinking water, paved paths, group picnic sites and a volleyball court | A parking area, a brown sign, and nothing you should count on | Nothing. The last mile of approach road is too rough to drive |
| How long | About six miles to the top; about three and a half to the usual turnaround | About 4.7 miles, with a much longer ridge push in circulation | About two and a half miles with 1,400 feet of gain, or four for the full hike |
| Who is allowed | Walkers, bikes, horses and dirt bikes | Open to all users, machines included | Walkers, bikes and machines, but horses and motorcycles cannot pass the Indian Springs gate |
| The catch | A small lot that fills, and motorized traffic most people do not expect | Sections are easy to lose, and the return finishes uphill | Two lengths in circulation, no facility, and an approach road too rough to drive |
The thing the table cannot show is the snow, which arrives on this bench earlier and leaves later than the valley floor suggests, so a canyon that is dry downtown can still be under snow at the trailhead.
Before you go
What to settle first, because half this list keeps hours and the other half has no gate
Four things go wrong in this city and each takes two minutes to avoid: arriving at a museum on a Monday, arriving at a trailhead at ten on a July Saturday, planning a golf morning off a website that describes another state, and taking a dog to the one city park that does not want one.
Sort before you drive
- The museum's three afternoons a week, because two of them are only two hours long
- A tee time, because the course is a pre paid facility and books online rather than at a counter
- The current ice ribbon season, since no prior year's date can stand in for it
- Which canyon you are actually walking, since the three above this city are not interchangeable
- The week you are visiting against the Friday and Saturday around July 24, when Main Street belongs to a parade
Check on the day
- The hour, because the Mueller Park gate opens at seven and its lot fills long before noon
- The creek, since the Holbrook crossings are an obstacle in May and a step across in August
- Whether the art center is between exhibitions, which closes it as surely as a Monday does
- The snow line on the bench, which sits several hundred feet above the valley floor gauge
- Whether the market is on, because it is a Thursday between late June and the middle of October
Turn up and it is fine
- The bee hunt and the six bronzes, which are outdoors and there at any hour
- The drive up Bountiful Boulevard, which costs nothing and is the best twenty minutes in the city
- Bountiful Town Square itself, which is a public plaza and open whether or not anything is on it
- The parade on 25 July, which is free to watch and 1.8 miles long so there is room
- Any of the three trailheads on a weekday morning outside the snow months
Online descriptions of Bountiful Ridge Golf Club mention a river valley and native pecan trees, and none of it is in Utah. That copy, rolling prairie, a wooded ridgeline and a river alongside the finishing holes, is stock template text borrowed from a golf course in another state, and it turns up even where a careful reader would trust it. Bountiful Ridge sits on a dry Wasatch bench at 2430 South Bountiful Boulevard. The fee and season change year to year, so call 801-298-6040 for the current numbers and ignore anything that mentions a river or a pecan grove.
What this list leaves out, and why
- Bountiful Pond. It carries the city's name and it is not in the city: it sits in Woods Cross on 1600 North, west of Legacy Parkway, and it belongs to Woods Cross and to the county ponds page, which also covers the seasonal water warnings that turn up on it.
- The Legacy Parkway Trail. Thirteen paved and nearly flat miles run up the west side of this county and not one of its trailheads is in Bountiful; they belong to North Salt Lake, Woods Cross, West Bountiful, Centerville and Farmington. The trail page has all of it.
- Skyline Drive, the seasonal gate above the bench and the shoreline route between the canyon mouths. Those are the bench as a landform rather than a Bountiful facility, and the canyons page is where they are written for all eight mouths at once.
- The temple as an entry. It is the most recognizable building in south Davis and it is not a visitor attraction, so it appears on this list only as the landmark you give directions by. Its own page handles the building, the materials and the dates and stops there.
- A ninth entry. The next candidate was a neighborhood park, and a neighborhood park is somewhere you live near rather than somewhere you go. Eight is what this city holds and eight is what this page ranks.