The dry slope Centerville
The dry canyon above Centerville, with the lake and the island in front of you
Parrish Canyon, where a 45 minute walk and a mountain day leave from one dead end street
Parrish Lane runs east from the freeway and simply ends against the mountains, and everything above it gets called Parrish Canyon. Really it is four hikes from one parking area: a 0.85 mile walk to a rock art panel, a 1.95 mile loop out to Sunset Point above the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island, about a thousand feet of climb to the crest road, and a full day beyond that toward Bountiful Peak. This is the dry, open, west facing side of the bench, and the view is the reason to come here rather than to the shaded creek canyon two blocks south.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Parrish Canyon is a quick evening walk and a full mountain day from the same dead end parking area, and almost everything written about it describes only the long version. From the end of Parrish Lane, a 0.85 mile walk reaches a rock art panel in about an hour. A 1.95 mile loop reaches Sunset Point, a viewpoint about 600 feet above town looking straight west at the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island, in two to three hours. Keep climbing and the trail gains about a thousand feet to the crest road, and a full day beyond that reaches Bountiful Peak. The short walks are what most people do here. This is the dry, open side of the bench; if you want water and shade instead, that is Deuel Creek, two blocks south.
What is on this page
The dry canyon
Open and west facing, so the view starts almost right away
The quickest way to understand Parrish is to picture Deuel Creek two blocks south and then flip it. Deuel is a shaded creek bottom with a dozen log bridges and moving water. Parrish is the opposite: dry, open, and facing west and south, with almost no canopy. That one difference sets everything else. The view starts within a few minutes because nothing blocks it, the slope bakes on a summer afternoon, and this is the canyon that carries a rattlesnake warning in warm months while the creek two blocks over does not.
The payoff is Sunset Point. Under two miles of walking from a dead end street puts you on a named viewpoint about 600 feet above the town, looking straight west across the Great Salt Lake at Antelope Island and up and down the length of the Wasatch Front. It is an after work walk rather than an expedition, and because the slope is dry it is walkable most of the year, best in cool weather. The lower walk to the rock art panel is shorter still, about 0.85 miles and an hour.
The rock art needs its own sentence. There is a pictograph panel under a rock overhang on the lower trail. That the panel exists is the interesting fact and it belongs on this page. Where exactly it sits does not: skin oils destroy the pigment, and touching, chalking, or tracing rock art is illegal under both federal and state law, so this page names it and gives no directions to it. If you find it, look, photograph from a distance, and leave it as you found it.
Two practical notes for the lower canyon. It carries a downhill mountain bike line, so if you are walking down, expect bikes moving fast and do not assume you will hear one first. And because the slope is dry and south facing, the rattlesnake caution applies in warm months, so walk it in cooler seasons or keep an eye on children and dogs. Neither is a reason to skip the trail. They are simply its character.
Keep going and the trail climbs the ridge. About a thousand feet of climbing brings you to the crest road, which is the honest top of the local hike. Beyond it the route follows the ridge between Parrish and Centerville canyons toward Bountiful Peak, at 9,259 feet, which is a full mountain day. The bump you pass on that ridge, Centerville Peak at 8,904 feet, is a foothill and not the summit, and calling it the top is the most common mistake made about this hike.
Three things worth knowing before you go
- There is a rock art panel on the lower trail. It is fragile and protected by law: look, photograph from a distance, and do not touch, chalk, or trace it.
- The lower canyon is used by mountain bikers on a downhill line. Walk down it expecting fast traffic from above.
- This is the dry side of the bench: no shade and no water on the lower trail, so carry your own even for the short loop.
The four objectives
One trailhead, and four completely different afternoons
Accounts of this trail disagree because they describe different objectives and call them all Parrish Canyon. Here they are side by side, so you can pick your walk by how much time you have.
| The panel walk | The Sunset Point loop | Up to the crest road | The Bountiful Peak day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Distance | 0.85 miles | 1.95 miles as a loop | About 1,000 feet of climb to the junction | A full day, a long day out and back |
| Elevation | About 4,600 to 4,860 feet | About 4,600 to 5,240 feet | Roughly 1,000 feet of gain from the trailhead | The biggest climb of any trail on this stretch of the front |
| Time | About an hour | Two to three hours | A half day return, depending on pace and snow | A full day |
| What you get | A rock art panel under an overhang, and a first look over the valley | Sunset Point, about 600 feet above town, over the Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island and the length of the Wasatch Front | The crest road along the top of the range, the honest top of the local hike | The ridge toward Bountiful Peak, a mountain day rather than a town walk |
Davis County lists the Parrish Creek Trail at 4.9 miles and rates it difficult. The crest road along the top of the range, its seasonal gate and the drive across it are covered on the Davis canyons page.
The summit is a summer objective, not a town walk. Snow lingers on the upper ridge into June in an ordinary year, and the Bountiful Peak day is the biggest climb of any trail on this part of the front. Centerville Peak, at 8,904 feet, is a foothill on the ridge and not the top. Treat the crest road junction as the top of the local hike, carry water and layers, and pick your turnaround by the clock rather than by a printed distance.
Getting there
A water tank at the end of Parrish Lane, and one turn not to take
From I-15 take exit 319, signed Parrish Lane and 400 North, and drive east. Stay on Parrish Lane for 1.2 miles, through the retail on either side of the freeway and then through the old grid, until the street ends at a T at 700 East. The landmark at the turn is a water tank, and it is how people here give directions. Park in the graded dirt lot up past the tank, or along the road nearby. Centerville's trail map marks two trailheads from this corner, and signs both as Bonneville Shoreline Trail access.
One warning saves a wrong turn: do not turn south onto 400 East on the way up. That is the approach to Deuel Creek. The two canyons leave the same freeway exit and split at that corner, and mixing them up is the standard mistake made about Centerville. Parrish is the one you reach by staying straight to the very end of the street.
Directions to the Parrish Canyon trailhead
The details
At the trailhead
- The lot is unpaved and there is no restroom, no water and no trash service, so pack out what you carry in.
- Parking is limited and fills on summer weekends and warm weekday evenings; the roadside near the tank takes the overflow.
- The rock art panel is protected by law. Look, photograph from a distance, and leave it untouched.
The name
Samuel Parrish arrived in 1848, and ground wheat with two stones out of this canyon
The canyon is named for Samuel Parrish, who settled the creek in 1848. He and his son Joel arrived that year and built on a stream half a mile north of the group that became the town center, which is why Centerville has two canyon mouths named for two arrivals in the same year, half a mile apart, with the streets below them still on that spacing.
What Samuel Parrish did next is the detail worth carrying up the trail. He made the first molasses syrup in Centerville on a mill of wooden rollers, and in the winter of 1848 to 1849 he bought two large stones out of this canyon and used them to grind wheat into flour. A canyon that supplied a millstone in its first winter is a different kind of place from a canyon that supplies a view, and both are true of Parrish.
The creek carried the town's first school as well. A log schoolhouse stood on Parrish Creek by 1851, just south of what is now Parrish Lane, with John S. Gleason teaching. None of it is signed on the trail, which is a pity, because the walk up this canyon passes the ground where the town got started.
Living below the canyon
The best hour in Centerville leaves from a dead end street
The single best argument for living near Parrish is the one the long trail descriptions bury. Under two miles of walking from a dead end street puts you on Sunset Point, about 600 feet above the town, with the island in front of you, available most of the year. That is an after work walk from the highest streets rather than a drive to a trailhead an hour away, and it is a fact about geography rather than a claim about anyone.
The trade is the exposure, and it cuts two ways. The dry, south facing bench makes this a cool weather trail as much as a summer one, so a July afternoon here is genuinely hot while a February morning is often perfect. The same east bench is known for the canyon wind that funnels down these draws off the mountains, strongest in the colder months, which is a real Centerville fact worth knowing before you settle on the highest streets. Neither is a warning against the trail or the address. They are the character of this side of town.
For a household weighing a top street here, the checkable facts are narrow. Two trailheads sit within a five to nine minute drive, or a walk from the highest streets, with no fee and no gate. The bench above 700 East also falls inside the area where the city bars personal fireworks each July, which is set out with the rest of the address level homework on the moving to Centerville page. The island you are looking at, its causeway and its fees are covered on the Antelope Island page, and the crest road along the top of all these canyons is covered once on the Davis canyons page.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Keep reading
More of Centerville on The Local
Two blocks south
Deuel Creek
The opposite hillside: shaded, wet, a dozen log bridges, and three trailheads off one dirt road.
Read the guideWhat you can see
Antelope Island
The island filling the view from Sunset Point, with its causeway, its fees and its fall roundup.
Read the guideThe whole front
The Davis canyons
Where this canyon sits in the county's eight, and the crest road running along the top of all of them.
Read the guideQuick answers
Parrish Canyon, answered
At the east dead end of Parrish Lane, which is 400 North, in Centerville, 1.2 miles east of I-15 exit 319, where the street ends at a T at 700 East. Centerville City's trail map marks two trailheads from that corner, the Parrish Canyon Trail and the Parrish Sunset Trail, and signs both as Bonneville Shoreline Trail access. The landmark at the turn is a water tank; park in the graded dirt lot above it or along the road nearby. It is free, with no gate.
Both, from the same parking area. A 0.85 mile walk reaches a rock art panel in about an hour. A 1.95 mile loop reaches Sunset Point, a viewpoint about 600 feet above town looking west at the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island, in two to three hours. Beyond that the trail climbs about 1,000 feet to the crest road, and a full day carries on toward Bountiful Peak. Most people do one of the short versions.
Because the slope is open and faces west and south, the view starts almost right away and opens fully at Sunset Point, roughly 600 feet above the streets of Centerville: the Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island, and the length of the Wasatch Front. That view is the reason to choose Parrish over the shaded creek canyon two blocks south.
Centerville Peak is 8,904 feet, and it is a foothill on the ridge between Parrish Canyon and Centerville Canyon, not the summit of this route. The long objective from this trailhead is Bountiful Peak, at 9,259 feet, reached along the ridge. Treating Centerville Peak as the summit is the most common mistake made about the hike.
It is a full mountain day, the biggest climb of any trail on this stretch of the front. Davis County lists the Parrish Creek Trail at 4.9 miles and rates it difficult, and it is the standard west side route to Bountiful Peak. Snow lingers on the upper ridge into June in an ordinary year, so the summit is a summer objective, unlike the lower walks.
These dry foothills, and the Parrish Sunset route in particular, can have rattlesnakes in warmer months, and suggests keeping an eye on children and pets or walking the route in cooler seasons. The dry, south facing slope is the reason the warning attaches here and not to the shaded creek canyon two blocks away.
Yes, there is a pictograph panel under a rock overhang on the lower trail. This page names it and deliberately gives no directions to it. Skin oils destroy the pigment, and touching, chalking, or tracing rock art is illegal under both federal and state law. If you come across it, look, photograph from a distance, and leave it exactly as you found it.
Samuel Parrish, who settled the creek in 1848. He made the first molasses syrup in Centerville on a mill of wooden rollers, and in the winter of 1848 to 1849 he bought two large stones out of the canyon and used them to grind wheat into flour. The town's first log schoolhouse stood on Parrish Creek by 1851.
Parrish Lane runs the full width of Centerville, so it is easy to confuse. Its west end, at I-15 exit 319, is a freeway and Legacy Parkway interchange, not a trail door. The Parrish Canyon trailheads are at the opposite, east end of the same street, and Centerville's map marks both as Bonneville Shoreline Trail access. The Legacy Parkway Trail itself is reached from Pages Lane.
The best hour in Centerville leaves from a dead end street
The Sunset Point loop leaves from the end of a Centerville street rather than from a trailhead an hour away, and that is what a bench address on this side of the county quietly buys. If a home near the canyon is on your list, the questions worth asking are about the parcel: which side of the July fireworks line the street sits on, how the east wind hits the highest lots, and what the walk to the trailhead really is. Tell me what you are weighing and I will connect you with a Davis County partner agent who works this bench, and stay on the file for the research and financing side.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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