The Davis canyons, mouth by mouth and over the top

Mueller Park is the one Davis canyon that is a developed Forest Service site rather than a bare city trailhead: eighteen group picnic sites for sixteen to a hundred people, flush toilets, drinking water, paved paths and a volleyball court at 5,400 feet, with gates that open at 7 am and close at 10 pm and reservations through Recreation.gov. The trail that leaves it is Mueller Park Trail 141, about six miles one way to Rudy's Flat, with Elephant Rock at about three and a half miles the standard turnaround, seven miles round trip.

Two things surprise people who know the Salt Lake canyons. First, motorcycles are allowed on the trail alongside hikers, bikes and horses; it is a shared route, not a footpath, so do not be startled by a dirt bike. Second, this is a working municipal watershed where dogs are still allowed on leash: Bountiful draws part of its culinary water from Mill Creek here and treats it on site, and there is no Cottonwoods style pet ban. Pack out everything. The trailhead lot is small, roughly a handful of cars, with overflow along the road.

Holbrook Canyon starts across the road from the Bountiful Temple, at a big brown sign that reads Sessions Mountain and Holbrook Canyon Trail, and it is the canyon locals go to when Mueller Park is full. It runs about 4.7 miles, moderate to difficult, and it crosses the creek several times with stretches that are hard to follow. The crossings are a real obstacle at high water in May and June and nothing by August, and the trail's first move is downhill about a hundred feet from the lot into the drainage, which means the day ends with a climb.

The trail lies on Bountiful City land rather than national forest for its length, and the city has been building around it: in 2023 Bountiful added about four miles of shoreline trail between Holbrook and Ward Canyons, about two more up the south side of Holbrook, and expanded the network in Holbrook, Ward, Mueller Park and above the Summerwood neighborhood. The Bonneville Shoreline Trail Coalition maps the new Holbrook miles as official trail, but neither end joins the rest of it yet, because private land sits in the gaps. That is Davis County's whole trail story in one sentence.

Centerville's canyon comes in two doors from the end of 100 South: a north trailhead up a short dirt road with almost no parking, and a south trailhead half a mile on with a signed pullout. The two branches climb about a mile and a half to a junction and reach a waterfall around two miles in, so either side is roughly four miles round trip. The classic loop is up the north branch and down the south. The south branch is the gentler of the two, staying with the creek over roughly a dozen bridge crossings; the north branch is steeper and gains more.

Also called the Centerville Canyon Trail, this is the county's easiest introduction to what these canyons are: a creek in a steep V, cottonwood and maple, cool in July, and a destination close enough that people finish it before dinner. It is the first canyon walk to send a first timer or a family up.

Parrish Canyon is the serious one on the south bench. From a dirt lot where Parrish Lane meets 700 East, and a quarter mile of dirt road south past a small reservoir, the Parrish Creek Trail climbs the ridge between Parrish and Centerville canyons under Centerville Peak at 8,904 feet, gaining about a thousand feet to where it meets Skyline Drive below the crest. That junction is the natural short turnaround. Beyond it the route continues to Bountiful Peak at 9,259 feet, the largest gain of any trail in this set and a full day by any measure.

The canyon is named for Samuel Parrish, who settled the creek in 1848, and it climbs Bountiful Peak from the west. The Bonneville Shoreline Trail crosses it low down. Take this one when you want to reach the crest road on foot, and pack for a mountain rather than a park.

Farmington Canyon Road, Forest Service Road 007, is the one road that takes a car from the county up into the Wasatch. It leaves 100 East above Farmington Pond, climbs on pavement past the pond trailhead and a smaller dirt trailhead, turns to gravel at a switchback, and keeps climbing to Bountiful Peak Campground at 8.1 miles and 7,500 feet, then on to the junction with Francis Peak Road and Skyline Drive. It is steep, narrow and winding. High clearance is not required and passenger cars drive it, but trailers over 24 feet are not recommended and a nervous driver will not enjoy it.

Two standing orders govern it. From April 1 through October 31 no fire of any kind is allowed within 200 yards of the road from its start to the old Sunset Campground pullout, and from November 1 through April 1 no camping is allowed on or within half a mile of the road between that pullout and the gates at the top. Sunset Campground itself was removed in 2018 and survives only as a name. Bountiful Peak Campground, with 29 sites, one group site, vault toilets and no drinking water at all, is the county's only real campground, seasonal and reservable through Recreation.gov; in 2025 it opened on June 27, which is a better guide to when the canyon is drivable than any date on a blog.

Above the campground the road forks. Francis Peak Road climbs to the two white radar domes the whole valley can see, built in 1959 and run by the FAA and the Air National Guard on a summit that was leveled for them, a little over 9,500 feet up. Skyline Drive runs the crest south from the junction past Bountiful Peak at 9,259 feet and drops by Ward Canyon into Bountiful, where 1300 East becomes paved Skyline Drive at the bottom. Farmington to Bountiful over the top is roughly 25 miles of gravel.

This is where the county's calendar lives. The crest roads gate for winter and open in stages, the lower canyon first and the ridge later, so the top is usually drivable summer into October. There is no fixed opening date; it moves with the snowpack, and in 2025 the campground did not open until June 27. Check the Forest Service road conditions page the morning you go, because weather and safety close these roads on short notice.

Bair Canyon is spelled two ways, both in current official use. The federal names list and the Forest Service, which manages it as Bair Creek Trail 613, spell it Bair; the City of Fruit Heights, a USGS streamgage and the trailhead sign spell it Baer, so the sign you read and the map you carry disagree, and neither is a misprint. The trail runs 3.9 miles with 4,200 feet of gain, a primitive route that is hard to follow in places as it climbs the ridge. From the small lot it follows the creek through three crossings, usually only the second one wet in early summer, and after about two and a half miles it begins a steep climb out of the canyon toward a jeep road below Francis Peak.

The parking is the tightest in this set, a handful of spaces reached by a residential driveway, which is the reason the canyon stays quiet. Below it, the Gailey Trail at Nicholls Park follows the lower creek on the flat between homes and a golf course, short and shaded, and is the easy option in the same drainage. Bair Canyon is also the county's main remaining Bonneville Shoreline Trail gap. In 2025 a bill was introduced in Congress to transfer national forest land above Fruit Heights to the city with a trail easement to close that gap; as of 2026 it had not become law.

Adams Canyon is one of the most popular hikes in Davis County: Trail 614 on the Salt Lake Ranger District, following the North Fork of Holmes Creek about a mile and three quarters to a roughly forty foot waterfall. The Forest Service puts the climb at a little over a thousand feet, hiking apps a few hundred more. The maintained trail ends at the falls; above them the ground is steep and cliffy and hard to follow toward the ridge, which is where the county's search and rescue calls come from. Leashed dogs are welcome, and the trail crosses the Bonneville Shoreline Trail early.

The trailhead is the newest facility in this set. Layton City opened a rebuilt trailhead off North Eastside Drive in April 2024: a paved lot, four flush restrooms, water filling stations, a bike repair stand and racks, an information kiosk and a small rotunda with the canyon's history, paid for with a state grant, county transportation tax money, donated land and private gifts. Before it, the gravel lot held about twenty cars, and at the worst of the US-89 rebuild nearly a hundred were counted parked along a road with no sidewalk. On a summer Saturday it still fills by early morning.