Mount Wire via George's Hollow

Dogs Unknown

Features Views · Wildflowers

This is a steep, sometimes rocky hike that is easily accessed from the campus at the University of Utah, but still leads to a great destination with great views and fun, steep hiking. The section from the saddle by Red Butte to the top of Mount Wire has some great hiking along the sides of a ridgeline, and there are often great wildflowers along this route in the spring. This is also a pretty well-trafficked trail, which makes it great for winter hiking if you've got a good traction device for your shoes.

There are lots of forks in the trail, all along the way. It is better to bring a map than assume that you are continuing on the right trail if you've never been here before. You can use the Hiking Project mobile app as well.

The mapped trail starts at one of the many trailheads for reaching Mount Wire from the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST). If you can't find a parking spot at this location, there are plenty of other parking areas for the BST nearby, and any one of them that's close enough is a good one for getting to this trail.

This trail starts out with a more gradual climb through some trees in the foothills before it connects with the BST. Once you connect with the BST, turn right, and then take your first left to head up into George's Hollow. This section starts to get steeper and rockier as the trail enters the drainage adjacent to George's Hollow, and then contours around the ridge and enters George's Hollow proper.

At this point, the trail follows up the George's Hollow drainage, which is generally dry. About 1 mile in, there is a turnoff for the Living Room, which is a popular destination where people have taken rocks and organized makeshift furniture out of them. To get to Mount Wire, continue ascending the trail until you reach a saddle where there are some forks in the trail. Take the fork that heads to the right, and continues ascending just below a ridge.

From here, the trail gets slightly less steep and its just a few hundred more feet of gain to get to the summit. There is a large tower that marks the summit, which is why the summit is also referred to as "Big Beacon". From the top, you can enjoy great views to the south of some of the notable peaks in the Wasatch Range, like Mount Olympus and Lone Peak, and then to the east you can see into Emigration Canyon, Red Butte Canyon to the north, and you have great views of the Salt Lake valley.