Utah's Mountain Letters: The Bountiful "B"

It was our pleasure to work with 

Max ATV Rentals for this sponsored adventure.

We love hiking to Utah's mountain letters!  As we've ventured out exploring more and more of them, we've discovered two interesting things.

1. Getting from the bottom to top of one can be very, very steep
2. The amount of "hiking" involved in getting to many mountain letters is very very small.

Both of these observations apply to the Bountiful "B".  

Our trip to the "B" was part of a recent opportunity to borrow an ATV for the day. Max ATV Rentals gave us great instructions on getting from their shop to the Farmington/Bountiful Skyline Trail and made sure we understood that after we'd driven there, we should stay on the paved trail in front of the "B".  They repeated that many times.  With the ATV, stay in front of the "B".  Just to clarify a few more times, they threw in a few, "As a beginner, you definitely will not want to go up behind the "B". We tried to follow those directions...we really tried...

Bountiful's large concrete white letter is located literally in a neighborhood backyard...the climb is about 4 steps off the roadway. The "B" is tall and the dirt path around the side is steep.  Of course it was raining when we were there, so it also was slippery.  My husband, B, & P made it to the top, but I decided I just wasn't up for slipping and sliding that day.  They went up, across, and came back down.  They were very happy, and we continued on with our day of backcountry exploring.

Climbing the Bountiful "B"

Following further along on the road that separates the "B" from backyards, we sped higher and higher up into a beautiful fog-filled forest.  The views at every turn were breathtaking. So many bays and inlets branching off of the Great Salt Lake!  On the way up we stuck to the paved motorized vehicle trail as far as we could go.  Although the Farmington/Bountiful Skyline Trail opens up in dozens of different directions when you get to the top of the mountain, we were there before the snow had melted and were turned around by a locked and closed gate.  We'll definitely have to go back and explore what's back there some day.

View of the Great Salt Lake

Bountiful Skyline Trail

Coming back down, we decided to get a little more adventurous.  Afterall, we were on a monstrous ATV that could handle some mud and bouncing around.  Having driven most of the way up, I moved into the backseat and let my husband take the wheel.  Almost immediately, he turned us off the main road and onto a puddle-riddled, tree branch covered dirt trail.  He skillfully crawled over mini boulders and maneuvered some tight turns.  Then it got scary.

We thought we'd find an easy cut-off back to the main road, but one never materialized.  Two times we stopped to consider backtracking the scary trail we'd already covered rather than moving further into scary terrain we hadn't yet seen.  Two times my husband got out and ran ahead to try to assure me we would make it.  He didn't feel comfortable turning around.  He couldn't tell me it wasn't going to get more challenging.  B & P thought for sure we were going to die.  We kept moving on.  

We never did find the road.  We did find an open meadow and could see the road...way over there! And then it hit us.  After following directions to the letter, we'd gone up the trail in front of it, and now were coming down directly behind it!  The kids and I had had enough.  We opted to walk the last little bit while my husband strategically bounded down the rest of the hill.  As often happens, by that point we'd covered the scariest ground, but I was glad to give him the freedom to skillfully drive himself down the gully. He didn't hesitate to show-off with a good manly gun through a mudpit before picking us back up at the bottom.  Then, without humility, we grinned at the dirt bikers staring disbelievingly as we passed by grinning and waving.  

We made it to another of Utah's mountain letters.  We  hiked  the Bountiful "B", and then we rode it. It was an exhilarating way to spend a rainy spring day in Utah. It would be worth doing again, and next time we won't be beginners, so surely the "behind the B" road won't be as hair-raising...surely...?

Directions to the Bountiful "B"

Taking I-15 exit 317, follow 400 N east up the hill.

Be sure to stay right all the way until you get to 1300 E.

Turn left & follow the road around until reaching Eagle Ridge Drive.

Look for the dirt parking lot,  It'll be a short walk from there.

Wave at the neighbors if they're in their backyard!

Want to rent an ATV?

We had a great experience with Max ATV Rentals in Centerville!

Check out their large range of off-road vehicles.

Pick-up and delivery available in the area.

Great prices for a day or a week!

Take note that when we visited the "B", 

there was quite a bit of old electrical debris laying around

It didn't seem dangerous, but was cumbersome to climb around.

Mountain Letters: Hiking the "G"

Utahns should never take for granted the unique navigational guides we have emblazoned on our mountains.  Look up anywhere and you're bound to see a big white letter waiting to tell you where you are (even if sometimes you've got to be really creative in figuring out what that letter is telling you) 

The first in our new ongoing Mountain Letters Series:

The Pleasant Grove "G" has been an important landmark for our family.  As a marker for home, we can point to it from across the valley when our little one asks how much longer until we get home.  He knows the closer we get to that letter on the mountain, the sooner we'll be home.  Along with the BYU "Y", the "G" has also served as an educational tool.  When Word World was teaching him his letters, our little one started spotting them from the freeway and hollering them out proudly.  And most recently, the giant white letter has turned into a fun game of "I Can See a G" as it moves behinds trees and buildings before reappearing a few moments later.  

We have intended to make a trek to the "G" several times.  The lack of clearly defined trail always dissuaded us, and once we discovered the much easier and well-marked BattleCreek Falls trail leaving from the same parking lot, the "G" was pretty much off our radar.  Finally this summer the giant "G" called us so scouted out a route to take us all the way there.  We left our excuses in the car and struck out on a trail that kinda sorta looked it was the right way to go.

The first part of the trail is really steep.  Our little one kept telling us it was "pretty steep," but he kept on trekking.  

 

It's interesting to get up close to a mammoth wild consonant.  On the way up we each took a guess what it would be made of-wood, rocks, concrete.  It's actually made with long strips of white-washed metal, and coming into full close-up view our little informed us we were all wrong....it's made out of chairs.  He could be right-if you think of the nylon weaving of a lawn chair painted white and giganticized, that is what the "G" is made of. 

 

We spent the rest of our time there having lunch in the center of the oversized capital letter.  It is beautiful to get above your regular life-all the traffic, the stores, and the noise; to look across the valley and realize how big Utah Lake really is, how intricately the roads are interlaced, how many reservoirs there are, and where all the dirt trails go. The opportunity to take it all in made the trip worth it, no matter the difficulty we had in getting there.  

Directions and Information:
The trails to the Pleasant Grove "G" originate in the same parking lot as the Battle Creek Trailhead located at the top of Battle Creek Drive, or E 200 S, in Pleasant Grove.  The road ends in a parking lot for Kiwanis Park.  A small bridge crosses a creek on the north end of the parking lot.  Cross the bridge, walk through the small pavilion and follow the fence line to the dividing trailheads shown above.  Either trail will merge together into the primary trail at the top of the first ridge.