Looking back as I climbed Little Cottonwood Canyon in the evening shadows.
Cascade in the distance near the Snowbird resort.
Went past Snowbird all the way to the end of the road in Alta. It's over 8,500 ft at the end of the pavement.
We hoped to get in at least two long hikes while in Utah this year. We may have been here every year for the past seven years, but there are still so many things we have not seen in the Salt Lake area. There are all kinds of hidden gems in the mountains and even in the valley. I have now accepted the fact that the bike will not take me everywhere I want to go. Most trails in the world don't allow bikes, so if I want to see what lies at the end of those trails, I'm going to have to hike. Two hikes caught our eyes during planning. The first was a hike up Mt. Timpanogos to the peak. We went through the Timpanogos Cave back in 2012, but it is far below the mountain's 11,752-foot peak, which is the second highest in the Wasatch mountain range. There's a lake and glacier at the top that I would love to see. Our second choice was Lake Blanche, which is a high-mountain lake with two other nearby lakes and Sundial Peak towering above.
Amber couldn't go with us on Monday, so we decided to save Timpanogos for a day she could go. Shannon and I decided to go for the hike to Lake Blanche. It was a tough, but beautiful hike starting in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We climbed pretty much the entire four miles to the lake. It was shady at first, then opened up as we climbed higher.
Big Cottonwood Creek near the trailhead.
Mill B South Fork Cascade
Bench early in the hike
Singletrack through the aspens
Looking behind us about halfway up the climb. The view is already getting nice!
Upper part of Mill B South Fork cascading down the other side of this canyon.
The Great Salt Lake in the distance.
It was rather rocky at the top. Once you crested the rocky ridge, Lake Blanche and Sundial Peak came into view. The peaks still had some snow hanging on the top and there were some awesome reflections in the water of the lake. We first hiked around the left side of Lake Blanche and climbed up to a viewpoint at the base of Sundial Peak, where we could peer to the north and west.
Lake Blanche and Sundial Peak
Hiking on a few snow patches as we start up Sundial Peak to an overlook.
Looking north from our viewpoint on Sundial Peak.
Supposedly, there is a path to the top of Sundial, but we couldn't find it. Everything we saw would require climbing gear. We headed back down to Blanche, then rolled around the right side of the lake where there is a dam and then two other lakes. Lakes Florence and Lillian are much smaller, but make for great views as well. I hiked down to each of the smaller lakes, while Shannon stayed up to enjoy the view from the ridge. I didn't have time to cut my hair before we left for the trip, so I used my Sunday afternoon to trim up my own head in a side mirror on the van using my beard trimmer. It was short to say the least.
More of Lake Blanche
Lake Florence nearest the camera with Lake Lillian further below.
Lake Florence with Sundial Peak towering above.
Shannon took this picture of my bald head.
Making my way down to Lake Lillian.
We spent a couple of hours at the top, then started to make our way back down. As we reached the rocky ridge again, we saw several rocks with carvings in them. We found more names like at so many other of our western destinations. Some of these carvings dated back to 1924.
Heading back into the canyon
Our total distance for the day was just 8.7 miles, but it was a tough route with lots of climbing and descending. We were pretty tired afterwards, but it was nothing like Mount Olympus last year. The sun took its toll on us as well, especially on my head. I should have worn sunscreen because I was burned crispy when we got back. You don't realize how much sun your hair blocks until you don't have any.
Elevation profile for our hike to Lake Blanche
My head was so burned that it blistered the following day. It was so sore that I couldn't wear a helmet or a hat. It hurt to even lay my head on my pillow at night. I had to spend a day indoors avoiding the sun.
The blisters were gone on Wednesday. My head was still super tender, but I could at least put a helmet on. I didn't think I could tolerate mountain biking, so I picked road for the day. I think if my helmet moved on a bump I would have screamed. I went over to Herriman, UT and rode up Rose Canyon and then Butterfield Canyon. It was a shorter day than I had hoped for, but it was super hot. I saw 97 degrees at one point in Rose Canyon. The wind was blowing and it felt like a hairdryer, providing no relief at all.
Rose Canyon with an interesting rock formation on the ridge to the right. It was like a disc sticking up out of the ground.
Rose Canyon is probably named for the prolific prickly pear cacti that cover its slopes. Prickly pear are sometimes called the "desert rose" when in bloom. I could see why as I passed groups of cacti blooming pink. I also saw some orange blooms. The climb wasn't super hard with a fairly easy grade and only a little over three miles long, but it was all in the sun and very hot.
Pink prickly pear blooms in Rose Canyon.
I turned around at the top of Rose and descended back to Herriman, then rode over to the start of Butterfield Canyon before tackling its much tougher slopes. I've climbed Butterfield numerous times, but it never gets any easier. It is 6.8 miles in length and has three distinct sections. The bottom four miles are rolling with several small downhills and flat sections early to break up the climbing. The middle is a super steep kilometer, going over 20% grade for most of it. Once you top that wall, it is a steady climb along the hillside to the top on a much narrower road with a few sharp corners. I flatted near the top and had to search for shade to be able to tolerate stopping long enough to change the tube. It was HOT! I was happy to get going again, even if it was still uphill. Then I had a great time bombing the descent. I took a few more chances than I should have on the narrow section, but it was just so fun that I couldn't pass on the opportunity to hang some narrow corners at 40 mph. The ride was not even two and half hours in length, but it was about all I wanted today with the searing heat and my tender head.
On the way up Butterfield Canyon, this is the last section of the climb.
Nice view as I near the top of Butterfield.
Looking into the Salt Lake Valley from the top of Butterfield Peak. The road is visible carving across the side of the canyon.
On Thursday, the girls wanted to go to downtown Salt Lake City. We ended up at Temple Square where we visited the Salt Lake Temple, the Tabernacle, Assembly Hall and the Family History Library. Yes, I have now been inside the mothership temple. It cracks me up every time someone tells me the church is hiding something in there and that's why they don't let nonmembers in and make it very hard for members to even get inside. It's actually not that hard at all, you just have to have what I would call ordinary moral standards. Maybe they are not ordinary for everyone, but not stealing, being honest, not cheating on my wife and not doing things that hurt my body, like smoking, seem ordinary to me. There was nothing shady going on inside, just normal worship of Jesus Christ. The temple is the House of God and the only way to keep it clean and be respectful to God is to set standards for those who enter. The easiest way to track if someone has been living those standards is to have them be members of the LDS church. It's as simple as that. If you want to go in, all you have to do is show you too are living those standards and then you can get a temple recommend that allows you to go inside.
Salt Lake Temple
Assembly Hall
Inside the Tabernacle
Our church is big on family and tracking ancestry. The Family History Library is where a lot of the research is done that links all of us together. If you have an Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org account, you can go into the library and pick up a tablet that can be loaded with your profile. There are various stations within the library where you can use the tablet to see info about people you are linked to. One station showed a map of where known relatives were born. Another showed old photos of family members that have been recorded in the library. My favorite was the station that showed famous people you are related to and how distant the connection is. I didn't have a profile at the time, so we used Shannon's account and found out she is fifth cousins with George Washington and that two of her relatives came over on the Mayflower from England in 1620. Pretty cool stuff!
We stayed in town much longer than I had hoped and ended up getting home late in the afternoon. I didn't have much time to ride before dark, but I wanted to ride up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Brighton. I have always turned before Brighton and climbed up to Guardsman Pass instead. I had a headlight with me, so I strapped it on and hit the road. I got to Brighton right at dark after 14.5 miles of climbing. It was only another mile of climbing beyond the turn to Guardsman to reach Brighton. It was a pretty easy ride compared to the climbing I did the day before at Butterfield. I then had a fun, but slightly scary descent back into the valley in the dark. My headlight was just a simple NiteRider MiNewt on my handlebar, which did little to light the way ahead of me at 40 mph. But it made me legal and I got to ride on a day when I didn't think I would be able to.
Kessler Peak in the dimming light of Big Cottonwood Canyon.
On Friday, we had time for another long hike. Some recent trail reports said Timpanogos was still covered in heavy snow near the top and impassible without snow climbing gear. We did some quick research and found a way to do two hikes and check off two sites on our list. Both were in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Our first stop was at the same parking lot where we started our hike to Lake Blanche earlier in the week. This time we went into the trail on the opposite side of the road. It was a super short hike to Hidden Falls. We were expecting a mile each way, but it was just over half a mile round trip. The waterfall was small, but cool the way it dropped into the rocky ravine. We enjoyed hopping rocks along the way. We found some logs to test our balance on over the creek and even an old mine shaft entrance.
I don't like using filters on any of my photos, but this one happened by accident and it actually turned out to be pretty cool.
Me hopping across some rocks to get to Hidden Falls.
Hidden Falls
Amber in the old mine shaft entrance.
Nature's balance beam.
We then drove further up the canyon to Brighton, where we hiked the Brighton Lakes area. We began with a flat loop around Silver Lake, before going up the mountain on a steep trail to Twin Lakes. We then got on the Granite Lakes Trail where we encountered some more snow on our way to Lake Mary, which was the most spectacular lake for sure. We went out and back on the Dog Lake Spur to see the tiny Dog Lake before completing the loop with a descent back to Brighton. It was a fun 4.6 miles that was challenging, but far from difficult. It was nowhere near as tough as Lake Blanche.
Boardwalk section around Silver Lake
Silver Lake
Climbing up the mountain, now overlooking Silver Lake.
Twin Lakes
Twin Lakes
Granite Lakes Trail
Lake Mary
Looking down on Brighton with the road to Guardsman Pass visible in the distance.
Dog Lake
Saturday was our last day in Utah before we hit the road for our next destination, which would be upper Yellowstone. I have been wanting to climb Butterfield Canyon all the way to the peak on the steep gravel road since I lost my Strava KOM more than three years ago. Today was the day to go for it. I buried myself on just one mountain this day, but I didn't have the legs to take the KOM back. I could tell I was a bit off on the steepest part of the paved portion of the climb and was actually pretty fatigued when I reached the top of the canyon to make the right turn onto the gravel road to go to the peak. The pitches on the gravel road were steeper than I remembered and I should have saved a little more for this part. It was also much rougher than my last trip up with washboard in many places and even some sand on a few of the slopes. I had to get off and walk one section where the sand was deep, which is far from ideal with Speedplay cleats. Clipping into the pedals was really tough after that. I may not have achieved my goal time, but the view at the top from the Bingham Mine Overlook quickly made me forget about that. You can see much of the Salt Lake Valley in addition to all of the massive mine. I had to really pick my way back down the gravel road through the chop and sand, but once back onto the pavement it was another exhilarating descent back down the canyon to the van. I saw my first Gopher Snake on the way down too!
Gravel climbing
Bingham Mine Overlook
Gopher Snake, also sometimes called a Bull Snake.
Next up, we depart Utah and head north into the part of Yellowstone we haven't visited yet.
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