Lofty Lake Loop / Our First Backpacking Trip

Distance: Only about 4 miles in total
Elevation Gain: 916
Highest Peak: Almost 11,000 feet!
Time: 3 to 4 hours, though we slept over in between!
General Impression:  This was very high altitude, and while there were some steep parts, it was beautiful, relatively quiet, and fun!
Difficulty: Intermediate

We went on this trip with some new friends we've met and started getting to know.  He encouraged us to try our first ever backpacking trip!  We chose something that would be beautiful, that had water we could filter, and that was not too long so we could ease in to the idea of carrying all our stuff.

This is a beautiful loop hike in the high Uinta's.  In fact, Lofty Lake's claim to fame is that it's the highest altitude lake in all of Utah.  Wow!  We hiked up heading clockwise from the parking lot and it was never really all that steep.  After just an hour or more we stopped at Kamas Lake where we decided we would camp for the night.  We would hike up and then down the other side of the loop the following day.  We may have seen a handful of other hikers, and definitely no other backpackers, but that was probably because the forecast was for rain.

After setting up camp in a grassy field across the trail from the lake, we headed down to the water to pump, and to snack on the delicious guacamole and tortilla chips our friends had brought.  Great snacks = happy campers.

They were easily able to get a strong fire going, despite the wet ground and the light showers that kept us on our toes off and on throughout the afternoon.  Steve and I felt a bit incompetent after our recent camping trip where we tried and tried and tried to get a fire going to no avail.  These guys did it with no trouble at all!!!

Before dinner we headed out on a walk around Kamas Lake.  Don't be fooled by it's pretty banks along the trail.  The back side of the lake consisted of a pile of boulders that we had fun traversing and trying hard not to fall into the water.

After that walk, which took a bit longer than anticipated (photo pops take time, too!), we headed back to our fire pit, which was already set up by some previous campers) and we made ourselves some dinner.  We brought Tasty Bites and powdered potatoes and it was the best camping food ever.  Easy, quick, and delicious, and not all that terrible for you.  Mmm mmm.  We hung out by the fire and soon enough it was time to throw our food up into a tree and head to sleep.  Again, thank goodness for our friends because we know nothing about anything to do with camping.

Note that our camp was set up well above 10,000 feet.  Steve felt nauseous and sometimes lightheaded and dizzy, and we both felt like we couldn't catch our breath as we lay in our sleeping bags about to fall asleep.  Steve woke me up a couple of hours into the night complaining that he felt like he might vomit, so we got out of the tent and nothing happened.  Luckily he was never sick.  He thought it might have been the Tasty Bites, which bummed me out because I was excited about finding such a good and easy camping meal option.  When we got home and looked a little more into altitude sickness, we realized that this must have been what he was feeling.  At over 10,000 feet you can start to feel a little yucky!

The next day we took our time getting up and moving, but eventually set out to head up to Lofty Lake.  Along the way were some beautiful vistas of the mountain range below.

Lofty Lake was pretty, but nothing special really.  There were more hikers on Sunday, and a bunch with dogs.  Some people were coming up to fish.  We pleasantly walked along, heading mostly downhill on this day.  It was really, really lovely.

We enjoyed this hike a lot and thought it would be a good one to do with our relatively fit friends who hopefully will one day come and visit us.  :)

Alpine Loop and Cascade Springs Interpretive Trail

Distance: Very short (probably around 1 mile)
Elevation Gain: None, although there were a couple of short, steep walks, and a bridge or two were quite curvy.  :)
Highest Peak: N/A
Time: About 45 minutes if you walk around the whole place
General Impression:  It was very pretty, but very crowded and not much of a hike really.  I would go back with older relatives or younger children, but I wouldn't rush back again just for myself.

On Thursday of last week we decided to check out a free Boot-camp provided by LuluLemon at 9th and 9th.  And it KILLED us.  I mean, it was literally painful to move in any way, shape, or form for days afterward.  I can't begin to count how many burpees the instructor made us do, but it was 10 times more burpees than I've ever done before.  Steve basically did die for about an hour after the class, but luckily he came back to life after eating some Thai salad rolls and soup.

So on Sunday, our usual hiking day, we were a bit weary of taking on a big, multi-hour hike.  We also wanted to check out some more Fall colors, and a friend recommended Alpine Loop.  This is technically a drive, not a hike.  And WHAT A DRIVE IT IS!

We paid $6.00 at the entry to the canyon/park place as we were planning to stop.  If you plan to drive right through, you don't need to pay.  Then we stopped at the visitors center to empty our bladders and check out the info.  There were lots of kids everywhere.  Kids, kids, kids.

Driving on from there, we headed up into the mountains and passed more and more beautiful views of mountains, trees, and colorful leaves.  It was amazing.  And our Phish soundtrack didn't hurt.  We got out a few times to take pictures, which I'll let speak for themselves.

Along the drive, we took a little detour to stop and check out the Cascade Springs, which are some naturally forming pools with sediment or something/I'll let Steve explain this one a bit better.  They have built a very accessible boardwalk and path in and around the springs, consisting of three short loops you could walk around for a total of 45 minutes, so this is what I'll consider our "hike" for the purposes of this hiking Utah blog.  There were again lots of kids and families and flip flops here, so remember this one for visiting family or when we have babies or something.  But it was very beautiful and a nice, easy walk in nature.  We felt lucky, again, to be living in Utah.

There was no real elevation gain to speak of, and it's really the easiest walk ever, but it's pretty! 

Wasatch Mountains: Wilson Peak (near the towns of Midway and Weber)

Distance: 7 or 8 miles (we really need to start using the Garmin for hiking)
Elevation Gain: About 1,200 ft
Highest Peak: 8,497 ft
Time: About four hours including some time for lunch and to put moleskin on a blister.
General Impression: BEST HIKE SO FAR!  That might not say much, but this hike had the most impressively beautiful view of the Wasatch and Unita mountain ranges and the valleys below.  The fall colors are out in near-abundance and we LOVED IT!

The volunteer at the Wasatch Mountain State Park Visitor's Center told us to just drive up the road a little while until we passed a big hairpin turn to the left, and then a smaller but still noticeable turn to the right.  Soon after these two turns we would come to a clearing on our right with a path and a culvert.  We found all of these things with no problem, though we were a bit worried we'd miss it as there are no signs whatsoever.  The guy was right, though, and the turns are "hairpinny" enough that you'll know it when you see it.

We set off on our hike at 10:30 in the morning, heading up, up, up a path/road that showed signs of car tracks here and there.  Early on in the hike we passed two small water obstacles, but it had just rained the night before, so don't expect these all the time.  Also, there were banks or rocks to step on and avoid submerging our feet in any water, so we high-fived and pressed on.

The trail was pretty steep, with long switchbacks that sometimes felt never-ending but were never too too bad.  The benefit is that we were often rewarded with stunning views of the colourful valley below.  We could see our car getting smaller and smaller and we climbed higher and higher.  There were lovely wild flowers all around, and lots of trees.  

Once we reached the top, which took I have no idea how long, we headed along the rim trail (I think that's what they call it), which consisted of tall yellow grasses and very few trees.  We could see over to the other valley below, so the view was simply astounding. 

Steve was stung or bitten by an insect at one point.  Although it was pretty painful, he was fine and he pressed on. It didn't really look like anything, but by the next morning his wrist had swelled up about an inch more than it's normal size and was itchy, hot, and painful.  Poor guy.

I felt like I had a small stone in my shoe so I stopped to shake it out, but nothing really fell out.  While I love the feeling of my Asolo's, I do find that they need emptying now and then during a hike which can be rather annoying.  I hiked up towards Steve, who had gotten ahead of me, feeling tired and pissed off that the feeling of the rock still hadn't gone away.  When I reached him, we looked again and found an angry blister had appeared on my heel.  Steve patched me up with some Moleskin from our first aid kit and we pressed on.

Soon the landscape changed from grasses to forest.  The trees were lovely birches I think, though my tree-knowledge is really lacking.  

After about two and a half hours we reached the top.  There we found a little building with all kinds of radio antennae or something sticking out of it.  I'm not exactly sure what they were.  We found a spot with a view (what a view!) and sat and ate our salami, bread, and artisan cheese.  It was delicious and peaceful and swell.

The walk down felt kind of long but not too bad I guess.  We often feel ready to be done about an hour or so before we actually are.  I'd really like to do a hike that was not an out-and-back to see what it feels like.

The total hike took about 4 hours and was very beautiful!  Thank you Mt. Wilson, or whatever your name is!

Wasatch Mountain State Park: Visitor's Center and Spring Pond Loop

Distance:  Approximately 2 miles
Elevation Gain: Not that much.  We need an altimeter.
Time:  About an hour and a half
General Impression:  Beautiful!  This was easy and nice for a short afternoon hike.

This weekend we decided at about 10:00AM on Saturday morning that we were going camping for the night.  We didn't actually arrive at Wasatch Mountain State Park until probably around 2:00PM or something like that, and after setting up our tent and everything, we didn't have all that much time left before it would start getting dark.  We decided to do a quick hike while we still had the time.  Right across from the visitor's center are a few well-marked trails that we walked along for about an hour and a half.  We started on what they call the Visitor's Loop and then took a small detour around the Spring Pond loop.

It was lovely.  The colors have started to turn and every now and then we were greeted with a splash of red or yellow.  We walked along a well-maintained but narrow dirt/mud path with tall grasses tickling our legs.  And of course, we were very impressed with the mountain views.

I had my DSLR camera with me, which I haven't taken hiking until now.  It was nice to have it and be able to take beautiful pictures, but it slowed me down and I think Steve got a bit impatient with me.  We certainly got some beautiful pictures, though!  Overall it was a very pretty and easy hike that I would definitely recommend if you're in the area!  Apparently you can also do some apple picking which could be fun.  We didn't see anyone else on the trail, by the way.

The High Uintas: Grandaddy Lake

Distance: 7 miles
Elevation Gain: About 1000 feet
Highest Point: 10,640 ft at Hades Pass
Time: About five hours
General Impression: So beautiful!  It was quiet, the scenery was incredible with grassy meadows, rocky trails, lovely trees and flowers, and pretty streams and views of the lakes in the area.  A true gem!

All I can say about this one is WOW.  Not only was the trail beautiful, but we felt great.  We didn't tire and need to stop nearly as much as we did on our Lake Mary hike.  So either we're slowly getting more fit, or we're slowly getting more used to the high altitude, or there's something else going on.  Anyway, we both were feeling great and we loved every bit of this hike.

We had a later start than we intended (cooking and cleaning up breakfast at our Hades campsite took longer than we planned) and only got to the trailhead at around noon.  Knowing we wanted to be back at our campsite well before dark, we had kind of a tight timeline on this hike.  We set off, walking along the rocky trail (really, it was quite rocky) and feeling absolutely alone in this beautiful landscape.  There was a small babbling brooke near the beginning of the trail and after that we didn't see any more water again until we reached Hades Pass and caught a view of the lakes.


 We passed a few backpackers, making their way back down after an overnight stay, and exchanged very friendly hellos with them all.  There were a couple of brave families with little children, but really not too many as the trail is not so easy to traverse.

It felt like we reached Hades Pass in no time, and then it took maybe another 45 minutes to get to Grandaddy Lake.  We noticed campers and fishers set up all around the lake, but it was large and peaceful and we were able to find a couple of rocks to sit on to eat our picnic lunch of bread, cheese, and salami.  I pumped us two bottles full of lake water and then we basically had to turn around and head back down immediately so as to avoid being too late on the mountain.  

The hike down felt equally easy and fun, though we were both ready for it to be over and done with by the time we reached the car.  It took about 5 hours, with pretty limited stopping, so I'd say this was our longest hike to date!  We were really happy and excited about how good it felt and how pretty it was.

We give this hike four thumbs up!

Little Cottonwood Canyon: Secret Lake and Sugarloaf Road

Distance: About 5 miles in total (a guess)
Elevation Gain: About 1200 ft
Highest Point:  9220 feet at Secret Lake, and about 10200 feet up Sugarloaf Road
Time: About five hours including a lot of stopping, hanging out, and lunch-eating, as well as a walk all the way down the road from the trailhead to the parking lot at Alta.
General Impression:  The scenery is beautiful (lots of wildflowers!) but the crowds were noisy and thick and a bit annoying.  There were LOTS of children.  Note to self: Do not decide to walk back to the car.  It takes way too long and your feet will be tired and you'll regret it!

The day before setting off on this hike, we went to REI and spent 4 hours and lots of dollars on everything we expected we would need for camping.  We made a reservation for Labour Day weekend for our first trip, so we needed to get set up!  That shopping trip included new hiking boots for both Steve and I!  I definitely did not want to continue hiking in my Nike running shoes, and his basque hiking shoes were worn right now.  We both found ourselves some good quality, none-too-cheap Asolos, and for this hike we planned to break them in.  We also brought along our brand new water filter, just to make sure we knew how to use it.

We drove up to Alta ski resort and read a sign that said the parking lot at the Albion Basin was full so we should take the free shuttle.  Not wanting to be left without a parking spot, we parked the car and waited a few minutes for a little white shuttle bus to appear.  Us and a million other people packed onto the bus.  It was so squishy that Steve had to sit on the floor!  There were two ladies having a loud conversation and we were a bit annoyed to have to listen to them for the full ten minute ride up the rest of the way to the trailhead.

The area was truly beautiful.  Amazing wildflowers abounded, we crossed a few little streams, and the views of the valley were striking.  We were stuck just ahead of those annoyingly loud ladies, so we headed off to a viewpoint to let them pass.  While we were admiring the view, we heard the young family next to us speaking in Hebrew, so we started chatting with them and talking about the Jewish community in Salt Lake.  There is one, in case you wanted to know, and it's small but present.

After a good twenty minute chat with this family, we kept on going up to Secret Lake.  It was awesome!  The lake reflected the tall mountain peaks above it.  We climbed up onto a tall rock formation and admired the lake and mountains for a while.  Since it had been an easy ascent to the lake, we decided to keep on walking up what I think is called Sugarloaf Road, a wide road underneath an Alta ski lift that lead us up higher into the mountain.  A few mountain bikers sped past us, heading down the road.  There was some kind of re-seeding project going on that we didn't know about or what it was, and some hiker's told us we shouldn't be walking on it.  Good to know!

After less than an hour more of hiking, we stopped for lunch.  I had brought a little picnic of tomato, cheese, avocado, bread, some tangerines, and trail mix.  It was a delicious lunch, if a bit difficult to cut and prepare without a plate or chopping board.  Next time we'll remember that.

It was getting chilly at the top, so we decided to make our way down.  Once back at Secret Lake we took out our new water filter and gave it a try.  We pumped our Nalgene full of lake water and had a taste.  I guess it tasted pretty good, but I still feel weird drinking lake water.  Our stomachs were fine, I'm happy to report.

We walked all the way down to the trailhead and then Steve said, "hey, why don't we walk back to the car?  It's probably only, like, fifteen more minutes."  I was a bit skeptical about his time estimate, since the bus took a good ten or so minutes to drive that distance, but I agreed.  An hour later, after much complaining and sulking and tired feet and absolutely breathtaking views, we finally arrived at the car.

I fell asleep on the drive home, and we took a soothing hot tub on the rooftop when we got home.  We were both very happy to find our feet blister-free and tired but not sore; it was a great first run of our new boots!

This was definitely a beautiful hike and beautiful area, but I might try another route in the Albion Basin that escapes some of the crowds.  Either that or I would leave earlier in the day for that same reason.

Big Cottonwood Canyon: Lake Mary, Lake Martha, and Lake Catherine

Date: August 7th, 2011 - Our first hike!!!

Time: From about 12:00PM to 3:00PM (Approximately 3 hours)

Distance: 4 miles

Elevation Gain: 1200 ft

Highest Point: 9950

General Impression:  Pretty tough at the start for our undeveloped legs and lungs, but beautiful.  Quite a lot of people.  Very nice.

Now that we were officially living in Utah, we were ready to get hiking.  We Googled "easy hikes near Salt Lake City" and decided upon this Big Cottonwood Canyon hike.  It's close by, and it sounded like a good one.

We jumped in the car, stopping at Whole Foods on the way to buy some sandwiches that we planned to eat on the mountain.  We came prepared with our own Nalgene bottles and sunscreen.  

It probably only took about 30 or so minutes to get to the trailhead.  It started at the base of Brighton ski resorts and had us hike up through the meadows running underneath one of their chairlifts.  The meadows were filled with purple, yellow, and blue wildflowers, which were very beautiful!  As mentioned in the general impression above, the beginning of this hike was pretty challenging, as it is quite steep and we were out of shape!  I had to stop every five or ten minutes to catch my breath and regulate my heart rate.  I should be bringing my Garmin on these hikes to get a sense of distance, heart rate, etc.

Eventually the incline became more manageable.  At one point we had to scramble over a stream littered with rocks and stones, stepping along on the stones to keep dry.  That was fun.

We first arrived at Lake Mary, a sparkly mountain lake that was just what Steve was hoping for!  It was a little buggy around the lake.  We kept on going up, past Lake Martha where we were happy to see some unmelted snow - in August!  Wow.

Finally we arrived at Lake Catherine.  We found a nice, flat rock and pulled out our picnic to enjoy while admiring the lake and watching a crazy guy swim across it.  That water was cold!  I mean, there was still snow around!

Steve pulled out his sandwich and found some curious white saucy-type stuff on the foil wrapper.  Assuming the sauce had leaked, he immediately shoved the package in his mouth, only to discover it was in fact our sunscreen bottle that had leaked in his bag!  Ahhh ha hahaha.  Okay, so it wasn't all that funny for him.  Sunscreen doesn't taste too great.  But hoo-boy, I got a kick out of that one. 

As we headed back down the mountain, my toes began rubbing against my running shoes and workout socks.  Time to get hiking boots!!!