First 2011 Summer Mountain Hike (Red Pine Lake)

With Trek coming up next week, where we will hike about 35 miles in three days, I have been doing some local hikes around the area over the last few weeks. But, this morning I decided it was time to head to the mountains and see if the snow was still so deep that high mountain hiking would be possible (after all, Snowbird ski lift was open on the 4th of July). So, I headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon with a plan to take one of my favorite hikes, to Red Pine Lake (see Sept 20, 2008 blog) . The trail is south off a side canyon a couple miles before you get to the ski resorts. The lake sits at about 9600 feet elevation and is about a 3-1/2 to 4 mile hike (each way) with a 2600 foot elevation change.

So here is what I found on Wednesday, July 20th:

Streams were rushing, roaring full: this picture is of a (usually) small stream coming from White Pine Lake - you cross it on the way to Red Pine Lake. The creek coming out of Red Pine Lake looked just like it. I didn't take a picture of Little Cottonwood Canyon Creek - it looks like a large rushing river - sending thousands of gallons a second down the canyon to (eventually) the Jordan River and on to the Great Salt Lake.




At the lower elevations the forests were lush and green, with lots of little streams running across the trail.

Wildflowers of every color were everywhere you looked.

A nice view of the Little Cottonwood Canyon road from the trail.

As you got to higher elevations, often the trail was filled with a stream of water that you waded in as you hiked (sorry it doesn't show too well below, but there is about an inch-deep stream running right down the trail.)

Then, at about 9000 feet, it was as if someone threw a switch and the there was snow everywhere. It was no longer possible to follow the trail, but I knew I was only about 3/4 of a mile from the lake so I just kept climbing in the snow - using my Garmin (GPS) trail map to lead me in the right direction. I wasn't sure what I would find at the lake - maybe just a basin of snow, but I wanted to find out so I kept going. It was pretty steep, the snow was slushy on top of ice and I had to walk side-ways and dig my feet into the snow to keep from slipping and falling down. It took me almost an hour to go the last 3/4 mile with about a 600 feet elevation change. (It doesn't look steep in the picture, BUT it was). It was also incredibly bright, so even though the trees were beautiful and green, the picture doesn't show them well because the snow was so bright that it shut down the f-stop on the camera. There were also lots of trees that had been broken off and bent over from avalanches that had come down from the steep slope just left of this picture.

The sign as you arrive at Red Pine Lake telling you to not camp within 300 feet of the lake!

And, here it is Red Pine Lake - filled with ice and snow. I could not get around the east side (usually there is a trail) because the slope of the snow was so steep and it ended in the lake, so I didn't want to lose my footing and end up in the lake. This picture is looking to the southeast and if you expand it, you can see the very large rock that is on the south end of the lake (Delos and his family should remember that area because they climbed to this lake with me a couple years ago and we climbed around on the rock and ate lunch there. A nice stream flowed down the canyon and around that rock and into the lake.

And this picture (below) was taken in August of last year (the date on the camera is wrong) from about the same location. Quite a difference. I don't think all the snow and ice will be gone even in mid-august

So, I ate lunch here and it was nice and cool - I would guess about 60 degrees, then headed back down the mountain. The roundtrip was about 8 miles and took me about 4 hours. Going down on the snow was interesting. I would dig in my heals to try to keep from slipping down the hill but sometime I would start to slide anyway, so I would just sit down and slide down the hill for 20 feet or so (fun!), then get up and do it again.

It was a great hike and it is still beautiful country, even covered in snow (northeast edge of the lake looking northwest).