Fall Hike to Red Pine Lake

It was a great day for a hike, the temperature in the upper 50's when I woke up and it looked like it would also be cool in the mountains (the KSL Vortex weather site said the wasatch high country was in the 40's)  So I decided to go back to Red Pine Lake since it is one of my very favorite places. 

The fall colors were on full display so it was a beautiful hike.  If you don't remember it's about 4 miles each way with about 2500 feet of elevations change - you go from 7200 feet at the trailhead to 9700 feet at the lake.  During most of the hike I think the temperature was in the upper 50's or low 60's.  Perfect hiking weather!

This is looking back down the trail about a 1/2 mile up the White Pine/Red Pine trail from the trailhead.

 The trail forks when you get to White Pine Creek (if you head up this canyon you go to White Pine Lake).  So you cross the stream and walk over to the next canyon to the west to go up to Red Pine Lake.

















As the trail starts up the canyon to Red Pine you have a great view of Little Cottonwood Canyon.  At the lower elevations some of the colors are fading but it still looks pretty nice!

And, at a little higher elevation you can see the Aspen are changing also.  That was not true just a couple weeks ago.

And finally as you get to the lake, much to my dismay, it was mostly empty.  I have been to this lake many times and I have never seen it not full. It has always been so beautiful. I was there in July and the lake was full.  I began to wonder if the water level was controlled by the forest service or the water conservation folks.  To see the contrast look at the July 26 post.

So, I ate my lunch here on the south side as usual, but it didn't have quite the same appeal as it has before.  When I was walking up the trail, the water in Red Pine Creek was flowing really well so I expected the lake to be full. So, before I left,  I walked all the way around the lake this time - I had not done that before.  Sure enough, on the southwest corner on a significant down slope below the lake there was a water flood-gate and it was wide open so they were obviously draining the lake. I expect that late in the year, if there is not enought water flowing down Little Cottonwood creek, they open up the gates at these upper lakes to provide the water they need in the valley.

The Wasatch Mountains are the primary water-shed for the wasatch front.  I did a quick estimate of the surface area and depth of the lake and estimated that about 500 million gallons of water had been drained from this one relatively small mountain lake - so during dry years, which this certainly was, this water is pretty important. 

The clouds had rolled in while I was at the lake and it started raining while I was there, but it was mostly just a light sprinkling that last about an hour or so.

This last picture was taken on the way back down.  So, all in all it was a great day.  I was just saddened that they had mostly drained "my lake".

Septermber 5th: Hike to Lake Blanche

On September 29, 2010, I hiked into Lake Blanche, Lake Lillian, and Lake Florence for the first time. Since it had been a couple years and it's a pretty nice spot, I decided to go see how it looked a couple years later. So last Wednesday (Sep 5) I hiked there again. The trail-head is on the south side of the road of Big Cottonwood Canyon right at the big "S" curve. That's the trail-head near "Hidden Falls" for those of you who have taken your children up there. It is one of the longer hikes so I don't take it too often. By the time you hike up and walk around all three lakes, it's about a 10 mile round trip. My gps measured it at 9.6 miles when I got back to my pickup.  The hike has a 2700 feet elevation change going from about 6200 feet to 8900 feet. Once again, I learned I really haven't done enough hiking this year to keep myself in "hiking condition".  And, it was a very warm day, even in the mountains.  I think it was around 80 degrees even at almost 9000 feet.  But with all that said - it was worth every second of it.  Utah mountains are truly beautiful.  I will still want to do this for a few more years!!

 

 

 

It was almost a month earlier than my hike two years ago but already some of the leaves on the trees are turning colors, probably because it has been a very dry year.  So that made for a pretty hike even though there were fewer mountain flowers.

Interesting rock off the side of the trail about 30 yards.  Looks like somebody tried to carve stairs into it.



A little higher up you get into the aspen and the trail is shaded so it makes it just a little cooler.  There was very little breeze until you got to the lakes.  Which took me about 2-1/2 hours.
 



First lake that you come to is Lake Blanche.  It is a beautiful setting with Sundial Peak behind it.  All the lakes were lower this year than they were two years ago which you can see if you look at the pictures from the October, 2010 blog.  This is looking southeast from the north side of the lake.

 

This is looking southwest from Lake Blanche and you can see Dromedary (camel) Peak in the background. Sundial and Dromedary are both over 11,000 feet (younger and more vigorous hikers would have also hiked to the top of those - I was perfectly content to look UP at the peaks, not DOWN from the peaks!

Lake Florence which is just west of Lake Blanche.  There was a little breeze so the lake was not as smooth as when I took pictures in 2010 so the reflections are not so spectacular.

 

Lake Florence with Lake Lillian behind (and slightly left) of it.

This is definitely God's country!

North end of Lake Blanche

Lake Lillian which is a little south and west of Lake Florence was almost nonexistent this year

 

I sat under this pine tree which was up on the (west)  hillside aways and ate my lunch (and sent most of you my SPoT signal to let you know where I was and that I was safe!) because you could see all three lakes from that vantage point.

 

 

 



Small stream flowing from lake Florence into Lake Lillian.  Lake Florence is about 50 feet below Lake Blanche and Lake Lillian is about 20 - 30 feet lower than Lake Florence.

 

 

 

 

 







So, it you want a guided tour some time.  I know the way.  Been there twice so I'm an old hand at this.  ;)



August 3; Hike to Desolation Lake

I haven't been on many hikes this year, but I have gone on a few. In early August I decided to hike to Desolation Lake that is north of Big Cottonwood Canyon about 2/3 the way up to Brighton. It is one of the lakes in the Wasatch Mountains that I had never been to - because (1) how attractive can a place be with a name like "Desolation Lake" and (2) because the trail maps show it is a long way on one well-marked trail (about 6 miles one-way) or very steep (about a 3000 feet elevation change on the "less-used" short trail - about 2 miles). The less used trail is hard to find. It starts near a bunch of summer homes (private property) and there is no trailhead or parking lot. So it took me a while to locate it (with a little help from a local resident). The trail is called Beartrap Fork (must be a story behind that?). 

The trail was obviously not used frequently and it was not always clear where to go, but I just continued up the canyon and with my trail garmin (gps) it was pretty easy to find the way. It was pretty dry ( a completely dry creek bed) on this south facing canyon but still lots of lovely scenery most of the way.

Some nice wild flowers but not as prolific on these south facing slopes as they have been on some others.

I knew pretty early into the hike that I wasn't really in shape for this hike because as the canyon opened up it kept getting steeper and I was stopping pretty frequently to get my pulse rate back down to a tolerable level.  I thought about turning around a few times but I really hate to give up once I decide where I want to end up.



And, as I got a little higher in elevation a few more flowers started showing up.

 

As you near the top there was a final steep mountain to go over.  I new from my GPS that the lake should be on the other side of that mountain so I just kept climbing - albeit at a pretty slow pace!

You get just a little feel for how steep it was from this picture about half-way up that last hill.  I had started at about 7000 feet elevation (beginning of the trail) and this hill (mountain?) topped out just under 10,000 feet.

As you came over the top of the mountain there was a very well-marked and well-used trail.  Turns out it is a part of the Great Western Trail and while I was there several groups of bikers came by.  Some stopped to rest and talk with me.  It turns out that this part of the Great Western Trail goes along the tops of some of the mountain ridges from the Mill Creek Canyon area all the way to above the Brighton ski resort (probably 15 to 20 miles) and most of the trail is at 9500 to 10,500 feet elevation.  Apparently it is used by lots of bkers.  You see the trail here going into an aspen grove.  It comes out the other side and winds up and around the mountain as you can see in the next picture.

 




If you look closely you can see the hiking/biking (Great Western) trail winding up the side of and going over the top of this mountain that was southeast of where I came out at the top of  Beartrap Fork (You may have to enlarge the picture so see it, but trust me, it's there!





And, a hundred yards north along that same trail and off to the left, there it is - Desolation Lake.  It was about 400 to 500 feet below me so I did not hike down to it since I did not want to hike back up.  As you can tell, this late in the year, the lake is a little low.  Interestingly, there appears to be no outlet to this lake - fully surrounded by a bowl, so no water flows out.  It is just the water left from the snow melt into this bowl each year.

And, if you look at the surroundings, I decided that this Lake is badly named.  Isolation, maybe.  Desolation, certainly not!  It sits in a beautiful pine and mountain-grass covered valley and it, and everything around it is spectacular and gorgeous.

Red Pine Lake in 2012

I took my favorite hike yesterday to Red Pine Lake up one of the side-canyons to the south in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  I had forgotten how steep it was.  Or maybe I'm a little out of shape or just getting older.  I thought it use to take me about 1-1/2 hours to make the hike.  Yesterday it took me 2 hrs and 20 minutes to get there.  It's about a 4 mile hike (each way) and the last mile you climb about 1000 feet so it is pretty steep.  Total elevation change is about 2400 feet.

After I got there I remembered why I love that hike.  It is a pretty hike, but the lake and it's surroundings were especially beautiful this year.  When I went to Lake Mary/Martha/Catherine in late June (just previous blog) there was still a little snow at the higher elevations but the forests were very dry.  Apparently the thunderstorms of the past few weeks have had a big impact because the wild mountain flowers were in full bloom and they were spectacular. 

On the south side of Red Pine Lake is a meadow and a few huge rocks along the edge of the lake - one as big as a house that has a flat top and Delos' kids climbed around on it a few years ago when they all went there with me. They will recognize the picture. The meadow was in full bloom and the stream flowing down from upper Red Pine Lake was cascading down the mountain in a series of waterfalls, turning into a pretty stream that crosses the meadow then it flows into the lake. The lake sets at about 9600 feet.

White Pine Creek you cross on the way to Red Pine Lake

Flowers along White Pine Creed

Pretty trail - before it turns really steep

Flowers along the trail - they were everywhere of all colors

More flowers

Flower-covered slope on the east side about 1 mile before reaching the lake.

First view of Red Pine Lake as you come up over the last ridge - looking south.  See the big rock on the opposite side -center left in the picture.

The BIG Rock (probably 8 feet high and 20 feet across)

Red PIne Lake, looking north from the south side of the lake

Flowers along the shoreline

Looking south across the meadow from south side of the lake..
Their were many hummingbirds flitting around the flowers.

Flowers along the stream from upper Red Pine Lake flowing to Red Pine Lake

Looking northwest from south edge of the lake.

More flowers along the shoreline (I did take ALOT of pictures)

Another view of the lake (by the way, the temperature at the lake was about the mid-sixties - perfect)

View from east edge of the lake looking west.

I guess you can tell I loved this hike.  I ate my lunch and stayed at the lake for about 1-1/2 hours and could have stayed forever.  It was so peaceful and lovely.  Not another soul showed up at the lake the entire time I was there.  It was a great day.

When I got bacl to the parking lot, there was a forest ranger and he asked me if I would take a brief survey before I left.  I said sure.  He asked where I was from, what time I arrived, where I went, did I enjoy the hike, was my purpose,fishing, hiking, family outing, photography, etc.  Was I hiking alone? How much money had I spent in the "area" before my hike (zero).  I think they must be trying to justify budgets or something.  Anyway, he then asked my age category.  He said "50's. 60's, then he hesitated.  I said "keep going".  I don't think he surveyed anyone else in the "70's category!