Brighton Lakes and Wildflowers

We've been hiking to Catherine Pass (up Little Cottonwood Canyon) every summer for years now, and from Sunset Peak you can look down and see Lakes Mary, Martha, and Catherine all lined up in a row. For years now I've been saying "Someday we'll do THAT hike from the other canyon, and see all three lakes"— but then I love the Catherine Pass hike so much that I can't bring myself to do anything different. 

But. This year was the year. We decided to start from Big Cottonwood and do the other end of the loop, hopefully ending at the same place: Lake Catherine. You're going to think this is weird, but I was actually quite nervous about it as I fell asleep the night before. Our time that week was really limited (we were getting ready to go out of town, along with a bunch of other things on the schedule) so we didn't have time to do both hikes, and I was feeling worried that we'd be disappointed and wish we'd done our same old favorite.

Well. I needn't have worried, of course. Our mountains never disappoint!

We left our house at 5:30 a.m. so we could get going early. It was worth it, because for most of the way up, we were the only ones on the trail! It gets really busy this time of year, so we were happy to have it to ourselves. The three girls came with me, as they always do, and Teddy wanted to come this year too! He was such a good hiker when we were at Snow Canyon, I knew he could do it, and he DID. He pretended that he had his imaginary bunny friend with him ("Buttercup"), and he was so cheery and brave, even when he fell and scraped his hand! Sweet good boy. 

I do sort of miss the times when ALL the kids used to hike this with me. But the older boys are too busy now (and honestly, they never cared about the wildflowers quite as much as I did…), and I have to confess it is really much easier NOT to have to bring a baby in the hiking backpack!

It was really pretty when the sun started to hit the tops of the peaks.

You start this hike at Brighton, and the trail winds up under the ski lifts for awhile. (Teddy was very interested in those.) Right away there are lots of wildflowers all over the meadows.

The bluebells were amazing this year! There were huge swaths of them growing all over the hillsides. It reminded me of England!

Pretty sure this is Single-head Sunflower here. There were huge fields of this.

3

Lake Catherine Hike

The wildflowers in Little Cottonwood Canyon are just spectacular right now! We hiked up to Catherine Pass from the Little Cottonwood Side (you can also get up there via Big Cottonwood) on a gorgeous summer day---shifting clouds and a nice breeze kept us comfortable all the way up! It was a long hike, and we didn't set any speed records or anything (it took us about 4 hours to go 3 miles), but it was SO beautiful, and everyone except Marigold made it up on his or her own two feet!

I've never seen so many different colors of flowers all out at once. It was breathtaking! I don't think I've ever been on such a consistently beautiful trail. We hiked Cecret Lake last year around the same time of year, and while it was really pretty, the flowers were mostly just in one or two stretches of meadow. This hike was through flowers the whole way!

 Columbine, Bluebell, Penstemmon, Paintbrush

2

Wild and flowery

After seeing such great wildflowers in Yellowstone earlier this summer, I felt kind of sheepish bringing up the possibility of our traditional hike in the Albion Basin at the end of July. "I know we already saw so many beautiful flowers, and it's not that I don't appreciate them…," I began. Sam just laughed and said it wasn't like I had some sort of limit of flowers to see per year! (And a good thing too!)

But after doing so much traveling, Sam had a ton of work to do, so I decided to leave Teddy home with him and just take some of the kids with me on the hike. Then, bright and early in the morning when it was time to leave, none of the boys wanted to be roused, making the hike a girls-only affair: my little flower-girls and me. We missed our boys, but we had such a fun time (and it was so wonderfully EASY without a baby on my back)!

It always feels so good up in the mountains: cool and breezy, with the morning light on the trees. We loved being out in the air, and Goldie kept exclaiming, "LOOK at the BYEWtiful VIEW!" in awed tones. (Some ladies, as we were hiking down, asked Goldie if she'd seen the lake, and she said, "Yes, and we also saw the BYEWtiful VIEW!")

0

Lakes and Wildflowers

Last year at this time, I was due to have a baby any moment! Well…that is, it didn't turn out to be as soon as I thought it might be—it never is—but, in any event, I did NOT feel up to hiking to see the wildflowers, even though I wanted to and even dreamed about it repeatedly during those weeks! So that means it's been TWO years since we last hiked my favorite wildflower hike, and last time we went the girls and Teddy looked like this:

Tiny!

This year we had to do all kinds of contortions as we tried to figure out HOW to fit the hike in. How could I leave Clementine early in the morning when she needs to nurse, who would be home with the little ones, who would drive the boys where they needed to go or how would we divide up the cars…it all seemed impossible until I realized that actually we did use to do this hike with ALL the children! Those days of taking all of them everywhere feel so far-off now, but in fact, I was quite capable of doing such a thing even by myself…once. Like this:

Oh! This picture gives me quite a pang. Those sweet little boys that used to love hiking with me!😥

1

Lake Catherine Wildflowers

This year as I was trying to find a weekend to go hike and see the wildflowers, I saw that the calendar was filling up and there was only one free Saturday! And even that was not so VERY free, but free enough that we could slip away for a morning. Then when the day came, as we were driving up the canyon at 6 a.m., accompanied by many other cars, I realized that I always try to AVOID going on a Saturday! I don't know what I was thinking. Weekdays are much better! But, luckily, we went early enough in the morning that we found a parking spot at the trailhead, and the trail wasn't too crowded. Next year I'll plan better, though!

It's been just the girls and me on this hike for the last couple years, and we love that, but this time Abe wanted to come too, and we were happy to have him with us! He's great company, and a good driver, too. The road up the canyon was newly paved, so he had a great time driving around all those winding curves.

The sunrise was pretty!

It was good of Abe to come on this hike with us. He could have run the whole thing five times in the time it took us to do it once, but he stayed and talked with us most of the way up, and then ran down and waited for us a long time at the bottom! What a great guy. I like him.

I brought a different camera lens with me than I usually bring on this hike, just for variety's sake. I couldn't get the same sweeping vistas, but it was interesting trying to compose new pictures within the views I'm so used to seeing. Made me look at things a little differently.

And it was nice for close-up pictures of the wildflowers!

8

Mineral Basin Wildflowers

The week after we went to Lake Catherine, the girls and I had a free afternoon, so we decided to go up to Snowbird and see more flowers! (We have been here before, years ago, but not on this exact hike.) This time we rode the ski lift up the hardest and steepest parts, so it didn't even feel like much of a real hike! It was so pretty and peaceful on the lift. I love riding ski lifts because they are so quiet! You feel like you're a bird flying. It's even better than the tram (which is also fun, and doesn't have a height requirement, so it's good if you are bringing babies!…but I was glad not to be. Ha ha).

It was REALLY crowded and busy the day we went, a Friday. We had to park waaaay out at the end of the lot, and we felt lucky to find a place even there! And of course, once we'd walked in to the lodge, I realized I'd left my money in the car, so I had to run a mile back for it. It was a hot day, but a little more bearable at Snowbird than at home…and even nicer once we got up the mountain a little.

There was a baby duck in the pond on the way up. Cute.

From the ski lift, we could see the red and blue trams going along to one side of us.

Once we got off the ski lift and looked at the view, we walked through the tunnel to the other side of the mountain, into Mineral Basin. And there…

3

Birthday Hike to Lake Catherine

I told you Daisy and I were laying plans to do another hike before the wildflowers were gone. And thanks to Sam, we managed something I've always wanted to do—hiking up one canyon and down the other! It was the perfect way to start Daisy's birthday morning (and even though both of us were sick with colds in the surrounding days, we both felt good during our hike, a tiny miracle!). 

We left the little ones home with Malachi during this hike (which made it go lots faster!). Junie came with us, and Sam hiked up too for the first half hour or so, then descended, got in the car, and drove around to the other end of the trail where he talked to Abe on the phone while waiting for us. It was great! Sam drew this on his iPad while he was waiting:

Quite a good use of his time, I must say! :)

The girls are always cold when we hike early in the morning. I'm usually fine, but even I was a bit chilly, since we'd had some rain and the temperatures were lower. It was perfect for hiking!

Junie the Troll

Sam catching up, after nobly running back down and up again to get Daisy's inhaler from the car

The wildflowers were slightly less profuse than they were a few weeks ago, but it was nice because we also got to see different kinds of flowers flourishing.

The highlight of the hike up was seeing a large fox running around! The couple near her on the trail (in the picture above) told us she was running around and at them a bit aggressively, and surmised there might have been a litter of babies nearby. I wish we could have seen them! But seeing the adult fox was cool enough. I've never seen such a big one, or any at all in these mountains, actually.

I took the girls' picture on the traditional Picture Rock

(Here's tiny Malachi on that rock many years ago.)

(And three tiny girls almost as many years ago.)

(And the three girls with lurking Abe, just a few years ago. We miss Abe!)

We were happy when we finally caught up with the sun!

This meadow was still covered with a light coating of frost.

It was really pretty as the first rays of the sun lit it from behind!

Still some frost visible here

Birthday girl! 13 years old, if you can believe it (and even if you can't).

Another familiar picture spot—

(Look at little Junie running up that same hill!)

Here we are at the overlook. We've turned around here many times, and we've also continued on up to Sunset Peak. But we haven't ever headed from here down the other side of the trail toward Lakes Mary and Martha.

Hiding in a rock-cave

Surrounded by daisies

Still lots of lupine above Lake Martha

It was a beautiful morning with two of my sweet girls!

1