Big Cottonwood Canyon
Personal Notes:
Twin Lakes Pass Loop Trail Hike
This page presents our personal notes on our hike along the Twin Lakes Pass Loop Trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah.
| Sunday, July 25, 2004 | |
| Saturday, August 2, 2008 | |
Saturday, August 2, 2008
We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Silver Lake. We arrived after 9:00 a.m., which is late for us, and were lucky to find a few parking places still available. There is a Visitor Center near the parking area, as well as restrooms, drinking water, and picnic tables.
We hiked the five mile loop trail that runs to Lake Solitude, then up and over a pass to Twin Lakes. The air was clean and bright and all of the glacial features in the area looked sharp and clear. The water in all of the lakes reflected the blue of the sky, and the white of the few clouds that floated above. It was a warm day, but there was a nice breeze that helped to keep us cool as we climbed to the pass.
We worked our way down the rocky trail to near the dam holding back Twin Lakes. We looked around a bit, then headed down the popular trail to Silver Lake. On the way we stopped at the rock slide area and spotted a couple of pikas, but no marmots this time.
We finished our walk by hiking the last half of Silver Lake. There were lots of people and families about on this day. Quite crowded. Even back toward Lake Solitude there were quite a few folks, and we'd encountered several bike riders along the way. By the time we got back to the parking lot it was full. Obviously, this is a very popular location for those who want an easy stroll around a pretty mountain lake.
Sunday, July 25, 2004
Trailhead
We got up at 6:00 a.m. and were in the Trooper by 7:00 a.m. heading toward Big Cottonwood Canyon. We parked in the Visitor Center lot near Solitude, at Silver Lake. There are restrooms, drinking water, and picnic tables nearby. We took the boardwalk around the east side of the lake to where the trail leads off to the north toward Lake Solitude. This portion of the trail, from the parking lot to Lake Solitude, is about 1.38 miles. The trail is rocky and has roots in some areas, while it is hard packed dirt in other areas. It passes on a fairly even, gradual slope for most of the distance, until just below the lake, where it climbs steeply for about 100 feet. The route passes through pines and meadows scattered with flowers. We saw several deer along this portion of the trail.
Lake Solitude
At Lake Solitude we watched a few ducks swim around the smooth surface waters of the pond, then headed up. The trail turns into an old access road for the ski lifts in the area. Though it is wide, it is very steep in most places, and has a gravel to loose rock surface. At least it switches back along the way. This road climbs out of the trees and after a mile reaches a point overlooking Twin Lakes, right at the base of Mount Evergreen. There is a rough trail leading up to the peak, but it looks pretty rocky and steep and is more of a climb than a hike. We decided to skip that today.
Twin Lakes Pass
Instead, we continued on another .67 miles to the south west, up the old road, toward Twin Lakes Pass. This was another steep climb. There is a ski lift at the top. From here you get excellent views of the Brighton area, plus glimpses of many of the local peaks.
We scouted around, took lots of photos of the wild flowers blooming, saw a golden eagle glide overhead, watched the various types of ground squirrels scurry around, ate a snack, then headed back down.
Twin Lakes Reservoir
At the junction with the trail from Lake Solitude, we took the east fork and hiked down along the north side of Twin Lakes Reservoir, to near the dam. From there we took the trail back down to Silver Lake. The entire loop, with the hike up to Twin Lakes Pass, covered 5.5 miles.
We saw a few pikas in their usual area above Silver Lake, but not nearly as many as we saw last year. And no marmots.
Return Trip
When we arrived at the parking lot at around 8:00 a.m. we were probably the fifth car in the lot. By the time we finished our hike, the lot was full and cars were driving in circles looking for a place to park.
This was a nice hike, though strenuous, and we both came through in good shape.
GPS Coordinates (NAD83)
The GPS Coordinates are:
- Silver Lake Trailhead Parking Lot: N 40 36.211; W 111 35.055; elevation 8666 feet. Time 7:54 a.m.
- Twin Lakes Pass: 3.33 miles. (We were averaging 2.3 mph while moving.) N 40 35.939; W 111 36.403. With 15 feet accuracy. 9,990 feet elevation. Our highest point was 10,000 feet.
- The junction between the Lake Solitude, Twin Lakes Pass, and Twin Lakes trail was at 9,635 feet. The coordinates were: N 40 35.975; W 111 36.009.
- The GPS showed a round trip of 5.31 miles.
