Sunday Morning Hiking Series #58 - Willow Heights Event Cache

Series Description

For those new to this hiking series, these are social hikes around the Salt Lake area for the purpose of caching, enjoying the outdoors, and getting to know fellow cachers. There tends to be a range of fitness levels that show up for the hikes. As the emphasis is on being social, don't worry if a steep leaves you puffing. I'll be right there clinging to a tree and puffing with you. Our usual meeting time is 8am, and we leave the parking area by 8:05am. The other primary feature of these hikes is that they are short and can be accomplished by noon. Trails tend to be a little emptier on Sunday mornings and we'll be done in time for anyone who has Sunday obligations to attend an afternoon service. If you don't have to be anywhere in the afternoon, there's frequently a longer trail to take. If you would like more information about the whole series of hikes, check out the others in the series in the bookmark list at the right.

NOTE FOR NON-CACHERS: Since there has been a trend toward non-cachers joining us due to cross posting of hikes on hiking groups, just a heads-up. Yes, it's a hike and you are certainly welcome to join us. However, it is a caching hike which means if there are caches along the trail we are going to go search for them. That may mean stepping off the trail briefly or an involved search and/or bushwhack off trail. We are happy to teach you about geocaching. We like to spread our obsession. Just come with the expectation that there will be detours from the trail and it will likely take longer to do the hike with this group than most other groups you've gone with. Searching the woods for a piece of paper in tupperware using billion dollar satellites is fun. Try it, you might like it.

Description for this Hike

This is a popular trail up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It follows a steady, but not steep grade from the Big Cottonwood road up to a lovely lake perched in the middle of a meadow. Many animals like to use this lake for a watering hole. I have pictures of moose here.

We'll take the trail up and do a loop around the lake. There will still be snow on the ground in April. The main trail will be well packed needing only good traction on your footwear. When we go around the lake and other exploring we may do, snowshoes may be good. It's less about getting through fresh snow than dealing with the undercuts as the spring runoff begins.

Since it is water shed in Big Cottonwood no geo-dogs can accompany us on this trip. As you find parking along the road, please pay attention to the no parking zones. This hike fits nicely into our allotted four hour block.