Frequenters to this blog will know that I have had a wonderful hiking season so far this year. I have had lots of milestones reached and have experienced amazing beauty.
Today reached a whole new level.
And when I say a new level, it actually has multiple meanings. The first new level reached is that today I hiked to 10,000 feet. Yep, my previous high was about 9,300 feet on the Timpanookee Trail.
The other amazing new level achieved today was being able to hike in mountains where the wildflowers were almost as prevalent as the grass and rocks.
For our hike today, we drove into Little Cottonwood Canyon and went all the way to the end. At the end of the road, you find yourself on the slopes of the Alta Ski Resort. We wanted to do a different hike today so I did some research in my AllTrails app and found a lake called Cecret Lake. It is pronounced just like the word secret.
As soon as we even got close to the trail head this morning, we knew this place was not a secret. We arrived a little after 8a and the first parking lot was already full. Fortunately, we got a spot in the 2nd lot, which almost filled up while we were departing on the hike.
The trail was busy today. Since the trail to the lake was not overly rigorous, the hikers were mostly families with children. The trail from the parking lot to the lake was very busy. However, once we got to the lake and headed up toward Sugarloaf Mountain, we were mostly alone.
When Ann and left the parking lot and jumped on the trail, we were mesmerized by the wildflowers. No exaggeration, we probably stopped ever ten steps for the first half mile to take pix.
This one is Ann’s
One of the super fun things of the day was seeing Ann be so excited about the wildflowers and watching her compose pictures. She has a good eye and came up with some great pix.
Of course, Ann likes to turn the photographic tables on me. She snapped some fun ones of me yesterday. I am most fun of the one of my butt as I am taking pix of flowers!
We finally had to force ourselves to stop taking pix so that we could actually make it to the lake and complete our hiking route. The last stretched before reaching the lake had a rocky and mildly steep section to navigate. Because it was a little bit challenging, there were a lot of people moving slowly on that stretch.
When we reached the top of this last section and saw the lake, we blown away by its beauty. The water was clear, the sky was perfect blue and surround the lake were patches of grass, pines, red rocks, and a looming Sugarloaf Mountain.
After spending some time taking pix at the lake and watching some small children catch the most unusual salamanders in the water, we continued our climb up Sugarloaf Mtn. For about .3 miles, there was a steep and rocky section to the trail. It was bedazzled with amazing flowers.
We came across several small sections of snow on the hike. The first one is shown below. We found this after leaving the lake and hiking up the mountain. I love the photo with the wildflower field and the snow remnants…in the middle of July!
Ann is a terrific hiking companion. She is energetic, nimble and she LOVES to explore off trail, when appropriate. She is also a good sport about me taking pix of her.
One of my favorite photos of the day was actually not wildflowers or the lake. It was the “Supreme” ski lift that went to Albion Alps. I am not sure I would be able to handle the lift, much less snowboarding back down.
Today’s hike was amazing. While it wasn’t that long (3.7 miles) we took 3.5 hours to finished because we were taking so many pictures. We had no choice. It was just too beautiful. It had long been a dream/fantasy about hiking in a place like this.
I am so glad that sometimes dreams come true!
The Umenum 
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