Lake Blanche and Sundial PeakLucky that I live in a place with so many wonderful things right in my own back yard. I can leave my house, hop in my car, and in less than 20 minutes, I can be at a trail head in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and in a 2.75 mile hike be here, at Lake Blanche. Now granted, it's a butt kicking 2.75 mile hike with a 2700 foot elevation gain, but it was well worth every step to stand at the top of the world next to an alpine lake surrounded by snow capped mountains. Pretty as a postcard for sure!
Now the embarrassing thing, is that I've lived here over 25 years and this was the first time I've done this hike. I moved here, site unseen, from Ohio in 1985. Other than flying in to Denver to travel to our research field site in western Nebraska, I had never been to the mountain west. When we moved here we spent a lot of time exploring Utah and surrounding states, but somehow missed some very local adventures... partly because we always had a dog who wanted to hike with us, and dogs are not allowed in many canyons for watershed protection reasons. Then we eventually had kids, and well, everyone knows how that can slow down the adventuring. So somehow, in all these years, I have never done this hike. Shameful really. But now that I'm single, unencumbered by my grown kids, and have found friends who like to hike, I am really going to make it a point to explore all the local places I've never been. So much to see, so much to do!!!!
Lake Florence and Dromedary Peak
The view back down to the trail head
Lake Lillian
Oh how I adore the tiny alpine wildfowers!
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