Better late then never... some photos from last weeks hike. We headed up to Red Pine Lakes in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Another place I've heard of over the years, but have never hiked to. Another butt kicker of a hike, about 3 miles and 2000 ft up to the beautiful lower lake, and short hike and another 400 feet to the upper lakes. From the lower lake you look up and see a bouldery ridge, presumably the upper lake was some where above the rocks. We saw no clear path to the top, and decided to make our way up a snow field to the ridge. It was careful walking up the snow, as it was of course slippery, and much steeper than the pictures make it look. At the top it was a scramble over the huge boulders lining the ridge and down to a huge flat boulder near the lake where we had lunch.
The landscape at the upper lakes was far more surreal. The rocky cirque in which the lakes lay was mostly devoid of vegetation, and still covered in a fair amount of snow. There was still ice on the lake. It looked like a cross between frozen tundra and alien landscape.
We decided not to try hiking down the snowfield, since hiking down the slippery slope seemed a little too dangerous, so we carefully picked our way across the slope and found our way down through the trees.
Being a winter kind of girl, it always makes me happy to hike up to the snow. So when I found a a good patch of snow, I stopped and made a snow angel. A snow angel... in August!!!
Lower Red Pine Lake
My friend Rebecca, hiking up the snowfield
The upper Red Pine Lakes
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