Brighton Lakes Trail, Big Cottonwood Canyon- 6.24.2015

Wasatch Wednesday was in full effect yesterday as I hiked up the Brighton Lakes Trail. It seems for the past few weeks I have been out hiking on Wednesday here in our beautiful canyons. This hike I usually reserve for after the 4th of July, but since we are ahead of schedule on everything this year, I figured why not. They have moved the Lake Mary trail right underneath the Crest lift. This section is pretty steep and will get your heart going. I finally junction with the old trail and headed up to Dog Lake. This place is going to be amazing in a few weeks when all the wildflowers go full bloom. It was so green and lush in there. I moved on up to Lake Mary to witness something of a backcountry water park rather than a mountain lake. This is watershed, people are not supposed to swim in the watershed, but they were anyways. I will never be a part of the problem, just part of the solution.

I moved on up to Lake Martha and to the final switchback to Lake Catherine. Only one small pile of snow to navigate, and up the final part of the trail I went. Arriving at Lake Catherine there were definitely piles of snow on the slope below Sunset Peak. The fish were jumping. I pulled out the fly rod to give it a shot. Landed a couple of small ones, (sorry, no pics, I was catch and release fishing, no time to traumatize them for a photo shoot) then just took in the view for a bit before heading down. I decided after about an hour and a half, I was ready to head home for dinner. I made my way down from Catherine to the overlook and as I was descending to Martha, a Mama Moose and here two calves were feeding right on the trail. I backtracked and made a wide loop around them. She showed no signs of aggression, but with two calves in tow, not gonna take my chances. I continued down to Lake Mary and then finished the trail off pretty quick. Here are a few pics from Wednesday. More adventures to come!