Day Ten: Hiking up in Big Cottonwood Canyon!

I had a great time doing 3 things in Big Cottonwood Canyon today. The first was climbing up a rock, the second was going up "Stairs Gulch" to see a waterfall, but kept on going a couple of more miles, and the third was going up Cardiff Fork to Doughnut Falls, then continuing up to Cardiff Mine.







This is a shot looking up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Not a cloud in the sky!


and this is across the road - to get a sense of how huge things are out here, can you see the rock climbers? [I have circled them at the bottom of this blog]


Stairs Gulch -- 1.25 miles RT
N.40.37.447, -W.111.44.587
Drive 2.8 miles up the canyon and the trail is on the south side of the road. The trail is mainly uphill and rocky, and ends at a waterfall.


I kept going up


and up


and up

and finally turned around when it was time for lunch (after an hour of climbing), and the trail turned to shale shards.

I stopped by the side of the road and had an orange by a waterfall:


I then went up to Doughnut Falls (a very family-friendly hike starting at the Cardiff Fork parking area)




and the water goes down into a hole in the rock - hence "Doughnut"


I went up beyond the falls, heading up to Cardiff Mine, an old abandoned silver mine. It is remarkable that all this beautiful country can be reached just by putting one foot in front of the other.




and the old mine


My iPhone battery died again today! I had even "really turned off" all the apps except Map My Walk.

I have to give very specific THANKS to Shannon Lane, who teaches my Step Aerobics class at the Manchester Athletic Club - if it wasn't for her work, I certainly could not do the hiking that I have done, and I would have been much poorer for it. Thank you, Shannon.

I am seeing Riddick tonight - it is a movie in nationwide release! (inside joke)



Find the climbers - I actually was unfair. This original image is 2.3 megs, but the ones I use in the blog I shrink down to 0.3 megs.


Saturday, Sept. 21
Big Cottonwood Canyon hiking
Riddick movie

Off to Glacier National Park tomorrow.

here is today's playlist:

Neil Young - American Stars 'n Bars


The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour