On Friday, Alex and I decided to try a little hike that we found in a trails book that we borrowed from the library. The trail begins in Big Cottonwood Canyon at the bottom of the "S" curve and ascends 2,580 feet to Lake Blanche (alt. 8,900 feet) in the Twin Peaks Wilderness Area. The round trip is 5.6 miles. We didn't think the hike would be too difficult, but it turned out to be very tiring. The day was very hot (near 100 degrees F) and the trail was very steep, but the reward at the end of the trail was well worth the effort. Lake Blanche is a high alpine lake that sits in a glacial basin. Sundial peak stands in the background.
After spending a few minutes at Lake Blanche, we decided to continue along the trail for a short distance to the next lake, Lake Florence (Below).
The lakes sit in a basin that was formed by a glacier during the last ice age. As the glacier moved, it dragged boulders across the ground leaving large scratches in the red rock. In the picture below, these scratches can been on the surface of the rock where Alex stands (below).
Alex and I enjoyed the view at the top for a while before heading back down the mountain. We had a limited amount of time that day, because Cassie's all-county track meet was scheduled for that afternoon, and we didn't want to miss it. Because the hike up to the lakes took us longer than we expected, we had to hurry down the mountain. We made it down the trail in about one hour. Alex is a good hiker and he had very little trouble with this fairly strenuous hike. I was proud of him for not wanting to give up when the trail started to get difficult. My legs were pretty sore the next day, but the little adventure was worth it.
Alex, checking out the creek on the way up to Lake Blanche.
Alex and me (Dad) at Lake Florence.
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