July 10 - Twin Lake Pass (Big Cottonwood Canyon)

 Sunny day with another high near 100 (several degrees cooler than yesterday)

Heading up to Twin Lakes Pass this morning; hoping to see some flowers.

I get an early start leaving my house at 6:30 am - trying to beat the heat and crowds. 

On the drive up, somewhere around the Solitude Resort, a nice buck crosses the road in front of me. His buddy is standing on the side of the road waiting to cross. I stop and wait until the buck (another nice one) finally crosses the road.

I reach Silver Lake and there's still plenty of spots left.

I gear up and start around the boardwalk.

I don't have to go very far when I see 2 doe that have stepped off the boardwalk and are lost in the brush.

I turn the opposite direction and there's another doe in the middle of meadow trying to follow the other 2 but I'm in the way. The doe heads in the opposite direction. Sorry!

I continue around to the trail head and up the trail towards Lake Solitude.

The flowers are about ready now. Rocky Mt Beardtongue, Horsemint, and a few Yellow Composites are starting to bloom. Another week or 2 away.

Along the way to Lake Solitude I see a lone doe and just before the lake, a Marmot in the slide area.

I reach Lake Solitude and stop to put on some lotion when I see another doe at the lake's edge munching away. It looks up at me and continues eating.

I continue on, meeting yet another doe only a few feet away. 

Lots of doe but no fawns - very unlike last year. :(

I continue around stopping for Milberts Tortoiseshell before starting the uphill climb.

I also see Western Tiger Swallowtail and Parnassian on the way up.

I complete the uphill and stop briefly to look at the Lakes.

Time to start up to the Pass.

I see a CA Tortoiseshell just before the trail to the Pass.

And a little farther up, I see a hummingbird hovering near crack in a bit boulder. I do thing she has a nest in that crack - very cool!

Up the short but steep hill and I can start the final walk to the Pass.

Flowers are not close to full bloom yet but there are some lupine, beardtongue, Nuttall's Flax flower, etc starting up.

Also, there are more Parnassians flying up here.

About 1/2 down, I run into a good stretch of flowers.

Then I finally see a Sheridan's Hairstreak and a Two Banded Skipper.

I reach the Pass. It's not a quiet stop today as there are 3 trail runners stopped talking. 

I take a quick look down Little Cottonwood Canyon,

and then find a spot for a quick break. 

While I'm seeing there, another group of "quick" hikers arrive. Lots of noise. Time to make my way down now.

On my way back, I see a Milbert's Tortoiseshell.

I continue down towards Twin Lakes.

Making another quick stop. The lake is much higher than I thought; there's only a little bit of beach. Awesome!

I see some small trout swimming in the lake's edge.

Time to continue down to Silver Lake spotting a pink Beardtongue.

Still no Pika on the slide. :(

Awesome day!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nov 27 - Antelope Island

Image
Partly sunny with temps in the mid-40s forecasted. Heading up to Antelope Island to hike to Beacon Hill. It's already in the lows 30s when I leave around 8am. However, there's a lot of fog in the valley. And especially along the Antelope Island Causeway and the Island. Foggy from the time I arrive but it's starts to clear a bit before getting socked in. I do find that large herd of bison near Frary Peak on Friday still there - as is the little herd a bit farther down the road. It clears up as I approach the Ranch. There are bison just north of Mushroom Springs (not a good day to hike that) and some even farther north. I decide to turn back north spotting for a wonderful hawk near the Ranch. Down across from Frary Peak, I see a Pheasant, And near the Frary Peak Rd, a coyote! It's clear when I arrive at the Gravel Pit parking. A little coating of snow is on the ground plants. But there is no wind but also no sun. I also see a bison in the distance which may or may not be ...
Read more

Nov 21 - Lambs Canyon Rd (and a bit of the trail)

Image
 Sunny day in the upper 30s. Headed to walk Lambs Canyon Road around noon today. Start of the road is snow-free and then it gradually changes to part snow/ice and finally to all snow/ice. Most of the snow is on the east facing slopes. But there is snow on the west side in spots where there's hardly any sun. No flowers today just wonderful flaky snow glistening in the sunny spots. Pretty incredible! The trees in some cases are also covered in this flaky snow - piled on. And the ice formations in the creek are also wonderful. Many animals tracks today -- wish I could ID them but fun to look at. Heard a few Chick-a-dees in one spot but other than that pretty quiet. Saw a hunter (archery) coming down the road as I went up. I reach the trail head. Pretty icy just before as it appears the stream alongside the road overflowed. Stunning crystalization in that stream. The trees/brush at the bridge crossing is thick and beautiful.  The bridge is snow-packed so I go across and walk the t...
Read more

Dec 16 - Antelope Island Cruise

Image
 Cool but sunny day (high in mid-20s) but a welcome reprieve of a week where is snowed 4 days (maybe) and dumped over a foot a snow on me and over 5ft in the mountains. Haven't seen that big of a dump in several years now. Hopefully that's a good omen for the rest of winter. Heading up to Antelope Island to have a look around. Would like to hike (I brought all of my stuff) but still battling a very sore heal and it would be best to little it rest ...so we'll see. (oh, and the walking in snow will aggravate the heal even more). I arrive on the causeway and it's sunny to the east but still clouds moving thru from the west. Half the island is sunny and the other, not so much. (and its 21 degrees) Crossing the causeway there were no hawk or kestrels; very surprised especially with all the snow and cold temperatures. But there is a small group of Canadian Geese laying on the Great Salt Lake side. As I near the island, the are 2 black dots in the distance. They look a little ...
Read more