With the many fires surrounding us, smoke has been in the air, so we left town to head to Utah. We did two hikes up Big Cottonwood Canyon near Salt Lake. We hiked to Donut Falls and to the Brighton Lakes--Mary, Martha, and Catherine.
Donut Falls above is a short hike to a waterfall. At the top of the falls is a donut-shaped hole. Many people hike to the top of the falls, we chose to stay at the bottom. It is a nice hike of less than a mile if you get one of the parking spaces right by the trailhead. Many people have to hike an extra 1/2 mile each way if they park just off Big Cottonwood Canyon Rd. We saw two moose on this trail and ran into a hiker from Rexburg whose father attended high school with our dad. Small world!
After Donut Falls, we drove to Brighton Ski Resort to hike to Lake Mary, Lake Martha, and Lake Catherine. The total hike was close to 5 miles (with a couple of side trips). The sign at the bottom says it is 1 mile to Lake Mary and 2 miles to Lake Catherine and you pass Lake Martha in between. The hike up to Lake Mary is fairly steep but the view at the top is great. Part of Lake Mary was drained which we were told was not usual. The hike to Lake Catherine is not as difficult. There is another lake which is off the main trail to Dog Lake. We saw two moose there as well. We were surprised how many moose we saw on this trip. We also enjoyed how green it was at Dog Lake.