Little Cottonwood Canyon - The Little Cottonwood Canyon is just one of the canyons along the Wasatch front that take up the western skyline is Salt Lake City.  If you are unfamiliar with the Wasatch mountains you will be amazed at how beautiful, interesting, and pristine these mountains are even being located so close to so many people. Don't be fooled by the name, this canyon is smaller than Big Cottonwood Canyon but it contains several small lakes, two ski resorts, and offers some interesting and unique hiking.

   My original plan was to simply do the Utah hikes the same as I did the Boise hikes (one at a time sorted by driving distance) but I get down to Utah enough that I think organizing them by Canyon (at least for those located in organize-able areas) makes more sense for those who may want to make these into a road trip. There will More hikes to come for this canyon!

   I am assuming you know how to get to Salt Lake City and can follow a map. Little Cottonwood canyon is on most maps and is located to the southwest of Salt Lake. Directions from within Salt Lake are shown below (one assuming you are coming from the airport, the other from Downtown).

   The canyon is not a long drive but it is STEEP. You will feel like you are abusing your vehicle. If it is prone to overheating it will.

   If you ski you have heard about Snowbird. It is one of two ski resorts in the Little Cottonwood Canyon (the other being Alta). In the the off season it offers some unique experiences. Once you hit the canyon road (210) you are just a few miles away.

   One of the more interesting things (especially if you have kids) is taking a large tram to the top of the mountain (11,000 feet) and hiking down. A tram ticket is good all day on any number of times (They run roughly every 30 minutes) and you can always take them down if you just want to go up for the view.

   There are also numerous hikes around the ski resort. The elevation changes are not as bad as you would think it being a ski resort (lots of switch backs) and there is a wide variety of plant and wildlife. I saw several deer and a moose (two of them actually) came right up to the condo we were staying in.

  The picture to the upper left shows some of the Snowbird resort in the background during an early morning hike. People in the picture: Hope, Danny, Tyler, Mike, and Dawn. To the lower left is Tyler in front of a stream that runs through the resort (you have to walk across a bridge overt it to get to the the hiking areas). I didn't do the tram ride with the group this this time around (I was climbing on Mt. Olympus that day) so no pictures of this!

   An alpine slide was under construction and scheduled to open in September 2003. If you do not know what an Alpine slide is: In this case it is a long (you take a ski lift to the top) half tube that also has tunnels, twist, turns, etc. You sit in a cart that has a manual brake and you go for a ride down the mountain. If you have kids this can be a good excursion between hikes and tram rides. Very cool place.

More info: Here Here

   Tanners flat is a small camp ground about four miles into the Little Cottonwood Canyon. I was only able to spend a short time in the actual camp ground. While driving up and down the Little Cottonwood canyon I could not help but notice there were numerous places that looked like they were waterfalls part of the year. This being august I was not expecting to see much in the way of a waterfall.

   Most of the time I was one of the ones driving. however when going down to Mt. Olympus in the early AM I was able to drive a little slower and get a good look through the trees and saw several small creeks coming down the mountain sides. One of these was near Tanners Flat.

   You can barely see the creek through the trees. There is a campground 30 feet from it and you still won't see it if you don't know its there. You can hear it but as there is another creek that runs through the campground and most just assume it is that one. The two merge near campground #14  (if i remember right - all the way to the back in one of the loops) then follow the trail for 30 feet or so and poof! there are both creeks.

   We (Hope, Mike, Me, My dad) followed the creek up the mountain for a while. It was a very easy and interesting climb. Pictures: #1 My dad at the point where the creeks meet.  To the immediate right is one of the many small falls (very easy to get around). Below is Hope and her new found walking stick. The bottom two pictures are another couple of small falls, one with a small cave (the one with me and Hope) though the picture taken of us in the cave did not turn out.  There is no trail up this little creek but it is extremely easy to follow even at the falls due to all the heavy boulders and walk- arounds. Hope is eight years old and we had a hard time from keeping her from going on ahead. It is very pleasant on a hot day to walk in the stream. Remember its August here, stream flows vary!

More info: Here Here Here Here Here