A Good Summer Day for a Hike.

I was on vacation for the 5th of July, I decided to take advantage and go for a hike without the usual masses of weekenders.  I decided to go to the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon and hike around Silver Lake and up to a little cutoff trail that takes you to an incredible overlook.

After walking the boardwalk around the north end of the lake I headed west on the trail to Lake Solitude.  This photo shows what this trail is like more or less.

The trail is a bit steep for a while and has many rocky parts but overall is of moderate difficulty for someone healthier than me.  After maybe a quarter mile you get to the cutoff trail which heads diagonally approximately southeast back towards the Twin Lakes trail.  I love this little trail that wanders peacefully through a beautiful aspen grove.

Where the cutoff trail joins the Twin Lakes trail is a big rock slide that at some point in the past apparently took out a bunch of trees and makes it difficult for new trees to grow so we still have an amazing view looking down on Silver Lake from the rock slide.

It was only mid morning and still relatively cool and not another person visible on the trail so I just sat on a rock and soaked it all in for at least 10-15 minutes.  Could life get any better?

After enjoying the view I headed back down to Silver Lake via the Twin Lakes trail and then followed the path around the south end of the lake to make a loop out of the hike.  This is a photo of the south end of the lake from lake level.

The walk around the lake is an easy one so by late morning there were plenty of people out around the lake making things more crowded and noisy than I like but it's a small price to pay to be out enjoying such natural beauty.