Silver Lake

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Category:Travel and Places

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When I was little I always remembered this cute little lake we would go fishing at that had this nice little boardwalk, and some good fishing docks. I don’t know why, but randomly I started thinking about it, and for some reason I thought it was near park city. So I started doing some google image searches to attempt to find it with no luck. Finally I asked my mom while we were at Calvyns birthday party which was at a picnic area in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and she knew exactly what I was talking about and told me it’s at the top of this canyon. SWEET I know where it is now I can hike.

Unfortunately, life has this funny way of, interfering with itself. I had been planning on doing this hike for a long time this summer and well, it just never really happened. Other things came up, family, friends, work, WEATHER, all sorts of things. So we finally have an open day to do a hike and I seized on it like the last pork chop at a meat convention.

First thing is, all the way up the canyon, passed donut falls that is, nothing looked familiar at all. I couldn’t tell you if I had been there before, until we got to the turn out for the loop road and it all came flashing back. We were exactly where I remembered from my childhood. So we find a spot to park, and after a quick stop at the Visitors Center we proceed to hike.

I would like to note, I now realize why we went there so often as kids. It is a very easy family friendly hike, completely board-walked, with very, very little incline. You could do the lake hike on a jazzy if needed. Hehe.

Silver Lake starts at a tiny mountain town next to a couple of ski resorts. After you get past the small town, and the Visitor center you are greeted with a beautiful meadow with a mountain backdrop.

We took the boardwalk to the left (it’s a loop trail) and proceeded counterclockwise. After a brisk walk we came across a beaver dam.

 
And the first glimpse of the lake itself.

 
I am unsure if this is an inlet or an outlet, but after reviewing all of the images I have deduced it to be an inlet.

 
The lake.

 
Piddy flowers and a glimpse of what’s to come, although I didn’t know it at the time.

 
Cute squirrel gets it’s munch on.

 
I was quite enjoying the flora this particular hike, be prepared for more flower images. Hehe. About halfway through the board walked loop around silver lake you come to a trailhead with 2 hikes. 1 to the Twin Lakes reservoir, and the other to Lake Solitude. Both sounded interesting, the crowded boardwalk was getting to be too much for us, and we really wanted a HIKE so we made a choice and went to the Twin Lakes Reservoir. Honestly the deciding factor was it was the shorter trail at just over a mile.

 
Sea of Aspens

 
Just a few feet up I looked to the skies and wondered if we should turn back and get our parkas. We ultimately decided we would probably be okay…

 
Here is a pretty view of Silver Lake from above.

I don’t know if I am more out of shape this year, or if the hike was steeper, or if it was the elevation, ok I just answered my question I think it was the elevation, but this short mile hike was KICKING MY ASS. I had to stop several times to catch my breath. Thank goodness we actually thought ahead this time and brought water with us. During one of the pit stops we saw this cute chipmunk scurry up the hill until he encountered a squirrel. Guess the squirrel is more intimidating because he turned back.

 
After that I was looking to the skies, feeling my heart racing and was seriously contemplating turning back. Luckily we passed a hiker coming down and we asked if it was much further up and it was not.

 
Twin Lakes Reservoir.

This was really pretty and I wish we had stayed longer and taken more pictures, but of course right when we got there the skies let loose. Now, I am not talking cats and dogs rain, but it was really coming down, and as I had nothing to cover my camera with other than a thin cotton shirt, and there was another family chilling here, we decided to just start back down.

 
Outlet valve of the reservoir. Which smelled of fish. Yuck.

 
Here is another above view of Silver Lake. The lower stream in the image is where we saw the beaver damn. Like I said, I am unsure, but I think this is where the Twin Lakes Reservoir enters Silver Lake.

 
The rain scared off the crowds.



I have this random habit of taking Landis’s picture when he hikes ahead of me. Hehe.

Back down to the rest of the Silver Lake loop a good view of the lake. This is above the outlet stream, or what I would suppose (not verified) is the source of Big Cottonwood Creek.

Here we saw this cute family of ducks.

Sadly there was a big family with lots of kids watching the ducks too, and acting all crazy. I think they spooked the poor babies and they swam under the bridge! I remember seeing momma attempt to snatch the last one back but she failed. She then proceeded to get slowly more and more upset. She tried calling them out and then she jumped up on the bridge.

 
She honked a few times and then went to the other side and proceeded to call them out with no luck. At this point Landis and I had decided that we should leave and hope the other family gets the hint the babies were spooked and probably would not come out until everybody left. Just before we rounded the corner we watched momma fly over head and scare the shit out of the kids. Hehe. You know, I have always read stories about the strong motherly instinct ducks have, but it was really cool to see it first hand, even though I know the babies were not in danger, but poor momma was freaked!

Panoramic of the fields and mountains

 
Random Nature Shot

 
The squirrels here are definitely not afraid of humans. We figured out why later as like 15 of them were hanging out under the picnic table of a large family.

All in all it was a wonderful day hike. I do need to separate it into 2 categories for my ratings.

The Silver Lake Loop: Family friendly, easy, easy, easy board-walked hike. Petty much drive up to beautiful nature. Pretty crowded but beautiful. 8 squirrels out of 10.

The Twin Lakes Reservoir Trail: Pretty, nice end result, GREAT views, strenuous. 7 squirrels out of 10. To be honest due to conditions I can’t give this a fair review.