Saturday, October 13, 2012

Scenic Drive: Emigration and East Canyons

 

I have lived here all of my life, and somehow I had never gone into Emigration Canyon. So today since we seem to be blessed with an extended fall season we decided to check it out.

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I guess I see now why I haven't been up here before. It is a rather heavily developed canyon. You get up quite a ways before breaking out above the houses. (DBP)

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Mountain Dell Reservoir.

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Closer. Well, that about did it for Emigration Canyon. We could either turn right and go into Parleys Canyon, or we could go left and continue up East Canyon. (DBP)

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DBP

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Now this is a pretty canyon!

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Band of aspens. (DBP)

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Striped mountainside. (DBP)

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We stopped at Big Mountain and decided to hike down the Great Western Trail a ways. You know, just to get a hike in.

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It’s a little too smoggy still, but you can just make out the Salt Lake Valley below.

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Pretty.

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Loads and loads of color on our short little hike. We probably went down about a quarter mile or so then turned back to see what else was up here.

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Colorful aspens speckled throughout the pines. (DBP)

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East Reservoir. Looks kind of low. (DBP)

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After East Reservoir it gets kind of boring. (DBP)

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Orange hill. (DBP)

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East Canyon lets you out near Echo. I thought about returning to that amazing cemetery, but decided to just keep going. Eventually we made our way back to I-80 in Parleys. (DBP)

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The mouth of Parleys. (DBP)

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I-80 above Sugerhouse. Lovely view of the valley. (DBP)

Meh. Nice little drive. There wasn’t much to it, but it was pretty. If you want to make it shorter, and prettier, I recommend turning back at East Reservoir. We were exploring today so wanted to see what else there was. turns out not a whole lot.haha. But that is the nature of exploring. You’re going to find some awesome stuff, but sometimes, you’re going to find a dud.

Emigration Canyon gets a 4, East Canyon a 9 (up to East Reservoir, after that it is kind of boring), so split the difference at 7 Squirrels.

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