Lake Mary And The Other Dog Lake

Lake Mary is a gorgeous high alpine reservoir located in Big Cottonwood Canyon. With crystal blue waters and granite boulders it is truly a beautiful site. Absolutely worth the 1 mile climb above Brighton Ski Resort. Dog Lake is a short side trail out to a very small lake. No, it is not the much more popular and not far from here Dog Lake, and dogs are not allowed.

Quick Details:

Length: 1 mile to Lake Mary plus about 3/4 to a mile out and around Dog Lake
Difficulty: It doesn’t seem all the steep at first but it really gets you huffing and puffing rather quickly. DR5.
Elevation Gain: 760 ft. to Lake Mary. Dog lake is a little lower than that.
Restroom: I am sure one of the Brighton buildings has one, but they were all closed and locked by the time we got there. There is one at the nearby Silver Lake Trailhead.
Dogs? No. Big Cottonwood Canyon is watershed so dogs are not allowed.
Bonus Info: If Lake Mary wasn’t enough, the trail continues past 2 additional lakes. Lake Martha not much further, and Lake Catherine which is another mile up from Lake Mary. Great way to get 4 lakes in one hike.

To get here go up Big Cottonwood canyon all the way to the top to the Brighton Loop Road. At the back end of the loop you will see a large parking lot, look for the big Brighton ski run map, the trail goes up next to that.

Last time we hiked to Twin Lakes Reservoir and I was reminded of the Lake Mary Trail so I decided to do that one again. We have done it before, and went all the way up to lake Catherine but we didn’t really explore Dog Lake. So, I decided we would do Lake Mary and Dog lake today.

Nearing the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon starting to see some great fall colors, as well as a bunch of bald spots. I recently heard on the news that the aspen trees got a fungus this year that killed the leaves prematurely. Drive By Photo (DBP).

Trailhead sign.

And on to the trail!

The trail starts out nice and wide and on hard packed earth under the chair lifts. It doesn’t look all that steep but it got us huffing and puffing really quickly.

Ski lifts and trees. I was hoping for fall color, but this isn’t a particularly good trail for that. As you can see most of it is across the way. Whoops. Oh well, it was still a good hike.

From a little higher up.

Giant boulder.

Phew! The trail leveled out some just before going into the trees.

Looking across the canyon.

And into the forest!

Last time we were here we saw a coyote here. No such luck today.

Big trees.

Tree growing on top of a boulder.

And back uphill we go.

View of Brighton below.

Supposedly this is halfway. It sure didn’t feel like halfway. We decided to do Dog Lake on the way down.

The stream coming out of Dog Lake.

Cool old tree and some color.

Some great color here.

I’m not sure what the point of this is, but you do get a good view of the stream here. Also, I remember, it means you are almost there.

If the view of the dam a couple steps further doesn’t clue you in. Now we just have to get around that. At the time, I was wondering what all that stuff was at the top. We’ll get to that.

Closer… are those portopottys?

Well that is disturbing. Pretty significant crack.

After hiking up around the dame we came up over the last crest to the lake and:

It’s empty. What the???

Not from the exact same angle, but close comparison from the last time we hiked up here in 2012. Note the rectangular boulder on the right side of the island to the one on the mound above.

We didn’t discover this until we were on the way down, but to answer the question, the dam, built in 1917 needed the head gate replaced so they had to drain the reservoir. This little informational sign also included this fascinating tid bit: The remaining pit of water at the far end (that we will get to in a minute) was originally Lake Phoebe. Neat!

Panoramic of the empty reservoir.

The back end of the reservoir remains. As I mentioned before, this is probably the closest approximation of long lost Lake Phoebe. Not seen since 1917.

Speaking of which, I did some googleing of Lake Phoebe and I found this. I don’t want to ‘borrow’ the image or steal the bandwidth so I will just link to the page.

From our 2012 hike. Again, not the exact same angle, but pretty close. Much much deeper when it is full. Compare that island back to the right.

You can see the water line, and some dead tree stumps. You know, after our last 2 hikes, I have to wonder, do they cut down trees anticipating reservoir levels? it seems they did.

Panoramic.

In the empty reservoir.

Another panoramic of Lake Phoebe. That still feels weird to say, but that is what remains.

From a different angle.

And walking around the empty reservoir. It’s really kind of bizarre.

Looking back towards what remains. I wonder if this was the original outlet.

Random debris. I wonder what other random stuff might they have found when it was first drained.

Stumps.

This side of Mt. Millicent. You can see the other side from Twin Lakes Reservoir.

Back side of the dam. Don’t think I’ll get another chance to see this.

One last panorama before we leave.

As disappointing as it was to see practically empty, it was actually kind of fun to explore it in that state. And I know it will be back so meh. Also it was really cool to learn about the original lake hiding under it. Now on our way to Dog Lake.

The dam.

Pretty aspens.

Some color across the way.

Back down to the stream that comes out of Dog Lake. The trail split is just below this.

Huh, another trail split. I might have to check that one out some day.

Heading back towards Dog Lake.

I think this is Pioneer Peak.

First glimpse. Barely visible.

Okay that is a little bit better. This is definitely, significantly smaller than the way more popular Dog Lake. It still kind of irks me that we name things so close to each other the same name. I’d like to think that maybe, in the early days people said yea, x lake is up this canyon, and that person found a lake and assumed that it was it and assumed they were in the right place and thus a separate lake got the same name. But.. who knows. I do know that popular names are reused. Aside from this, I have found at least 3 Silver Lakes in the area. 2 Red Pine Lakes. Its craziness!

Panoramic.

We found a trail that appeared to go around the lake, although not next to it.

Dog Lake and a smaller pond.

Inlet. Seems a lot smaller than the outlet.

Forest.

The trail back here is really thin and sometimes hard to follow but we managed.

From the other side.

It’s really too marshy to get in much closer.

Another panoramic.

Closest I could get. Seemed like a perfect lake for salamanders, but I couldn’t get close enough to see any.

I think this is the view we got last time we were here.

With Pioneer Peak.

I really enjoyed this side hike. It is a beautiful little valley, and unlike the main trail, it was completely deserted. Everybody just wants to see Lake Mary. However it was starting to get late so we decided it was time to head back.

Looking out towards Guardsman Pass. We should have done that today!

Through the trees!

I found a spring.

Run off from it.

Looking across the canyon again, with great lighting.

Back to the big boulder.

There is a pretty good view from it.

It appears to have glacier scraps across it.

We saw a couple of these on the hill on the way up and down and had a little debate about what they are (neither of us ski). I thought it was  a snow machine, Landis thought a spotlight for night skiing. Turns out I was correct, they are snowmakers.

The back of the welcome sign.

The front of Mt. Millicent.

Well that was a great hike. I’m a little sad we got such a late start and didn’t have the best light but I still enjoyed it. Seeing an empty reservoir was great and learning a little history along the way is always a nice bonus. I have also recently learned there is a way to do the trail of 5 lakes which includes Silver Lake, Twin Lakes, Mary, Martha, and Catherine which is about 6.7 miles, and another one that includes Lake Solitude, although I am unsure on the mileage of that one. I would like to check those out one day as well.

Lake Mary: Even empty it was great, although it is truly pretty when it is full. 9 out of 10 squirrels losing 1 for crowds.

Dog Lake: Tiny lake, can’t really get up to it without getting wet. However it is a wonderful serene side trip. Absolutely worth adding on, whether you do just Lake Mary, or if you go all the way up to Catherine. Although, I’m not sure I would make it the destination. Luckily there is a great lake not much further. 9 out of 10 squirrels as well.

As for difficulty, like I mentioned, it didn’t look that steep but that beginning section really wiped us out! Going with a DR5. However, there were no particularly scary sections for me. (I’ve mentioned my heights issue).

Big Cottonwood Canyon is watershed so dogs are not allowed.