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Catherine Pass is a pass between Big Cottonwood Canyon, and Little Cottonwood Canyon. It can be accessed through either canyon, and gives the option to continue on to several peaks. It offers a great view of Lake Catherine, and the Albion Basin when on that side of the ridge.The wildflowers are incredible, even if they are starting to die out for the year. If you decide to access this from Big Cottonwood Canyon it is about 2.5 miles up. From the Sunnyside Parking lot in Little Cottonwood Canyon it is only about 1.6 miles.
Quick Details:
Length: The trail sign said 1.5, my app put it at about 1.6. One way.
Difficulty: DR4 this one was a little on the tough side.
Elevation Gain: About 800 ft.
Restroom: Pit toilet at the trailhead
Dogs? No. Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info: There is not much shelter from the sun on this trail. Wear sunscreen. Also, the parking lot fills up quickly on weekends, however there is a donation based shuttle from the Albion Base Area.
To Get Here:
Head all the way to the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon until the pavement ends. From here you have 3 options.
- You can drive up the dirt road and hope you get a spot in the small parking lot (if it is full there is usually a sign before the dirt road informing you of that).
- You can take the donation based shuttle that goes every 20 minutes 9 - 5:30 on weekends. Be sure to get off at the Sunnyside Lift area, not the Cecret Lake trailhead.
- Lastly, you can add 1.5 miles (each way) and hike the Upper Albion Meadows Trail. We opted to take the shuttle up, and hike down the meadows trail. Which is quickly becoming the norm for us.
Looking down Little Cottonwood Canyon through the shuttles dirty, dirty window (DBP).
The Trail:
Trailhead sign.
It starts out fairly easy as you cross a very rocky meadow beneath the Sunnyside ski lift.
The wildflowers are starting to die off, but there were still a bunch up here to enjoy.
Mount Wolverine.
Devils Castle you can get a better look at that on the Devils Castle Loop.
Looking down Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Rocky trail. You can also see Catherine Pass to the top right.
Sugarloaf Mountain across the way. Cecret Lake is in that bowl below it.
Some nice Indian paintbrush.
Before long you are fairly high above the Albion Basin and get so great views of it.
Bridge over a dry stream.
Or possibly the stream changed course and now flows across the trail a little further up.
Still lots of wildflowers.
This section of trail is kind of thin.
Squirrel.
A panoramic of the Albion Basin. Let’s see, Devils Castle, Sugarloaf Mountain, and Mt. Baldy peeking out from behind the unnamed peak. You can get a better look at Mt. Baldy on the Collins Gulch trail.
I struggle a little bit with thin trails on steeper slopes (have issues with heights), so I tend to worry about peak and pass trails, but this was the worst of it on this trail, and it wasn’t even that bad. I have certainly managed through worse.
Devils Castle again.
Fun striping on these rocks.
Pretty blue butterfly.
After rounding the mountain the trail heads up towards the pass.
Mine. I like that the waste is all blue grey. We explored this a little more on the way down. Spoiler: Not much to it.
It is super pretty up here.
Pretty hawk.
Eventually you will come to a tiny meadow. Not the main meadow, just a small one.
And a trail split at the end of it. Do what the sign says and head left. I believe the trail to the right leads down to the Albion Basin Campground.
Looking back at the mini meadow.
Daisys.
Little bit of forest.
Looking down the canyon again. I guess there were a couple fires today so that is why it was hazy.
Final climb before the meadow.
Wildflowers.
I try to remember to turn around and see what the view is like every now and then.
Elkweed.
I love seeing the various species of Indian paint brush up here.
Almost to the top.
At the top of that incline you will reach the meadow, and get a break from the elevation gaining for a moment. This is about a mile up.
Itty bitty little pond out there.
The meadow offers a really great view of Mount Wolverine.
I heard that the meadow is known for moose sightings, but we did not have that luck today.
More paint brush.
Another shot of Mount Wolverine.
Weird striped boulders.
More wildflowers.
After the nice flat meadow, you hit the final push of switchbacks that take you to the pass. But you are almost there. You can see the pass to the right there.
Some more pretty forest.
Mount Wolverine again.
A view of the meadow below, Devils Castle, Sugarloaf Mountain and Mount Baldy.
These last switchbacks aren’t too bad.
More weird striped rocks.
Cool dead tree.
Another look across the way.
We have to be getting close now.
Okay, I think I see the pass now.
More Indian paint brush.
Yup, I am certain this is it.
We made it! We are now on the ridge between Little Cottonwood and Big Cottonwood Canyons! We have crossed from Millcreek Canyon Into BCC and vice versa, but this is a first between these two.
Looking down into Big Cottonwood Canyon. You can see Lake Catherine below. Sunset peak to the right, Pioneer Peak to the left.
Closer look of Lake Catherine. You can continue on down to it, and it will only add another half mile to the trip, but we’ve been there and this trail already kicked our butts and we didn’t want to have to climb back up.
Looking further into Big Cottonwood Canyon. Unfortunately, you cannot see Lake Mary or Martha from this vantage, but if you go to any of the nearby peaks I think you can.
Speaking of peaks, here is Sunset Peak. The trail out to that looks a little too gnarly for me.
But, as you can see people do it.
Panoramic.
Mount Wolverine and Mount Tuscarora.
Another panoramic.
I also did a 360 degree 3D shot. You can view that here. Google cardboard required.
Straddling the ridge. Right foot in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Left foot in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
Trail marker.
This one shows the trail going towards Sunset Pass and peak. It’s probably okay, but it looked a bit much for me.
We climbed up a little ways towards Mount Tuscorora to see if we could see the other lakes. Not so much, but got another angle of Lake Catherine.
Ski patrol sign. I see these all over the place up here.
Well, we had our fun and decided to head on back down. You can continue down towards Brighton if desired, but will need a shuttle of some sort to get you back to your car. We decided to just return the way we came.
Mount Tuscarora.
Looking down at the little pond.
The Sugarloaf lift between Sugarloaf Peak and Mount Baldy.
The valley below.
A couple fireweeds still hanging on.
Mount Wolverine.
Back down to the meadow.
Back to the steep chute. This is probably the worst part of the trail.
Pretty purple flowers.
Some lupine lit up in the sunlight.
Devils Castle, Sugarloaf Mountain and Mount Baldy. Still some snow up on Devil’s Castle. I wonder if will still be there when we start getting new snow in a few months.
That hawk is still hunting up here.
I like this shot of Devils Castle and a hawk flying between the trees.
Back down ro the small lower meadow.
Daisies.
Back down to the mine. There is a thin loop trail up to it.
And… not much to it. Either it was closed up, or they didn’t get very far.
Looking down at the discharge pile.
Looking down towards the trailhead. Almost back.
Pretty yellow flowers.
Probably the last view of Mount Baldy.
Looking back towards Devils Castle and Sugar Loaf Mountain.
Looking at the Albion Basin again, with the shadow of the unnamed peak over it. You know, that peak is pretty prominent, it has to have a name. but I am not having any luck finding it.
Creek crossing the trail.
Flowers growing in a crack.
Part of some of the rock slab you hike over. Also, Albion Lift to the right, Sunnyside to the left.
We knew we were out later than the shuttles were going so we planned on hiking down the Albion Meadows to get back to the car. I am not aware of any shortcut between the Sunnyside Parking Lot and the meadows. But I did see a trai lsplit on the map that seemed to align with this trail split. Basically it is about halfway between the 2 ski lifts. If you hang a left, it will directly connect you to the meadows trail.
This eventually connects to a dirt access road to the Sunnyside Lift. You want to stay left.
Looking up towards Catherine Pass.
Crow over Devils Castle.
Another view of the valley leading towards Catherin Pass.
Devils Castle above the still very crowded Albion Basin parking lot. This is one of the many reasons we prefer to use the shuttle.
Fireweed.
I like this little message on the back of this trail marker.
This is down to the summer road. The trail continues directly across it. However, it is the end of the Catherine Pass Trail, and the beginning of the Albion Meadows trail.
Shown here. The gate is to keep cars out, hikers are allowed.
Another look at Devils Castle.
The wildflowers are definitely diminishing.
But not completely gone just yet.
Rays of light filtering through the smoke.
Now vs 2 weeks ago. From about the same spot.
The unnamed peak.
More flowers.
The sun ray again.
Grizzly Gulch which leads to Twin Lakes Pass. We haven’t done that one yet.
Quite a bit below Mount Wolverine now.
Deer off in the distance.
Well. Can't say I have ever seen that before. Other than I am not sure if this is allowed up here, I mean, if the bird enjoys it, then no harm no foul.
The little canyon Little Cottonwood Creek flows through.
Looking down Little Cottonwood Canyon.
The moon over the mountain.
Sunset in the canyon (DBP).
The haze over the Salt Lake Valley (DBP). Yuck.
Well, that was an incredible trail, so far I have really enjoyed all of the trails we have done above Alta, and every time we do a new one I wonder why we haven’t done it sooner. Amazing scenery, great viewpoints. Wildlife. Definitely less crowded than the amazing Cecret Lake. And the wildflowers, while diminishing, were still incredible today. Going with 10 squirrels today. Even if it was a little tougher.
As for difficulty, This one was certainly a little tough and had a lot of never ending climbing. It also did not offer much shade so even at the elevation it was a little warm at times. Going with a DR5.
Dogs are not allowed in either Little Cottonwood Canyon or Big Cottonwood Canyon as they are both watershed.
