Silver Fork

Silver Fork is a beautiful side canyon in Big Cottonwood Canyon. The easy trail leads to a closed off mine. There are also additional destinations if you are looking for a longer adventure. It’s also not a very crowded trail. The trail meanders through beautiful forests and a couple clearings and has a lot of wildflowers to enjoy along the way.

Quick Details:

Length: 2.2 miles round trip, but if you start where we did and walk up the road it comes out closer to 4 miles.
Difficulty: DR3
Elevation Gain: About 725 feet
Restroom: No, well there was a random old outhouse along the trail. Otherwise, I’m sure Solitude has one, if not there is one at nearby Silver Lake.
Dogs? No. Big Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.

To Get Here:

The directions we got were to go to the lower Solitude entrance, and find the trail at the west end of the parking lot, so that is what we did.

The Trail:

Thin trail heading west (down canyon) under a ski lift.

I wasn’t sure we were on the right trail until we came across this sign. Phew, okay, onward!

The trail leads to this thin paved road. Turn left and follow it to the end.

Some fireweeds.

Paintbrush and some other flowers.

I am actually enjoying walking up the road, the forest is so thick through here.

It actually kind of reminded me of Oregon, specifically the Sweet Creek trail or even Drift Creek Falls.

I think I am glad we didn’t try to drive up here, the road is awfully thin!

You will pass several little cabins along the way. Oh, and we finally spotted a moose this year! It just happens to be a statue. Last year we had great luck with moose sightings, this year, well, not so much.

Where the pavement ends, just continue up the dirt road.

Little deer.

Pretty clearing.

From here on out the trail is an old service road.

Pretty forest.

About 8/10’s of a mile later we finally actually reached the trailhead.

Closed to vehicles.

Super easy trail.

Mountain bumble bees on a cone flower.

Daisies.

The bumblebees REALLY like the cone flowers. Wow, I don’t think I have ever seen so many bumblebees in one place before.

Random old outhouse.

I had to know for sure if it was an outhouse…

I was a little nervous to open the door…

But yea, there is a pit toilet here. It doesn’t look as old as the building it houses, so I guess, if you really gotta go, you have an option.

Super pretty up here.

Another deer.

More forest.

Ski lift.

Unfortunately the creek is dry right now. I’m sure it flows earlier in the season though.

Wildflowers galore.

More bumblebees.

And a butterfly.

The trail goes in and out of the forest so you get some shade and some full sun.

Weird blank spot. I thought it might be the Honeycomb Cliffs, but it doesn’t look right.

Along the way a single track trail splits off. I think this is the one that goes to the west bowl, but I’m not sure, we continued along the service road to the left.

A nice clearing.

Neat rock wall.

A pair of white butterflies.

Looking down Silver Fork Canyon.

The rock wall again.

Oh! what is this? A mine! I didn’t know this was here.

Its been sealed off though so you don’t get too far. Maybe 5 feet or so.

I managed to get a picture through the gap in the door. there appears to be some equipment in here now. No idea what it is for, but odd.

Looking down canyon again.

Next to the striped cliff face we found the remnants of an old structure of some sort.

Not much left to it, a wall, and a foundation.

We had fun exploring this old mine site, but decided to call this the destination today. We had a little bit longer of a hike than I anticipated and we had somewhere to be. I didn’t really look for it, but from the TH map, the trail does continue up.

Heading on down.

Back to the clearing.

Pretty forest.

I think this is bee balm.

Looking up.

So pretty through here.

There is a smaller clearing a little below the upper one.

Huge aspen trees!

Back down to the random outhouse.

More wildflowers.

Lots of bees on this particular coneflower.

More of the pretty forest.

Back to the gate.

The thin dirt road leading to the paved road.

The trees along the road below.

An angry squirrel chatters at us.

Pretty ground cover, yep, definitely reminds me of Oregon.

Now we just need to make it across a couple ski runs back to the Solitude parking lot.

Looking down Big Cottonwood Canyon.

The Solitude Moonbeam Lodge (DBP). It kind of looks like Vail, but, I imagine a lot of the ski towns look similar.

You know, now that I think about it, this is the first time we have pulled into the Solitude Lot. We have hiked Lake Solitude several times, but we do that from the Nordic Center by Silver Lake. Going to have to see what other trails they might have.

The resorts sign (DBP).

Driving down the canyon into the smoky valley (DBP). Blech. I can’t wait until we get a storm to blow this smoke out.

I really enjoyed that trail. It was a nice easy meander through some pretty forests and meadows with a lot of wildflowers. The mine at the end was a wonderful surprise even if we couldn’t really see much of it. We only ran into 5 other people on the trail, so we had it pretty much to ourselves for almost the entire hike. Going to go with 9 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, it was a wonderful, easy gradual climb. There were a few spots that went up a little faster, but honestly a lot of it felt flat. DR3.

Dogs are not allowed in Big Cottonwood Canyon due to watershed restrictions. Be sure to leave Fido at home.