Sunday, August 25, 2019

Green Pond - Summer

The Green Pond trail located near Snowbasin Ski Resort is a great shorter trail that leads to a nice little pond. It’s a lovely stroll through a mixed forest, with loads of wildflowers right now. We’ve actually done this trail fairly recently, but it was getting dark by the time we reached the pond so I wanted to come back. Also, as much as I enjoy exploring new trails, sometimes I just want to do something familiar, so this was a good choice. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite as high elevation as I thought it was so we didn’t really get much of a break from the heat. But it was a nice trail.



Quick Details:

Length: About 3/4 of a mile to the pond. About 3/10 of a mile around the pond and another 3/4 of a mile down for about 1.8 miles total. However the trail does continue past the pond if you want to do more.
Trail Type: Balloon or out and back with additional options.
Difficulty: DR3. Pretty easy going.
Elevation Gain: About 230 feet.
Restroom: No. Closest I can think of would be somewhere at Snowbasin.
Dogs? Yes, leash required.

To Get Here:

Head up Weber Canyon take exit 92 for UT167. Go under the overpass and turn right. Follow the signs for snow basin with a left to stay on 167. Turn left on UT226. About 1.3 miles the pull out will be on the right. The TH is across the street.

The Trail:



View from the parking lot.



Panoramic.



Even though the parking lot has this Green Pond Trailhead sign…



…the trail is across the street. If you start going downhill you are on the wrong path.



The trail starts just to the left of this sign.





Some lovely sunflowers.



Some lovely daisies.



Lovely forest.



One of the many little bridges along the way.



There are so many daisies along this trail!



More forest.



Gnarly looking stump.



View across the way.

We passed a couple making their way down that warned us there was a moose cow with a calf at the pond. We haven’t had a good moose encounter this year yet so I was super excited.



Hitting a band of aspens.



Pretty ferns.



Wow. This is a completely different trail in the summer than fall.



Ferns for days.



Peaks above.





At about 7/10’s of a mile you will come to the trail split with a sign saying picnic area. You want to go left towards the picnic area. Last time when we did this trail we didn’t realize the picnic area is at the pond, and we kept going way beyond haha.



It’s a little thinner, but still easy enough to follow.



Just a short 3/10’s of a mile later we arrived at the pond. Sadly, the moose seem to have moved on. Darn!



Quick panoramic.



Again.

Last time we were here we went around counter clockwise. Today we decided to go clockwise.



Some cattails.



More daisies.



The pond below some peaks.



It suddenly became very fragrant. I didn’t see anything that looked like mint, but I noticed these plants and thought, oh we might have found some wild rosemary.



A little closer. a quick google search later, and I am almost certain I was right and this is rosemary.



The pond again.



Really pretty paintbrush.



Pretty purple puff balls of some sort.



The back end of the pond.



There is a little trail at the back end so I climbed up a little ways to get a nice above shot.





Continuing our way around. The trail is less overgrown on this side.





Nearing the front.



More daisies.



Pretty butterfly.



Another one. They sure like these purple flowers.



Almost all the way around.



Back to the front.



Another panoramic.



Last parting shot. We decided to head on back down.



Back on the main trail.



Lovely wildflowers.



Pretty flowers.



What in the world?



Whoa! This is pretty cool. I have never seen so much sap coming out of one tree. And particularly fro so many spots at one time. So weird.





Back to the ferns. This reminds me of the Stewarts Cascades Trail.



View across the way.





Forest.







More flowers.



Aspens.



Thistle.



After finishing the trail, we decided to continue down the road to the actual Snowbasin Resort, as neither of us had ever been. I thought I might check out another trail around here, but they had some live concert thing happening so we decided to just head on home.

I really enjoyed the trail. It’s a good shorter adventure to a little pond with a good chance of seeing some wildlife of some sort. It was also fairly quiet today, but do keep your head up and watch for bikers. The wildflowers appear to be nearing the end of their season, but they were still lovely today. Going with 8 out of 10 squirrels.



As for difficulty, It’s pretty easy going as the trail snakes through the woods making it a gentle incline for the most part. DR3.

Dogs are allowed, but must be leashed at all times.