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The Albion Meadows above Alta in Little Cottonwood Canyon is a gorgeous wildflower filled hillside that features stunning views of the surrounding peaks and loads and loads of wildflowers! Due to the long winter the wildflowers have still not quite reached their peak, however today there was plenty of them to enjoy, just not full on carpets of them. Since we just did this trail a couple of weeks ago, this post will likely focus more on the flowers we saw today than the trail itself. There are various ways to do this trail, and we do it often.
Quick Details:
Length: It’s about 1.6 miles up to the Cecret Lake Trailhead. Where you can do an add-on trail, loop back around to the top of the meadows, or just turn back.
Trail Type: Out and back with balloon options.
Difficulty: DR4. It’s a climb, white long exposed areas, but not too bad.
Elevation Gain: About 600 feet.
Restroom: There are currently porta-potty’s by the fee station. If there are gone there are restrooms at the Albion Base.
Dogs? No. Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info: The summer road is open to hikers and bikers but not vehicles. They just updated and expect it to open 7/28/23
To Get Here:
Drive to the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, park near the fee station and continue up the summer road on foot.
Twin Peaks from 90th (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).
The mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon (PSP).
I just love this perfect U shaped canyon (PSP). I really hope the view is never ruined by a stupid gondola.
Ephemeral waterfall (PSP).
Avalanche damage (PSP).
The Trail:
View down canyon from the base of the Summer Road.
Devils Castle.
Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.
Paintbrush, and I’m not sure what.
The summer road gate. We uh, got a little side tracked for a moment.
WHOA! Yellow columbine are a special treat that I have only seen a few times in the wild, and well, here is a ton of it!
Super super pretty!
Super pretty paintbrush.
Geraniums.
I’m not 100% sure if this is still a geranium or something else.
It looks like they are resurfacing the Summer Road and that might explain the delay to it being open to vehicles. That is the problem with seasonal roads, they only have the season to do any maintenance on it. So while I am frustrated it has yet to open, I understand why.
Aspens.
Continuing up the Summer Road.
The microwave tower.
Big patch of snow on Greeley Hill.
More yellow columbines.
A full white columbine. This is what I am more used to seeing.
White bog orchids. Wow! I did not expect to see these along the road.
More of the Summer Road.
Another white bog orchid.
With a butterfly.
More bog orchids.
At just under a half mile, and at the the first hairpin turn the trail to the meadows is to the right.
Warning sign of explosives on the mountain.
Patch of snow.
Germania Pass.
Before long the trail connects to the main trail.
Which is quite rocky!
Just around the bend is a split for the lower, or south trail I have learned that this is definitely the easier route up.
Some penstemon and paintbrush.
Geranium.
Devils Castle and Sugarloaf peak.
Some dark purple and light blue penstemon.
This looks like skyrocket but.. it’s white. Maybe it just hasn’t fully bloomed?
Some pink ones.
More white.
The peaks again.
Some lupine just coming in.
Both trails have had a few reroutes.
Lupine and paintbrush.
There are quite a few nice patches, but as you can see still not quite prime.
The peaks again.
Switchback.
It is super green up here.
View down.
Lots of penstemon.
I think this is Jacobs ladder.
More penstemon.
Big patch of mint.
Some mature lupine.
Couple little patches but still quite green.
More paintbrush.
The peaks again.
Devils Castle.
Sugarloaf Peak.
More penstemon.
The hill again.
Paintbrush.
Devils Castle again.
More peaks.
Greeley Hill.
Hitting a patch of trees with some much wanted shade.
Lots of columbines up here.
Peaks again.
Western Cone Flower.
Catherine Pass.
The Catherine Pass Trailhead.
A buttercup I think.
Last time we were here that patch of snow was a lot bigger and covered the trail for a good 50 feet or so.
Devils Castle again.
Sugarloaf Peak again.
Alf’s. I think this is technically the end of the meadows, but I consider the Cecret Lake trailhead to be the end, which is about where we went today.
Another significantly smaller snow patch. I’m not dumb, I know it is warming up, thus the snow is melting. It’s just interesting to see the larger patches diminishing so quickly.
Alf’s again.
Devils Castle again.
With Sugarloaf Peak.
Another big patch of snow.
Another diminished patch.
Still a snow tunnel though.
Heading into the woods.
Forest and mountains.
Corn lilies getting ready to bloom.
Forest.
The creek.
Little waterfall.
More columbines.
Lots of white bog orchids back here in the boggy section.
Which is why there is a boardwalk through here.
I’ve never noticed that little side creek joining the main creek before.
More white bog orchids.
I had literally just said, now we just need to see an elephant head to make the day complete and well, here we go. Yay! It is a pretty young one, but you can see why it is called an elephant head.
Elkweed.
Trail split. Left leads you towards the Cecret Lake Trailhead. Right connects to that trail a little higher up. We went just a little ways up to the right cause I have seen moose there before.
More columbines.
Wow! I found another blue columbine! It seems like it is so rare to come across one, but this is my 2nd one this year! Yay. Plus, it looks like the unopened one in the background might end up blue as well.
This is what I am more used to seeing.
More paintbrush.
Forest and Devils Castle.
Forest and Sugarloaf Peak.
A pair of springs.
The upper one.
Some shooting stars.
More forest.
Split rock.
More forest.
Another side stream I don’t think I have seen before joining the main creek.
A bunch of shooting stars out in the marsh.
Ooh, I found one next to the trail. I think these have moved into my top seven favorites.
Super marshy.
Itty bitty waterfall.
It is so pretty up here!
Little waterfall.
Well, we had fun but decided this was a good destination and it was time to turn back.
So pretty!
More shooting stars.
More forest.
The Cecret Lake parking lot.
The little spring again.
Forget me nots.
More white bog orchids.
I found another elephant head.
More columbines.
Back to the blue columbine.
I just love it!
Bog orchid.
Elephant head.
More forest.
Another large patch of shooting stars.
The creek again.
More columbines.
The little waterfall again.
The creek again.
Paintbrush.
Back down to Alf’s.
Looking back at the peaks.
Again.
We decided to go look at the creek below Alf’s along the Germania Pass Trail. Short little detour.
More buttercups.
Trail split. We came up the south trail to the left here. So we’re going to go down the north route to the right.
More lupine.
More jacobs ladder.
With a busy bumble bee.
Nice little mix.
Seeing bigger patches along this north trail.
Greeley Hill again.
The peaks again.
Lupine.
Paintbrush.
Big patch of yellow up on that hillside.
Heading down the trail.
Another nice mix.
Various paintbrush.
Some more nice mixes.
Mine tailings.
Lupine, paintbrush, and buttercup.
Trail split for the new Albion Meadows Trail via Catherine Pass.
Little sign reminding people to stay on the trail and not trample wildflowers.
The peaks again.
Found some arnica. Give it a week or so and it will be everywhere up here.
Some mint and a bumblebee.
Looks like there is a strong patch of arnica up by the Catherine Pass Trailhead.
Arnica and the peaks.
Some pretty blue penstemon.
Looks like we might have a storm coming in.
Paintbrush.
Geranium.
Paintbrush.
A couple splashes of color, but its all starting to fill in.
The peaks again.
Lupine.
More paintbrush.
The peaks again.
With some lupine.
Different paintbrush.
Nice mix of color.
More paintbrush variety.
More buttercup.
View down.
Another white skyrocket.
Penstemon and arnica.
The rocky trail.
Deer.
Where the north and south trails join again.
And just a little bit lower is the split off to head back to the Summer Road to the right. Left will head back down to the Albion Base.
It looks like this boulder has been split a bit more since the last time we were here.
More forget me nots.
Back to the Summer Road.
The river of bluebells getting started at the hairpin turn.
View down canyon.
Heading down the road.
Lots of the yellow columbines.
White bog orchids.
View down again.
More yellow columbines.
So many of them!
View down again.
Ooh, we found a patch of elephant heads and bog orchids.
Aspens.
View down.
Columbine.
Some more of the yellow columbine.
View down.
The peaks again.
Moody clouds.
Heading down the canyon (PSP).
Little runoff waterfall (PSP).
View down the canyon.
More moody skies (PSP). We got sprinkled on a little bit on the way home, but nothing great.
Mouth of the canyon (PSP).
More moody clouds.
Well today was fun. Lots of good flowers, even if it has yet to reach prime. Plus quite a few rare finds. I think I saw all of my favorites today. Columbine, paintbrush, elkweed, elephant head, white bog flower, and shooting stars. I love all the wildflowers but those are my favorites. Wait, wait. We didn't see any fireweed today. Well, 6 out of 7 isn't bad. It was surprisingly not very busy today too. 10 out of 10 squirrels today.
As for difficulty, it is quite a climb, white a lot of exposed area. DR4.
Dog are not allowed in Little Cottonwood Canyon so be sure to eave Fido home.
