Albion Meadow Trail

 The Albion Meadow Trail near Alta is a short connector trail from the Catherine Pass Trailhead down to the Upper Albion Meadows Trail below. You know with some of the trail re-routes they have done I think they need to rethink some of the trail names as it is getting a little confusing. Anyway, this short connector goes through the heart of the Albion Meadows offering excellent wildflower viewing. They have even put in a few photo pull outs so you can get a great shot without trampling the flowers.

My mom mentioned she wanted to see the wildflowers, so we took the afternoon off and took her up there. It is a lot less busy on weekdays!

Quick Details:

Length: It is about 1 mile out and back.
Trail Type: Out and back, loop options.
Difficulty: DR3. It’s a bit of a climb, but not too bad.
Elevation Gain: About 200 feet.
Restroom: Yes, there are vault toilets at the trailhead.
Dogs? No. Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info: There is a $12.00 fee to use the Summer Road to get to this trailhead. You can avoid that by hiking up the road, or up from Albion Base. Also, This trail starts at the top, and returns uphill.

To Get Here:

Drive to the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, stop at the fee station and pay the fee. Then continue about 1.9 miles up the road to the Catherine Pass Trailhead. The trail goes down into the meadow at the southeast corner of the lot.

Before we get to the trail, we had a quick stop at the Cecret Lake Trailhead and looked at the flowers by there.

Lots of lupine and paintbrush.

Paintbrush.

A hummingbird enjoying a western coneflower. Of all the flowers here, I am a little surprised it likes the coneflower. But then again, the bees love them so what do I know?

I caught it’s little red throat.

Nice mix of flowers.

Some arnica.

Devils Castle.

A mutant coneflower.

A normal western coneflower. This is about as much as they flower. I have never seen the entire cone flowering. In fact, as I learned today, each of the little yellow dots are individual flowers. Neat.

Some kind of aster. Or daisy like flower.

Paintbrush.

Fireweed.

Lupine.

Paintbrush.

More arnica.

The Trail:

The meadows from the parking lot.

Trailhead Kiosk.

Information sign.

Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.

Directional sign.

Instructions on getting a great photo on the trail without trampling flowers.

Some arnica.

The trail. They have it roped off the try and ensure people stay on the trail.

Larkspur.

One of several photo pull outs.

Another aster.

Paintbrush.

View down canyon.

More paintbrush.

Some lupine starting to seed.

What is with the robins up here? Its like they want to be chased. This robin would sit on the trail, wait for us to get close, then fly a couple feet down the trail, rinse and repeat. This is the 2nd time a robin has done this to us up here this year.

Another photo pullout.

Another one.

Flower lined trail.

Larkspur.

A more purple one.

The robin still playing chase me with us.

Another photo pull out.

The little camera sign indicating that is what it is for.

Mint.

Another pull out at the first switchback.

Lupine.

Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.

Another photo pull out. That makes 6 by my count.

Paintbrush.

Closer.

Different shades.

Western coneflower.

Larkspur.

Woo, some bright red paintbrush.

Geraniums.

More larkspur.

Continuing down the flower lined path.

Big patch of bright paintbrush.

With the peaks.

More paintbrush.

Lupine.

Larkspur.

More shades of paintbrush.

Larkspur and peaks.

Different shades of geraniums.

Looking back up towards the Catherine Pass Trailhead. The meadows are looking pretty sad. As you can see, we found a lot of nice patches of color, but overall they are drying up. We have had next to nothing as far as rain goes this year, so that might have had something to do with it.

Fireweed and Devils Castle.

And about here we hit the 2nd switchback.

Little mix of color.

Another mix.

Some larkspur going to seed.

Paintbrush.

Larkspur.

Another mix.

Continuing down.

Another mix.

Paintbrush.

Larkspur.

Looking down canyon.

Paintbrush.

Fireweed and coneflowers.

Fireweed with the peaks.

Fireweed.

Fireweed.

The 3rd switchback.

Another nice mix, and the Upper Albion Meadows Trail below.

Aster and mint.

A pretty silvery blue butterfly. These are one of my favorites, but they are prettier when they are open.

Fireweeds.

Larkspur and peaks.

Another nice mix.

We made it to the Upper Albion Meadows Trail. From here you can return the way you came, continue either way as far as you want and come back for a longer out and back. Or you have quite a few options for a loop. You can go left here up towards Alfs, then left again up the service road, and then back to the Catherine Pass trailhead for the shortest loop option. I have not done that yet, but I would guess it is close to ~1.5 miles. You can go left towards Alfs, and continue up to the Cecret Lake Trailhead and back for a slightly longer option. You can go right, and left at the next junction and come back up the Homerun Trail, back the Upper Albion Basin Trail, and Back up the Albion Meadow Trail for another shorter option. Or go right to the next junction and use any of the other options I had listed above. There is a lot of options! We have gone right, crossed over to the Homerun Trail, and up to the Cecret Lake Trailhead, and back. That was about 2.3 miles. Anyway, I probably would have done another loop option if mom wasn’t waiting for us, so we just returned the way we came. This will be the first time we have gone up this particular trail.

Paintbrush.

Lots of aster.

Fireweed with Devils Castle.

Fireweed.

Little group of them.

View down canyon again.

The lower switchback.

Another fireweed. Can you tell they are one of my favorites?

Peaks above.

Paintbrush.

Fireweed.

With the peaks.

Another nice mix.

Geraniums.

Looking back up towards the trailhead.

Paintbrush.

Larkspur.

Closer.

More aster of some sort.

The middle switchback.

Another mutant coneflower.

Nice mix.

I think this is a buttercup of some sort.

Paintbrush.

Continuing our way up.

You know, I have always assumed these were the restrooms at the Catherine Pass Trailhead from below. But now that I am getting closer to them, that does not appear to be the case. Maybe some storage sheds?

Paintbrush.

Lupine.

Hummingbird.

The same, or another robin back at the chase me game.

The upper switchback.

Yup, definitely maintenance sheds of some sort.

More asters.

Continuing up.

Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.

Another little birdy.

Paintbrush.

We saw quite a few of these bright green grasshoppers up here.

The final steps up to the parking lot.

Sulphur flowers.

Catherine Pass.

Devils Castle.

Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.

Panoramic of the peaks above.

View down as we head down the Summer Road (PSP).

Well that was another fun trip through the meadows. The flowers appear to be drying up for the most part, but there were still some good patches. I also enjoyed that it was not very busy today. And mom got to come and see some wildflowers, so that made me happy too. Going with 10 out of 10 squirrels for this short trail into the meadows.

As for difficulty, it is a bit of a climb, but it’s not too bad. DR3.

Dogs are not allowed in Little Cottonwood Canyon due to watershed restrictions. So be sure to leave Fido home for this one.