Gloria Falls

 Gloria Falls is a spectacular waterfall in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The shorter trail features a beautiful mixed forest, wildflowers, several little side streams, and of course the beautiful Gloria Falls. The rocky trail follows an old dirt road, so it is mostly pretty wide and easy going, at least until the final scramble at the top. It has been a little bit since we have made our way up this trail, plus I wanted something a little different today, so we ended up here.

Quick Details:

Length: About 2.6 miles out and back.
Trail Type: Out and back.
Difficulty: DR3. There is a bit of up, and a short scramble at the end, but it is not too bad.
Elevation Gain: About 600 feet.
Restroom: Yes, there are vault toilets at the trailhead.
Dogs? No. Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info:

To Get Here:

From where the 2 roads merge at the mouth of the canyon, head about 5.4 miles up. There will be a likely very crowded parking lot on the right. Careful, it kind of sneaks up on you. If you hit Snowbird, you went too far.

The mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).

The ephemeral waterfalls are starting to dry up (PSP).

The Trail:

The trail is at the southwest corner of the parking lot, behind the restrooms.

A very old trailhead kiosk.

Another old mileage sign.

Pretty forest and mountains.

Lots of ferns.

The bridge across Little Cottonwood Creek. During runoff it was reported as flooded and severely damaged, so I was worried we would not be able to do this trail and had a backup planned just in case. However, the bridge appears to be fine.

Newer, but still old trailhead kiosk. We’ve done the Red Pine Lake trail, and I am interested in doing the White Pine Lake Trail, but Red Pine really freaked me out, so I am a bit nervous about trying White Pine. Plus, it is a little longer than I prefer. But, maybe one day. Anyway, we are heading for the trail junction between the 2 trails today.

The bridge over Little Cottonwood Creek again.

Some daisy like flowers. Or something in the aster family.

Downstream.

The secondary/overflow bridges. I am guessing these might have been what were damaged, as the main bridge seems fine. These seem fine too, but also easier to replace.

After this, you will swing right, as the sign ahead will direct you.

Then we really start getting into the forest. Woo!

Lots of asters hanging on.

Fireweeds.

The rocky trail.

The first little stream crossing. It has a little bridge to help you stay dry.

Upstream. It’s a little meh with all of the plants in the way.

Some monkshood downstream.

Oh, it looks like they have added some interpretive signs. Well, 2 that I saw anyway.

The rocky trail again.

Some kind of mint.

Western coneflower.

Hitting the aspens.

Monkshood.

Holy fireweeds, Batman!

View down canyon.

View across the canyon.

More aster.

Fireweed.

The 2nd little side stream.

With a tiny waterfall.

Little closer.

Monkshood.

Some purple monkey flowers.

Little closer to the small waterfall.

Arnica.

Paintbrush.

Some plant getting a jump on autumn. I don’t know why, but this fascinates me.

The other interpretive sign.

With its subject.

Looking up.

Chipmunk getting it’s munch on.

Lots of monkshood.

Closer.

The trail again.

Rocky trail.

Random side trail down. My best guess is it leads to Tanners Flat Campground, but I am not really sure.

Pretty mixed forest.

Continuing up.

3rd little stream crossing, with another little waterfall.

View across the canyon.

The trail again. Normally this section triggers my fear of heights and makes me nervous, even though the trail is pretty wide. But, with all the plants growing super tall, I actually did better than I normally do. so, woo!

More asters.

Thimbleberries. These are related to raspberries, and grow wild all around here. They do not transport well, which is why you don’t see them in stores.

Lots of thimbleberries!

The trail curving into White Pine Gulch. It slowly gets a little better heights wise after this.

Still super rocky.

Little Cottonwood Road below.

As we continue into White Pine Gulch the side slope gets a lot less steep.

Continuing up.

The ridge above.

Arnica.

Lining the trail here.

Looking across the gulch with the other side of the canyon too.

Water coming down the trail.

It appears to be coming out of a spring.

Another random trail down.

Snake!

Fireweed.

A patch of paintbrush and some little white flowers.

Trail cam. The little note explains whose it is, and what they are doing but I didn’t get a picture of it.

More forest.

Arnica.

Another wet area.

Mixed forest.

Before long we have reached the trail split.

We want to hang rightish to stay on the Red Pine Lake Trail.

Another old trailhead kiosk. The trail is behind this sign. I can’t prove it, but I suspect this may have been the original trailhead, like way before I was even born.

Sign reminding people to stay out of the water.

Little waterfall. You will not cross the creek here. The trail continues up on this side of the creek.

Like I said, behind the sign.

Shortly after the split there will be an actual bridge to cross the creek.

Upstream.

Immediately after the bridge, there is a trail to the left off of the main trail. This is where you want to go.

Monkshood.

This last little bit is a bit of a scramble, and a mess of trails. But they should all get you there. I mostly stay near the creek, except for near the top there is a spot I don’t like and move a little bit over, before making my way back to the falls.

The creek.

Small cascade.

Scrambling up in the forest.

Another small cascade.

More forest. Here is where you want to make your way back towards the creek.

The creek.

First glimpse of the waterfall.

The waterfall! It is quite impressive! However there is a large group that thinks its okay to just park themselves right in the middle of it. I think that is so rude. Get in, take a picture, get out so other people can get a picture without you in it.

Portrait mode.

Again.

The lowest tier.

The upper tiers. Oh yay, it looks like the self entitled jackasses might be leaving.

Moss.

Well, about 10 minutes a 3 million instagram poses later they finally left and I got a nice shot without people in it. Yay. It was starting to feel like that wasn’t going to happen today. Again, that is just rude to monopolize it for that long.

With the bottom tier.

Portrait.

Yellow monkey flowers growing in a crack.

Closer.

The upper tiers.

From the side.

The lower tier.

The creek.

Another sign reminding you to stay out of the water.

One last parting shot before we head back down.

The trail up out of the little gorge.

The creek.

Digital crop in on some yellow columbines. These are much more rare to find that the standard columbines we have. If I remember right I have only seen them here, and along the Summer Road above Alta.

The creek with some more yellow columbines and other flowers.

The creek.

Back into the woods.

Weird plant getting a jump on autumn and turning purple. Neat.

Neat little waterfall.

The creek again.

Forest.

Some kind of aster.

The creek again.

Upstream.

Monkshood.

Back to the bridge over the creek.

Upstream.

Downstream.

Some nice flowers.

Looking back at the bridge.

Another aster.

Mutant twin coneflower.

The creek again.

Split rock.

Itty bitty waterfall.

Slightly bigger waterfall.

Back down to the trail split. We want to go left to head back down to the trailhead.

Into the woods!

The uppermost spring.

Forest.

More plants getting a jump on autumn.

Forest.

The next little spring.

View down.

Some arnica.

View across the gulch.

View down again.

Aspens.

More leaves getting a jump on autumn. Like I said, for some reason I find this fascinating.

Heading around the ridge, and exiting White Pine Gulch, and re-entering the main Little Cottonwood Canyon.

More asters of some sort.

Continuing down.

View across Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Paintbrush.

I love that the top of the ridge is red.

The upper side stream.

Another early changer. I love the purple color.

Parts of this trail are so lush and green that it reminded us of Oregon.

View across the canyon.

Lots of monkshood.

Closer.

Sad fireweed.

Another side waterfall.

It looks like they had diverted it under the trail with a pip, but the other side appears to be filled with rocks, so it flows across the trail still.

Purple monkey flower.

View across the canyon.

Panoramic.

Lots of thimbleberries.

Little clearing below.

Cliffs on the other side again.

Aspens.

Super lush.

Downy woodpecker. We get these in our yard, so not terribly exciting, but they are still fun.

Again. So downy and hairy woodpeckers are very hard to tell apart. Hairys are bigger, but size is not a great indicator. What is a decent indicator is the size of their beaks. Downys have small beaks, and hairys have long beaks that are pretty much as long as their head.

More aspens.

Monkshood.

Avalanche damage.

More aspens.

Back to the lower stream crossing. Downstream.

Upstream.

Interesting red berries. I feel like I have identified these before, but I can’t remember what they are.

Forest.

Back down to the bridge over Little Cottonwood Creek.

Upstream.

Downstream.

More asters.

Thimbleberries.

Lots of ferns.

More forest.

Back to the parking lot. Whew!

Fireweed.

A bunch of them.

A little jumping spider hanging out on the car door handle. I am pretty arachnophobic, but jumping spiders are harmless and kind of cute.

Heading back down the canyon (PSP).

The perfect U shaped canyon (PSP).

Well that was a fun hike! I am glad we decided to do it again. We had a small issue at first, but eventually were able to view the falls unobscured. It was a little busier but not too bad. 10 out of 10 squirrels today.

As for difficulty, it is a bit of a climb, with a bit of a scramble at the end, but it’s not too bad. DR3.

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