.jpg)
The Albion Meadows are beautiful meadows located above Alta in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The trails feature amazing wildflower covered meadows below majestic soaring peaks. There are quite a few trails, and ways to explore the meadows. This was our 3rd visit this year and we haven’t repeated a route yet. Today I decided we should do it from the Albion Base, since it has been a minute since we have done that.
Quick Details:
Length: We did a 2.2 mile balloon, but there are longer options.
Trail Type: Balloon. Out and back, and longer options.
Difficulty: DR4. This is a bit of a climb, with very little shade.
Elevation Gain: About 520 feet.
Restroom: yes, there are flush toilets at the TH.
Dogs? No. Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info:
To Get Here:
Drive to the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon into Alta. Use the 2nd entrance for the Albion Base, just before the fee booth.
The trail is between the Albion Grill and the Alta Ski Shop.
As I said there are other options. You can access it by walking up the Summer Road, or you can pay the toll to drive up the summer road and access it from the top via the Albion Meadow Trail. You can even pay the toll to drive up about 1/2 mile up the road and access the trail from there, but we haven’t done that (seems a little silly to pay a fee to shave off so little, but maybe when we get older).
Heading towards Little Cottonwood Canyon (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).
Granite cliffs (PSP).
Continuing up (PSP).
Neat waterfall (PSP).
Oi. The one lane road is still in effect (PSP). It’s not a super long wait though.
Snowbird’s tram (PSP).
The Trail:
As I mentioned, the trail is between the Albion Grill and the Alta Ski School. Quick FYI, there are public restrooms on this level of Ski School, or on the lower level of the Albion Grill.
Trailhead kiosk.
Down along the trail.
I swear it seems like almost the entire area is under construction.
I wonder what they are building here?
I get it, they only have a few precious months without snow, but seriously must they build ALL the things right now?
Really pretty purple penstemon.
Closer.
Ski run.
Aster of some sort.
Lots of lupine.
The lupine is starting to go to seed.
A sad fireweed.
The view down.
There is a fun interactive activity to do along the way.
Identifying animals you might see up here. This one is a yellow bellied marmot. We see these up here all the time.
I got all of them right but one. And we have seen all of them up here but a different two.
Forest.
Red squirrel. I mean, these guys are just everywhere haha.
More asters.
Deep gorge.
With a tiny glimpse of Little Cottonwood Creek.
Paintbrush.
Mixed.
Under the ski lift.
Pika. We tend to see these guys up here at Cecret Lake and Devils Castle.
Fireweed.
Lots of them.
Lupine.
Google says this is twinberry honeysuckle.
Paintbrush.
Monkshood.
Porcupine. We have seen one of these guys up here on the Devils Castle Loop.
Fireweed.
Western cone flowers.
Paintbrush.
Fireweed.
Again.
Nice mix.
Moose! We see moose up here fairly often.
Old microwave tower.
I wonder what is going on with this tree.
Where the trail from the Summer Road joins up. Head right. This was about .57 miles up. I would wager it is pretty close to what coming up from the Summer Road on foot would be.
Continuing up.
Weasel. I have seen one of these, but it was faster than I am with my camera haha. That was in Big Cottonwood though. One day, one day I will get a shot of one.
The next trail split. Left is along the main Albion Meadows Trail, right leads to the Home Run and Snake Pit Trails. I prefer going up the Home Run Trail so right we go.
Immediately we hit the next trail split. Forward will take you to the Snake Pit Trail, Left will go up the Home Run Trail. So, left we go.
Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.
The arnica are not looking so hot right now.
Continuing along.
Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.
Devils Castle and the moon.
Lupine.
Paintbrush and peaks.
Lupine and peaks.
Paintbrush.
Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak
Greeley Hill.
Mine tailings on it.
Some not so sad arnica.
View down.
Fireweeds.
More.
Closer.
Lots of them. Wow.
Pretty blue bird of some sort.
I am between a tree swallow and a lazuli bunting. Leaning more towards the latter but still not really sure.
Fireweed and larkspur.
With Devils Castle.
Devils Castle.
Little patch of trees.
I’ve never noticed this little family tree before.
Asters of some sort.
Fireweed and fading arnica.
Devils Castle and the moon.
Greeley Hill.
Some less sad arnica.
Another little bird. I'm pretty sure it is the female counterpart of the other one.
Mine tailings.
Germania Pass and a dried up stream.
The moon.
Lupine.
Some kind of mint.
The little gully Little Cottonwood Creek is in.
Asters, paintbrush, and lupine.
Different shades of paintbrush and lupine.
Paintbrush.
Devils Castle.
Monkshood.
An old rerouted section that is revegetating nicely.
Columbine.
Devils Castle again.
Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.
The little gorge with the creek.
Geraniums.
Greeley Hill.
Geraniums.
Devils Castle and the moon.
Arnica and lupine.
Interesting looking paintbrush.
Another.
Western coneflower.
Geranium.
Paintbrush.
The top of the rerouted section. As you can see it is revegetating nicely.
Alfs.
You have quite a few options here, well, normally. Currently the section above Alfs is closed for construction. But you can do a shorter balloon by going along the “front” of Alfs and up the service road, across the the Catherine Pass Trailhead then down the Albion Meadow Trail. That will add about a mile.
You can also go up to Germania Pass by going right here (I haven’t done that yet). That is an additional 2.8 miles, one way.
When they are done with the construction, you can continue up to the Cecret Lake Trailhead, back across the Catherine-Cecret Connector and down the Albion Meadow Trail. That will add about 1.5 miles.
You can still kind of do that bypassing the construction by going up the service road, it’s just… less of a loop that way.
Or if you are a power hiker, you can continue up even further from there.
I love how there are so many options for so many different ways to explore the area!
Anyway, we took the shortest option by just going back down the Albion Meadows Trail, which is now just below Alfs.
Albion Meadows Trail on the right, Home Run Trail that we came up on the left.
View down canyon.
Continuing along.
Lupine.
Lots of lupine.
Fireweed.
Lots of fireweed.
Catherine Pass.
Fireweed.
Lots of them. Wow!
They are one of my favorite flowers. So pretty.
With Devils Castle.
Fireweeds and Catherine Pass.
Sugarloaf Peak, Germania Pass, and Greeley Hill.
Fireweeds.
Paintbrush.
Asters.
The old route. It is revegetating, but a little slower.
I wanted this to be a white paintbrush, but I think it is just a fading orange one. I do hope to see a white one again someday.
Larkspur.
With peaks.
Larkspur, paintbrush, and Devils Castle.
Lupines that have gone to full seed.
Lovely mix.
The meadow.
Looking back at Devils Castle and the moon.
Geraniums and Germania Pass.
I just caught a little bit of it, but someone was playing a violin and well, I found it to be a little magical. I would much, much rather hear a violin over any other random music or “music” I have heard in the wild.
Corn lily.
Lots of larkspur.
Paintbrush.
Where the Albion Meadow Trail (right) joins the Albion Meadows Trail (left). You wanna hang left here to get back down.
View down.
Devils Castle again.
Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.
Oh back to the interactive signs. Coyote. We have not seen one of these up here, but have seen them in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and Antelope Island among other places.
Devils Castle. If it is not obvious, I am quite fond of this neat peak.
View down again. As you can see the Homerun Trail is almost parallel to the Albion Meadows Trail.
Paintbrush.
Devils Castle.
Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.
Continuing down.
More asters.
Geraniums.
Fireweeds.
Lots of them.
More.
Asters.
More fireweeds. They sure are popping today.
Nice mix.
Paintbrush and lupine.
With the peaks.
Larkspur.
Fireweed.
Paintbrush.
Lots of fireweeds.
Alright. This one stumped me. I initially thought maybe a northern flicker, but immediately took that back as being wrong. It is a Clarks nutcracker. We have actually seen these.. particularly noisy birds up here a few times.
Grizzly Gulch.
Geraniums.
Where the Homerun and Snake Pit Trails join the Albion Meadows Trail. Stay right.
Just a smidge below is another trail split. Right will take you to the Summer Road. Left will take you back down to the Albion Base. You can do an awkward loop along the road and down to the base, but eh.. that doesn’t seem like something I would enjoy. So, left it is.
Another weird growth on a tree.
Red and orange paintbrush.
More paintbrush.
Asters.
Fireweed.
Forest.
Back under the ski lift.
Monkshood.
I think I found one of the old, old trails we used once that has since be rerouted, and revegetated.
The ski run below.
Grizzly Gulch again.
Snow cats.
Apparently the normal sized trail signs were not enough to keep people from crossing through the construction area, so they put in this big ass orange monstrosity. Well, hopefully that did it.
Penstemon.
View down.
View down canyon.
It looks like they are installing a tube of some sort. It looks similar to the tube at Brighton. Since I am not a skier I don’t really know how it is used, but hey neat.
Penstemon.
The moon.
Greeley Hill.
The tube again. Seriously, what do they use these things for? I am not having any luck googling it.
Down canyon with the Lower Albion Meadows.
The tube again.
More construction, plus the line to use the Summer Road above it.
Heading down the canyon (PSP). We followed this idiot in the tesla all the way down. Oi. I mean, I assume anybody driving a tesla is a moron and an asshole anyway, but this moron sure proved that assumption right today. o.O
The perfect U shaped canyon (PSP). I take a picture of it every single time we come down. It is absolutely one of my favorite views. Wow, it is sure hazy today.
Again (PSP).
After dinner there were some clouds just above the mountains (PSP). I donno, I thought it looked neat.
I really enjoy exploring the Albion Meadows, and I really, really love that there are so many options to explore the area. The fireweeds are absolutely popping! But almost every other flower was fading, but there were still some nice ones to be found. It also was not too busy today. 10 out of 10 squirrels.
As for difficulty, it is a bit of a climb DR4.
Dogs are not allowed due to watershed restrictions. So be sure to leave Fido home for this one.
