Random Rambler: Little Cottonwood Trail

The Little Cottonwood Trail is a nice trail in Sandy that starts at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon and heads up to Tanner’s Flat. After partying well into the evening last night celebrating my favorite holiday we absolutely got a way, way later start than optimal so I decided we would just do this trail again since it is pretty easy, and did not require a long drive.

Quick Details:

Length: We did 3 miles out and back, the posted sign says 2.8 one way, but I think it is even longer than that now.
Trail Type: Out and back, connector.
Difficulty: DR3. Super mild climb.
Elevation Gain: We did about 500 feet today. The sign says 1090 feet.
Restroom: Yes, there is a vault toilet at the trailhead.
Dogs? No. Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info:

To Get Here:

Using 90th turning into South Little cottonwood Road, follow them to just below where the road merge at the mouth of the canyon. The trailhead will be on the right. Or, coming from the north, take Wasatch until it becomes North Little Cottonwood Road. Hang a right onto south Little Cottonwood Road at the mouth of the canyon, then immediately left into the trailhead.

Little Cottonwood Canyon (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).

Petty trees (PSP).

The mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon (PSP).

Some lovely roadside color (PSP).

Into the parking lot (PSP).

Amazing granite cliffs to the south.

The Trail:

Trailhead kiosk.

Some nice color.

More.

Granite cliffs to the south.

Color. The skies are definitely moody, and we were a little worried about getting rained on. Luckily just a little drizzle for a quick minute.

Old building. I believe it was a power plant.

Color.

The cliffs to the south again. In winter this is a great place to look for mountain goats.

Cliffs to the north.

Closer.

To the south again.

North again.

Color.

I wonder what this was.

Nekkid trees.

Sunflower.

View up canyon.

More color.

Little glimpse of Little Cottonwood Creek through the trees.

Again.

Color.

South cliffs.

North cliffs.

Old pipe pieces. These have been sitting here for as long as we have been hiking this trail.

The weird LD$ Granite Mountain Records Vault.

The tunnels.

So, fun timing today…. Preservation Utah decided to post about this today.

Here is the picture they posted.

I don’t feel like summarizing so I am just going to copy paste their exact bit about it:

“Located a mile up Little Cottonwood Canyon, the Granite Mountain Records Vault is a fortress-like archive carved roughly 600 feet into the mountain, under some 600–700 ft of rock. Built in the early 1960s by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it houses the world’s largest family-history collection, with more than 3.5 billion microfilm, microfiche, and digital images gathered from over 100 countries. Entry is via massive reinforced doors weighing 9–14 tons each and reported to be capable of withstanding a nuclear blast. The underground chambers comprise some 65,000 sq ft of climate-controlled storage space for optimal preservation and include processing labs, shipping docks, and restoration facilities.”

I’d accuse Facebook of listening in on us and posting relevant garbage (which they do) but this time it was just a coincidence. I started following Preservation Utah when they did the Fisher Mansion event a couple months ago.

With the cliffs.

Neat old machinery.

Color.

Another glimpse of the creek.

The trail crosses a neighborhood road for a minute. There is a small sign saying “Trail <--“ So yeah, go left towards Granite Cliffs Road.

Fancy new build coming in. It seems to be taking a minute to build.

I couldn't remember if this was a new build, or a remodel... playing around on google it looks like it was a full demo and rebuild of a much smaller house.

Then, take the first right onto Power Plant Ln. There is another little sign saying “Trail -->”.

Sunflowers.

Closer.

Again.

Little Cottonwood Hydroelectric Power Plant. It is still active. I struggled to find much information about it, but I guess it opened in 1983. Huh, I thought it was older than that. It also belongs to Murray. Which, I guess is not a big shock seeing as Murray was smart about obtaining resources, even if they are outside of the city. For example (some of) their water comes from springs along The Big Cottonwood Trail in Cottonwood Heights.

The trail continues to the left of it.

We’re back to the woods.

The creek.

Forest and cliffs.

Little bit of color.

Continuing along.

Spooky woods.

Forest.

Pipes.

The damage from the epic 2022-23 winter has filled in nicely.

Similar vantage from 2023.

Cute little clearing.

Forest.

Smaller pipe.

Little bit of color still hanging on.

Neat double tree

Pipes.

Triple waterfall.

With the creek.

It’s crazy to see it like this, cause in the summer it is absolutely a raging monster of a creek.

Another shot from a similar angle in May, 2023.

Absolutely massive boulders.

The lower bridge.

Above the little waterfalls.

The massive boulders again.

Downstream.

The bridge again.

Upstream.

Downstream.

Upstream again.

Before the bridge the trail is pretty smooth. After the bridge it starts to get a bit rocky.

Wow. They sure tried like the Dickins to split this rock. You can learn more about that at the Temple Quarry Trail which shares the parking lot with this trail. So, if you get an earlier start then we did, you can totally add that on.

The creek again.

Continuing up.

Cliffs to the north.

Moon Rock. Aside from some of the random climbing crags, this is the only massive boulder that is named... at least as far as I know.

Lots of fallen leaves.

Another massive boulder.

There used to be an old pavilion back there. Unfortunately it seemed to attract teenagers (it sure did when I was one). And sadly the more modern ones decided it was a great place to tag and trash, so they tore it down to try and get the vandalism under control.

I’ve said it before, but I’m gonna say it again. My friends and I got into a lot of shenanigans back in the day. But none of us tagged or trashed the random haunts we would find. I think if any of us tried, the rest of us would have kicked their ass. Or at the very least dropped them from the group. Luckily, it never came up.

The old pipe over Little Cottonwood Creek. We used to cross that to get here as teens. I have no idea how I ever let my friends talk me into that haha.

I think between removing the pavilion, and adding these signs actually helped. I didn’t see any graffiti today.

Whelp, it is getting too dark, so I need the flash. I love when the conifers are decorated by the deciduous leaves.

Alright, we made it about a mile and a half, and it is getting dark rapidly. We decided to turn back. Probably should have turned back at the bridge! It’s always about this time of year where we start getting caught on a trail after dark. Oi. Definitely time to start getting going earlier. But, as far as trails to get caught on after dark, this isn’t the worst.

The big pipe again.

Moon Rock again.

The Granite Mountain Vault all lit up.

View down canyon.

Back down to the power plant.

The spillway.

View out of the canyon again.

The trail. It’s weird we always seem to pass at least 1 crazy group getting a way later start than we did. I guess today we were that crazy group.

View out again.

Better shot of the Granite Mountain Vault all lit up.

The valley below. I think the lights above are Farnsworth Peak

Well, that was fun as always. I wish we didn’t get caught in the dark, but, like I said it’s not the worst trail to have that happen on. Plus, it tends to happen to us this time of year sometimes. We only saw a few people at the beginning. There was still some lovely fall color to enjoy as well. I still really enjoy this trail. 10 Squirrels today.