Willow Heights West Fork

 Willow Heights AKA Willow Lake is an absolutely beautiful hike leading to a small lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Both trails feature a beautiful mixed, but mostly aspen forest, wildflowers, wildlife, a small creek and of course a small lake. It is one of our favorite trails, so we tend to do it quite often. Usually a few times a year. It is great in pretty much any season except winter. Speaking of which, I was a little surprised to get up this high already. But then again with the dismal winter we had this year I guess it’s not too surprising.

Quick Details:

Length: The west fork is about 9/10 of a mile and the loop around the lake is about 3/4 of a mile total 2.3 mile balloon.
Trail Type: Balloon. Out and back, loop, and figure 8 options with the east fork.
Difficulty: DR4. It is a long climb!
Elevation Gain: About 650 feet.
Restroom: No. The closest one is up canyon at Solitude, or there is one down canyon at Mill D.
Dogs? No. Big Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info:

To Get Here:

Head up Big Cottonwood Canyon about 11.6 miles up from Wasatch Boulevard. It is just past the Silver Fork Lodge. About halfway between mile marker 13 and 14 there will be a boulder on the left (north) side of the road. If you reach Solitude you went too far, but don’t worry. the canyon ends at a loop that will easily turn you around.

The mountains (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)). It is warmer than it has been for a minute, but it is a little gloomy.

Oh Big Cottonwood Canyon, how I have missed you (PSP).

Wasatch National Forest (PSP).

The canyon (PSP).

It is starting to green up in here (PSP).

Big Cottonwood Creek on the side (PSP).

Pretty canyon (PSP).

Man, I really missed the canyon (PSP).

Mill D South (PSP). I considered doing this today, but I figured the north side of the canyon might be a better option, and it looks like it was.

Lovely forest (PSP).

The Silver Fork Lodge (PSP). It’s future still appears to be uncertain.

Silver Fork across the canyon.

The Trail:

The trail starts with this dedication stone.

Some wildflowers starting.

Wallflowers. I had some of these in my garden for a minute. They did not come back though.

The trailhead kiosk is set back a little bit. It also has not been updated since the trail reroutes.

I love all forests. But there is something special about aspen forests.

Game camera.

They are using it to study wildlife.

More forest.

The old, closed trail to the right. Reroute to the left. Plus a trail counter.

Trail counter. Not a camera. It's like a digital turnstile and just counts how many people pass by. They use this data to determine what trails need the most improvements.

More forest.

Trail split. Here you can decide to do the east fork, right. Which is about a mile, and is somewhat easier. Or the west fork left. Which is about 9/10ths of a mile, and a little tougher. There is a spot on the east fork that I don’t like, so I generally prefer the west fork, even if it is a little tougher.

East fork.

The west fork immediately crosses the creek.

Which is a little sad right now.

More forest.

Silver Fork on the other side of the canyon again.

More forest.

Eventually the trail hits an old access road. You want to go right, or keep going uphill. Left will take you down to a neighborhood.

Continuing up.

Some flowers coming up. Give it a month or so and this trail will be popping with flowers.

Forest.

Continuing along.

First lazy switchback.

It is next to the creek, but you can’t really see it.

More climbing.

More forest.

Looking down Big Cottonwood Canyon.

The 2nd lazy switchback.

Sad looking tree.

This switchback gives you a little break from the climb.

Up canyon towards Brighton.

More forest.

Continuing along.

Huge pile of dirt.

Definitely bigger than a squirrel hole.

We ran across a couple later who asked if we saw the badger, sadly we did not, which is a shame. But I assume that is probably what dug this.

This looks like a normal potgut squirrel hole for reference to how much sand came out.

Third switchback, and we finally hit some snow! Normally this time of year there would be a lot more up here, but we had a pretty dismal winter.

More conifers.

Nekkid trees above.

The top of a short reroute.

View down canyon.

An aspen and a conifer right next to each other almost looks like a conifer with a white trunk LOL. Landis wondered what came first.

Oh! What do we have here?

A moose friend! Unfortunately there are a lot of trees in the way.

And a second one! Hooray!

Last year we only saw 1 moose and it was towards the end of the season. This is not the best sighting, but still, 2 for our first time in the mountains, that is a good start!

The telephoto lens helped, but it’s still not the best.

Again.

The other one.

Well, I wasn’t going to try to get any closer so we decided to continue our hike.

Back to the trail.

Quick look back towards the moose.

Little hill full of aspens.

Nearing the top of the climb.

Little meadow.

Again.

The main trail continues forward and across the creek. But a few years ago we noticed a little side trail, we randomly decided to check it out last year and well, that is now my preferred way up.

Aspens.

Another potgut squirrel hole.

Someone is maintaining this trail so I don’t feel like I am just following a deer trail.

Forest.

These look like vole tunnels.

Colorful willows.

More.

Well this is odd. It looks like they put in an analog beaver dam and either they did more to it than others we have seen, or beavers have taken it over. Which as I understand it, is the goal.

Again.

A little closer.

Another small patch of snow.

Colorful willows.

Log bridge over the creek on the main trail. Where it connects to this alternate trail I like.

More flowers coming up.

Willow Lake.

Some nice reflection.

Panoramic.

More colorful willows.

From down on the shore.

I believe that is a beaver dam.

And there is the beaver lodge.

Another panoramic.

Lake.

The dam again.

Pretty willows.

As usual we decided to go around the lake.

The back of the lake.

Ducks.

Closer to the willows.

The back of the lake.

Pretty willows.

Yellow willows.

This area would normally be flooded this time of year.

Looking back.

Into the woods.

Nekkid aspens.

This area is usually pretty wet.

Some of the aspens back here are just massive.

Looking up.

Thick aspens.

With fun gloomy skies.

Forest.

Looking up.

Forest.

More conifers.

This little creek bed is full of snow.

Lots of snow back here.

Moody.

More snow.

More forest.

More bigguns.

Conifers around some aspens.

Little side canyon.

Then a long section of snow we had to tromp through.

I was more worried about slipping than post holing.

Cone shaped peaks and more willows.

More snow.

Reaching the end of the snow.

The east side of the lake. This is why I always start on the west side. There is a beach on that side, this side has a lot of foliage. Both trails make a figure 8 though, so no matter which way you come up you can start on the west side of the lake.

Twisted aspens.

Then we hit the big clearing.

Silver Fork on the other side of the canyon.

Panoramic.

Crossroads (or the x part of the figure 8). Left will go down the east fork, forward the west fork. and right will take you back to the west side of the lake.

Normally I would try to go down the east fork, but I was hoping the moose were still there so we went down the west fork again.

Little ephemeral pond below.

The big meadow.

Panoramic.

Little pond again.

Another cone shaped peak.

Silver Fork across the canyon.

Into the forest.

Conifers.

The upper bridge.

Upstream.

Downstream.

Smaller clearing.

Forest.

More forest.

The tiny clearing. Okay, time to keep our eyes peeled for our moose friends.

Down canyon.

First switchback heading down. It is also the first one next to the creek.

Continuing along.

Nekkid aspens, all the way up.

More.

I love the white band they make.

I love me some aspens, even nekkid. But I do prefer them in autumn.

Silver Fork again.

2nd lazy switchback.

3rd lazy switchback, 2nd one next to the creek. Now you want to keep an eye out for the side trail back down to the trailhead. It is a little less than a tenth of a mile from here.

Continuing along.

Sad tree that the woodpeckers seem to like.

You want to watch for these twin conifers on either side of the trail.

Right after them is the small sign pointing back to the trailhead. There is almost always a log across the trail to help grab your attention, but it is not permanent. If you miss it, its not the end of the world. The trail forward goes down to a neighborhood, you would wind through that down to Big Cottonwood Road, and then you would have to hoof it up the road back to your car. About an extra 4/10ths of a mile. Not ideal, but not the worst. Ask me how I know? LOL

Forest.

The lower bridge.

Downstream.

Upstream.

Trail split. Right will take you back down to the trailhead. Left will head back up the east fork.

More aspens.

Back down to the road. Phew!

We needed a restroom, so we made a quick stop up at Solitude (PSP). It was a bit of a gamble since they are kind of between seasons at the moment, but they were open. Phew!

I love the clock tower.

Little closer.

Portrait.

Heading back down the canyon (PSP).

The Silver Fork Lodge again (PSP).

Terrible low light shot of some deer (PSP). Thanks for not darting out in front of us.

Mill D (PSP).

Landis somehow managed to spot this moose on the way down. We had to turn around to see him though. Sadly with the low light I did not get the best pictures, but I was happy to see him!

His antlers are just coming in and are white nubs at the moment.

I kind of like this shot. It almost looks like a painting.

But I wish I had better lighting.

Hi cutey!

I can’t believe we saw 3 moose on our first adventure up in the mountains. Last year we only saw 1 all year long.

Again, I just wish I had better lighting.

But, this is still fun.

He’s just having supper.

He is aware of us, but isn’t very bothered by us. We are still in the car though, so still safe. If he decided to get much closer we can drive off.

Quick video.

Nom nom nom.

Alright, we also need to find something to eat so we decided to keep heading down.

Continuing down (PSP).

Little bit of sunset left (PSP).

Again (PSP).

Our general path today.

We decided to have dinner at the Porcupine Grill. It has a pretty amazing view! Wow.

Well, that was a fun day. That canyon wasn’t too busy, the trail wasn’t very busy. We had some pretty great wildlife sightings. I had a good time. 9 out of 10 squirrels today.

As for difficulty, this is fairly short, but it is a constant up. DR4.

Dogs are not allowed in Big Cottonwood Canyon, so be sure to leave Fido home for this one.