Albion Meadows Trail to Cecret Lake

Cecret Lake (sometimes called Secret Lake) is a very popular alpine lake hidden at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon. It is an absolutely beautiful lake that isn’t very hard to get to, and the wildflowers during the summer months are completely stunning!

Quick Details:

Length: 2.6 miles to the lake (5.2 RT). If you want a shorter hike park or take the shuttle to the Cecret Lake Trailhead.
Difficulty: DR3 pretty easy climb.
Elevation Gain: 1,164 ft. (465 from the Cecret Lake TH)
Pets: No. Albion Basin and Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Restroom: Yes, one at the Albion Day lodge (where the TH is) and one at the Cecret Lake TH.

To get here, drive up to the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon until you hit a ranger gate before the paved road turns to gravel turn right and park in the Albion Day Lodge area. The trail head is at the bottom of the stairs to the left side (up canyon) of the building. There is a sign pointing you in the right direction.

If you are looking for something a little shorter, you can cut out the meadows trail completely, or even only do it one way. If you arrived early enough, you can continue up the gravel road to the Cecret Lake trailhead. It has a very small parking lot that fills up quickly. The Ranger Gate will have a sign up to inform you if the lot is full so you don’t waste the trip. Or, take the donation based shuttle both ways for an easy 2 mile trip up and back to the lake, or take the shuttle up, hike 1 mile to the lake and 2.6 miles down to the Day Lodge (which is what we did last time, and is probably the best way to do it) or, do what we did today, hike up from the day lodge to the lake, down to the Cecret Lake TH and take the shuttle down. For the same 3.6 mile hike that is a bit more work.

The shuttle runs on weekends and holidays every 10-20 minutes until 5:30.

As we drove up the canyon I got a quick shot of this waterfall (from the passenger seat). I still haven't figured out if there is a trail to it, but I would love to get in closer (DBP).

Looking down the canyon from the Day Lodge parking lot. We noticed we had just missed the shuttle so we decided to just hike up.

Little pond.

The restaurant has a hummingbird feeder.

There are a couple chair lift chairs that have been repurposed as benches along this trail.

I mentioned the wildflowers are amazing right?

A little more color on these than I am used to seeing.

The beginning of the trail is a bit steep but for the most part is is a gradual slope up on a wide path.

Wild flower lined path with Devils Tower in the background. This is why this trail should not be missed. There are a lot of wildflowers on the Cecret Lake trail, but it has nothing on this Albion Meadows trail.

I don’t remember what peak this is.

*clears throat* THE hiiiiills are alive with the sound of music. Ok ok, sorry I wont sing. But the beautiful hill sides and stunning surrounding peaks really reminds me of that famous scene.

On our hike to Lake Lackawaxen I mentioned that trail might beat this one for flowers. I take it back.

Just wow! The Albion Basin is home to over 120 species of wildflowers. I think I got a good number of them here.

Hawk.

Lazy waterfall.

More wildflowers.

1 mile down, 1.6 to go.

Marmot with a mouth full of grass.

Ski lift.

Huh. They use a gigantic bike chain.

Devils Castle and some trees.

We discovered this pair of moose laying down in the field. Not the best photo, but I wasn’t going to get in closer.

If I am not mistaken, it appears he only has one antler.

Another ski lift chair bench.

Wildflowers around a rock.

The creek,

We made it to the Cecret Lake Trailhead. 1 mile to go. There is a small parking lot up here, or the shuttle service will drop you off or pick you up here. As I mentioned, last time we took the shuttle up, hiked up to the lake, then down to the day lodge. this time we did the day lodge to the lake, down to here and took the shuttle down.

Devils Castle. You can see a couple small left over patches of snow hiding up there.

You cross several small streams.

A few more wildflower shots.

Looking down canyon.

The last leg is just a couple of switchbacks. It looks rougher than it is. Also, this kind of shows how popular this trail is. Lots of people zigzagging up and down.

And we made it. Such a beautiful lake.

Nice clear water.

In fact it was clear enough that we noticed several salamanders. Until last month, I had never seen one of these in Utah, and here we are seeing them again. How fun.

Couple more.

I got so distracted looking for salamanders I totally forgot to get pictures of the pretty lake… and then we started getting rained on.

Okay I managed a couple more. 2nd trip to this lake, 2nd time getting rained out when we reached it. But also, 2nd time running into a pair of moose, and we found salamanders! So no complaints.

Pretty bird seemed to be following us around.

More flowers.

Looking down the canyon it appears the storm isn’t going to let up very soon so it is definitely time to head back down.

More flowers.

Signs of glacier activity.

More flowers.

And back to the trail head. There is a camp ground here that would be lovely to camp at one day I think.

We were a little wet and cold and it looked like more rain so we decided to wait for the shuttle. I noticed a fire in a nearby campsite and was really tempted to see if they would be willing to let us hang around until the shuttle arrived. haha. No seriously, I thought about it.

Cute little marmot.

View down the canyon from the shuttle ride down.

View down from our car (DBP).

Virga over Antelope Island (DBP).

This is probably one of my favorite hikes in the summer. A beautiful lake, some wildlife, and loads and loads of wildflowers! Holy crap!

For my summary I am going to split the two trail sections.

Albion Meadows, Albion Day Lodge to Cecret Lake Trail Head: Stunning wildflower filled meadows, with beautiful peaks on all sides of you. A lot less people on this trail. There is also a nice little ‘name the wild animal’ interactive game to play along the first section (look for the green numbered signs). It has some steeper sections, but is mostly slight uphill gain on a wide open path. At only about 699 feet of elevation gain over 1.6 miles it’s really not so bad. With the amazing flowers, going with 10 out of 10 squirrels and a difficulty of DR3.

Cecret Lake: More wonderful flowers, some evidence of glacier activity, and a beautiful lake surrounded by amazing peaks. It is very crowded though, so removing one squirrel for a 9 out of 10 rating. Also super easy, with mostly slight uphill terrain, with the end being a little bit tougher thin switchbacks. Again, DR3.

Dogs: The Albion Basin, and well, all of Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed so dogs are not allowed.