Albion Meadows To Cecret Lake

Cecret Lake is an absolutely beautiful lake near the top of the Albion Basin in Little Cottonwood Canyon. At about 9940 feet it is definitely a high alpine lake. The lake is a gorgeous sapphire color and is brimming with salamanders. You have a good chance of seeing moose and If you decide to walk around the lake you have a good chance of seeing pikas and marmots. And the Albion Meadows are absolutely exploding with the amazingly     vibrant wildflowers. It is absolutely un-rivaled! We’ve done this one a few times before, but it is one of my favorites!

I am sad to announce that, at least for now, they have discontinued the shuttle service for the Albion Basin. Instead, you can pay $6.00 (per car) to drive up and park in either parking lot, or $10.00 per adult, $5.00 per child to ride the chairlift up. I was really planning on taking the shuttle today so that kind of threw a wrench in my plans.

Quick Details:

Length: Albion Meadows 1.5 Miles, Cecret Lake 1 Mile (5 miles round trip). You can add about .6 miles to circumnavigate the lake as well.
Difficulty: DR3. It’s up, but it’s pretty gradual, until the final switchbacks.
Elevation Gain: 1289 feet.
Restroom: There are flush toilets at the Albion Grill, and Pit Toilets at the Cecret Lake TH.
Dogs? No. Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info: As mentioned, the shuttle service has been discontinued.

To Get Here:

Head up Little Cottonwood Canyon. Drive to the 2nd Albion gate. You can see if parking is available at the top and pay $6.00 to park up there (dirt road). Or you can park in the parking lot here and do the Albion Meadows on foot, or you can pay $10.00 per adult, $5.00 per child to cruise above them on the ski lift.

The mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon (DBP). It’s been a couple months since we’ve been up here.

The trailhead is between the Alta building and the Albion Grill.

The Trail:

Starting the Albion Meadows trail. You can see Devils Castle peeking out above.

Looking down canyon.

Fireweed.

You can see the wildflowers on the slope across the way.

Haven’t even reached the meadows yet and already seeing a bunch of wildflowers.

Looking across the canyon.

Old microwave tower.

Monkshood.

The last push up to the meadows.

Flowers on the slopes across the way.

Wildflowers and peaks above.

Now that we have hit the meadows the wildflowers are just unbelievable.

Looking down canyon.

Caught a mountain bumble bee.

I think we definitely hit the wildflowers during the peak this year.

Wildflower lined path beneath beautiful peaks.

Mine tailing across the way. Also, if you look really closely you might see a tiny deer.

More wildflowers and peaks.

So pretty!

Wildflowers and Devils Castle.

Indian paint brush and lupine.

Pretty waterfall across the way.

From what I can tell you can get there using either split here, but we always use the left split.

One of these days we will get to Germania Pass from this side. We almost made it up there from the other side on the Collins Gulch Trail but had to stop just short of it due to construction at the time.

Penstemon and Devils Castle.

Lupine and Indian paintbrush.

Penstemon below Germania Pass.

Wildflower covered hillsides.

Below Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.

More varieties. If I remember the sign correctly, there are over 2000 varieties of wildflowers up here!

Nearing the next major intersection and entering a flat segment for a minute with some much appreciated cloud cover. Phew, it’s still pretty warm up here.

Next trail split. Again, both directions will get you there, but I prefer to go right. I think the elevation gain is more gradual, and we typically see moose along this route.

Looks like they have been doing some construction through here and are now trying to restore it. Now that I think about it, last year when we were up here I remember this section being closed for construction, so that makes sense.

Sugarloaf Peak. Cecret Lake is in the bowl below it.

Little Cottonwood Canyon Creek.

This segment is through the trees and offers some shade.

Still a lot of wildflowers through the forest segment.

Little Cottonwood Creek again.

Little waterfall.

Elk weed. This is one of my favorite wildflowers. It’s hard to see why until you get a little closer.

The flowers are super pretty. Plus, bonus bumble bee.

The parking lot for the Cecret Lake Trailhead. It was always that full even when the shuttle was running.

Crossing Little Cottonwood Creek. You will actually cross over several little streams that all combine and become Little Cottonwood Creek,

River of bluebells.

A little closer. I have seen this up here before, but it doesn’t last long.

Sugarloaf Peak dominating the view for a minute.

Chill squirrel.

Pretty columbines.

Devils Castle.

Trail split, stay left. Right goes into private property.

Wildflowers and Devils Castle. Have I mentioned how much I love this peak? You can get up a little closer by doing the Devils Castle Loop.

Catherine Pass Another fun trail that takes you up above Lake Catherine.

Another little creek crossing.

I just learned these are called elephant heads. If you manage to find one next to the trail and you are able to get a closer look, they really do resemble an elephant head.

I borrowed a picture from last weeks adventure to Fehr Lake so you can see one a little closer. I always liked these flowers, but now I just love them.

Pretty forest.

After the forest section you will hit the rocky section. There are signs of glacier movement here, it’s neat.

Devils Castle again.

We passed the most chill deer EVER.

This is a little cropped, but not too much. She was about… 100 feet off the trail and was just munching along. While hoards of people walked up and down not far from her. Seriously, every other deer upon seeing me, freezes for like, 10 seconds and then bam, off they go. I don’t think I have ever seen one just.. chill like this around people.

Deer are common, and many people don’t care, but I really enjoy watching wildlife in all forms, so it was kind of fun watching her for a minute.

Below Devils Castle.

The peaks above the Albion Basin.

Starting at left, the peak behind the tree is: Wolverine, then Tuscarora, Catherine Pass, ?, Point Supreme, East Castle, Devils Castle, Sugarloaf Peak.

The last push to the lake. It is definitely the steepest part, but it’s not too bad.

Pretty butterfly.

Starting up the switchbacks. There are only 3.

Little mine.

Pretty penstemon.

The Albion Basin below.

The next switchback.

Popular spot for rock climbing.

The last switchback.

And the final push over some loose rocks. This whole last section looks worse than it really is.

I think part of the reason it is Cecret Lake is that you really have no idea you are nearing a lake until you are practically right on it.

And there it is! I love this lake.

Reminder that there is no swimming.

Panoramic.

Another shot with Sugarloaf Peak. Fun fact, Sugar used to be sold in loafs, basically a hard cone with a rounded top. So that is what a sugarloaf is.

We decided to walk around the lake.

The lake seems a bit low on water right now.

Random. Old door?

Old drain.

The higher up dam. I’ve never seen the water that high though.

It took a little longer to find them today, but we did find the salamanders.

A little closer so you can see the neat gills.

This one was kind of pretty. These are tiger salamanders, the only species we have in Utah.

I love watching these guys. The gills are so neat.

While in the larva stage they are completely aquatic, and have the cool gills. But they still appear to have to swim to the surface to take breaths every now and then. You know, now that that I think about it I don’t think I have ever seen an adult salamander in Utah.

The lake again.

From a little further along.

With an elkweed.

I don’t think I have ever seen white paintbrush… maybe it’s just not fully mature yet?

Looking out towards Albion Basin. Cecret Lake is kind of hanging lake, sitting in a hanging valley like we saw in Collins Gulch. It’s not as amazing the the Hanging Lake we saw in Colorado, but it is still pretty neat.

A bunch of salamanders over at this end.

The wildflowers around the lake are pretty good too.

From the far end. Wow!

Another panoramic.

A pair of marmots chasing each other across the way.

Inlet spring coming out from a small cliff.

A little pika.

Wow a blue columbine! I’ve only seen a blue one on the Lofty Lake Loop up in the Uintas before.

The lake again.

Another panoramic.

Chipmunk taking a drink. It was far enough away I thought it might be a pika..

So of course by the time I got the telephoto lens on it ran right up to us. So, well, here is a super close picture of a chipmunk.

Still a cute little stinker.

Of course while I had the telephoto lens out none of the pikas decided to come out. Oh well, I got a couple good shots of them last time we were back here.

Looking up at Sugarloaf Peak.

Another shot of the lake.

Devils Castle.

With it’s reflection.

Potgut squirrel.

Devils Castle again.

Rocky little bay.

Just pretty.

Panoramic with Cecret Lake, Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.

Wildflowers and the lake.

Back to the beginning, with a bunch of people.

Devils castle and trees.

Now we just have the long hike back down.

The Albion Basin.. Catherine Pass to the left there.

Pretty flowers.

I love these purple rocks.

Our friend, the least skittish deer in the world is still hanging out.

More wildflowers.

Trees and Point Supreme. It would appear there is now a trail up there which splits off the Devils Castle Loop. Has that ski lift always been there? It doesn’t look familiar. (more on this momentarily).

Indian paint brush and Devils Castle.

Wildflowers along this little stream.

Columbines as I usually see them, all white.

Back down to the river of bluebells.

This ski lift looks new.. wait oh haha. The construction, they were updating this ski lift! I can’t believe it took me this long to put that together.

Loads of wildflowers.

This used to be the bottom of the old ski lift. This new one continues all the way down to Alfs.

Here is what used to be here from our trek up here in 2016.

This explains the construction, the new trail, and why the lift didn’t look familiar on the peak above. It did always go up there, but it was green so I probably didn’t notice it.

Monkshood.

Little Cottonwood Creek.

Indian paintbrush.

Back down to the construction scar.

New Supreme Lift base next to Alfs.

Back into the wildflower covered meadows.

It is so incredible up here. I love it.

A sunflower type. There are so many different varieties of flowers like this that I have give up trying to identify them unless they have something particularly unique about them.

Wildflowers with Devils Castle and Sugarloaf Peak.

Indian paintbrush.

Penstemon and Devils Castle.

 

Lupine and paintbrush.

Millions and millions of wildflowers.

There are 5 different varieties of paintbrush in just this little spot.

Up the hill.

Down the hill.

Pretty forest.

Looking down canyon.

Back down to the trailhead. Be sure to take a moment to brush the dust off the back of your legs. It is a dusty trail.

On the way down we noticed this huge line of cars waiting to head up. We both wondered what would cause this, as we have never seen anything like this.. then.. wedding. Must be a wedding up there. I feel bad for any poor soul who was hoping to head up for an evening hike.

A couple miles down the road there is a pull out that offers this incredible view down Little Cottonwood Canyon. I usually only catch it as a Drive By Photo (DBP) but today I made a point to stop.

It’s better from the south side of the road. But, it is even better from the Red Pine Lake Trail a little higher up canyon. However, this one is pretty nice for minimum effort.

It really is neat to see that lovely U shaped canyon. Going to have to come back here during better lighting one day.

We have done this trail several times and It is still one of my favorites. A wonderful trek through a wildflower filled meadow, and then up to a gorgeous lake. I usually see moose up here too, though, not today. It can be a little crowded at times, but I enjoy the scenery and wildlife enough to overlook that. When the shuttle was running, the meadows trail was virtually deserted. I am sad to see that that change made that segment of trail quite a bit more crowded. But, again, I love this trail and it will retain the perfect 10 squirrels. On 2nd thought, I am removing one due to removing the shuttle option.

As for difficulty, it is pretty chill there is certainly a climb, but for the most part it is gradual. A lot of it is full sun though. DR3.

Dogs are not allowed as Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed. So be sure to leave Fido at home.