Lake Solitude

 Lake Solitude is a high alpine lake near the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. The trail features a lovely mixed forest, and 2 pretty lakes surrounded by stunning peaks. As one of the 7 Brighton Lakes it is a favorite trail that we like to do fairly often, but have not been able to do this year yet due to construction.

For our bonus Labor Day hike I thought we’d just go easy and walk around Silver Lake. However when we got there we realized this trail was finally open after being closed all summer (and was supposed to be closed through October) so we jumped on it!

Quick Details:

Length: About 3.3 miles out and back, with longer options.
Trail Type: Out and back, balloon, dumbbell options (I have been struggling to find a term to describe that kind of trail system, so I am kind of happy I finally came up with something that works. Basically 2 loops with a connector trail between).
Difficulty: Its a pretty gentle climb, DR3.
Elevation Gain: about 490 feet.
Restroom: Yes, there are flush toilets at the Silver Lake trailhead.
Dogs? No. Big Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info: This is now a fee area. $10.00 for a 3 day pass.

To Get Here:

Drive to the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Just after the road splits for the 1 way loop you will see the Solitude Nordic Center/Visitor Center on the right. If the parking lot is full you can park across the street by the General Store. Both lots require a pass be purchased.

The boardwalk around Silver Lake is just behind the Visitor Center. The shortest route to the back trailhead is to go right, or counter clockwise.

Starting to see some fall color at the mouth of the canyon (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).

More leaves starting to change (PSP).

Mount Millicent above Brighton (PSP).

Scott Hill. Easy to identify due to the Mickey Mouse shaped tailings on it.

Fee area notice. You can buy a 3 or 7 day pass on your phone with the QR code. The yearly pass must be purchased at one of the authorized sellers. Both the Visitor Center and General Store up here sell it. The national parks pass is also accepted.

The Trail:

Hooray! Lake Solitude is open.

The boardwalk. As I mentioned the shortest route is to the right. For it being Labor Day it is surprisingly not a complete madhouse up here.

They just rebuilt the entire boardwalk and completed it in 2024. This section was shifted to the right a few feet. The old scar is mostly filling in.

Beaver dam.

Mount Millicent.

The boardwalk again.

The bridge/fishing dock over the lakes outlet.

Beaver lodge.

First little glimpse of Silver Lake.

Panoramic.

The bridge/dock again.

Downstream Big Cottonwood Creek with the beaver lodge we saw earlier.

Upstream towards the lake.

The extended bridge.

The outlet and the lake.

Then we are on to the natural trail. Well, I say natural but I am almost certain they have put some kind of clay like coating on it, I assume to help with erosion.

It’s pretty back here.

Some asters.

Silver lake and Mount Millicent.

Again.

At about 4/10ths of a mile later we made it to the back trailheads.

Natural seesaw.

Continuing up.

Sign asking you to not pick the wildflowers. 

Seriously, please do not pick the wildflowers. Leave them for everybody to enjoy.

The 4 way split. Left heads to Twin Lakes which is still currently closed. Right is a winter trail. Forward leads to Lake Solitude, so forward it is.

The closed Twin Lakes Trail. I guess they are installing new snow maker infrastructure.

Old signs.

It’s still super green and pretty up here.

Super rocky through here.

Aspens.

Scott Hill on the other side of the canyon.

Fallen tree.

Aspens.

Conifers.

Neat little twist in this tree.

Little bit of fall color.

Fun rock staircase.

They have really enhanced this old service road for the construction project. I wonder if this might be related to the project we saw below on Silver Fork yesterday.

The construction broke the rock staircase on the other side. Sad.

Take a left at this fork.

Solitude has added a lot of signage that is really helpful. The first time we did this trail I kind of just chose the trail that seemed to be more uphill and hoped for the best, and got lucky haha.

There are a lot of rather large trees up here.

Vertical panoramic.

Passing underneath it.

The woodpeckers like this tree.

Another large tree.

Super pretty.

There is a short section under the ski lift that triggers my fear of heights, but I am able to get myself through it.

The disc golf course.

Another one of the helpful signs.

Aspens.

Conifers.

Forest.

Looking up.

Thick patch of trees.

The upper 4 way split. Forward is the way to the lake. 

The split is right next to the first scree field.

A pika’s haypile.

Accompanying pika.

Pulled out the telephoto lens.

Sooo cute!

He seems to be struggling with this a little.

Dropping it off on the top of the haypile.

Pika's don't hibernate, so they gather food and pile them into these 'haypiles' to survive winter.

Off to go find more!

Or stop and wonder about the weird human guy pointing a big ass camera at it.

I freaking love these guys. So stinking cute.

Up on the lookout to watch for predators.

Back to work.

With the occasional stop to lookout.

I love watching them scurry around the rocks.

More food.

So cute!

Onto the pile.

Boulder hopping.

Being a lookout again.

Pikas like these scree fields because they have a million nooks and crannies they can disappear in whenever they sense a predator. Thus, high elevation scree fields are a good place to spot these guys.

Looking back at the scree field.

Continuing up.

Before long you reach the middle and smallest scree field. Which has the largest haypile I have ever seen. Holy crap look at that thing.

Seriously, look at it!

With another pika. I didn’t bother pulling out the telephoto lens again.

The scree field again.

Continuing up.

Forest.

Thick patch of trees.

Looking up.

Another thick patch.

I love it.

Looking up again.

So many trees!

Onto the 3rd and largest scree field.

Again. This means you are almost there.

I often see pikas and sometimes marmots in here. I could hear the pikas fun calls, but I didn’t see one in here today.

One last thick patch of trees.

First glimpse of the lake.

Then, Lake Solitude. It lived up to it’s name today as we got it all to ourselves for a bit. The chatty group that passed us luckily decided to continue up to the pass.

Panoramic.

You can see the bottom.

Another panoramic.

A Steller’s jay. One of my favorite birds.

Of course by the time I got the telephoto lens on it was gone.

Well, not a total waste of time, we spotted a baby deer on the other side of the lake. Hello cutey! I am having pretty good luck seeing baby deer this year. Yet, still no moose.

The rest of the family.

Come on lil guy, catch up to your family.

Cute lil guy.

The others.

Ope, I think he realized he is being left behind.

Wait for meeeeee.

Oh, our Steller’s jay is back.

I just love the little mohawk.

A Steller’s jay was one of the first ‘more exotic than a robin’ birds I identified… my friends mom (a birder) helped us out after we saw one at Timpanogos Cave. I seem to recall her having a calendar of birds and this was one of them.

We saw a pair of these up here last time we did this trail. They must like the spot.

Up in the tree.

They are super pretty.

Back to the deer. It looks like the baby caught up to the rest of the herd.

Back to the lake. Usually we would go around the lake, which only adds about a half mile or so, but we opted against that today.

Panoramic.

Squirrel!

One last look at the lake before we head back down.

Heading back down.

Looking up.

Forest.

Another squirrel friend.

Down into the gully. Before the trail was rerouted a few years ago there used to be a pretty steep scramble up this hill somewhere. It kind of sucked so I am glad they rerouted it.

Neat split rock.

Down to the big scree field.

Again.

Panoramic.

Another squirrel friend.

Paintbrush.

Mountain side.

Thick patch of trees.

Looking up.

Lots of trees.

Looking up again.

The ridge on the other side.

Knobby aspen.

Lupines going to seed.

The middle scree field.

With the largest haypile ever.

Through the woods.

The lowest scree field.

With a pika friend.

And the 4 way split. You want to take the left fork. Right leads up to the chair lift.

Forest.

It took me a minute to figure out what the pink ribbons were for… eventually we determined it must be to identify trees that need to be cut down.

It looks like they have been pretty busy up here this year.

Tall aspens.

Scott Hill across the way.

The top of the ski lift.

The disc golf course again.

More signs to help you find your way back.

Back under the chairlift.

More flowers that have gone to seed.

Another large tree.

Crossing the newly widened service road.

More large trees.

Aspens.

Another biggun.

Guardsman Pass on the other side of the canyon.

More leaves getting a jump on the change.

Continuing down.

Thimbleberry leaves.

Lots of them.

Back down to the lower 4 way split. You want to go forward.

More forest.

Back down to Silver Lake. Normally I would opt to continue the loop around it, but it was getting late so we just went back the way we came, left, which is the shorter way back to the parking lot.

The moon.

The outlet and the bridge over it.

Silver lake and the peaks above.

Panoramic.

Continuing along.

This little dock is new with the boardwalk restoration.

I caught this duck scratching herself, which unfortunately makes her look dead here.

But, I assure you she is quite alive.

Nice reflection on the lake.

Another.

Panoramic.

Continuing along.

The lake and outlet again.

The Twin Lakes Trail goes across the front of that unnamed mountain. You can see the construction nets across it. I hope we get a chance to do that trail this year. It is supposed to be closed until the end of October. But hey, this one opened early, so fingers crossed.

Downstream with the beaver lodge.

Mount Millicent.

Heading back down the canyon (PSP).

I love the trees pressed up against the cliffs (PSP).

More canyon (PSP).

Quick Side Quest:

Landis noticed this old, old sign at the beginning of summer and we have been trying to get a picture of it to see what it was and well, today we decided was the day!

It is super old and has been tagged so it’s hard to make out. What I think it appears to say at the top anyway is Storm Mountain Estates. So I guess an old developers sign. I wonder how long it has been here.

While we were here I stopped to take some shots of the road side sunflowers that generally line the sides of the canyons roads in late summer.

A meh sunset as we leave the canyon (PSP).

I am super happy that we randomly discovered the trail has been reopened today! I think I would have been disappointed is we only did Silver Lake today, so it was perfect! After Silver Lake we only ran across a few people. We had a good wildlife day too. Plus I mean, it is a pretty lake even if it is a little smaller.  10 out of 10 squirrels today.

As for difficulty, its a very gentle climb, DR3.

Dogs are not allowed due to watershed restrictions. Be sure to leave Fido home for this one.