Random Rambler: Silver Lake

Silver Lake is a popular, picturesque lake located at the top of Big Cottonwood canyon. The easy, mostly boardwalk trail offers a scenic lake surrounded by prominent peaks. With wildflowers, and amazing autumn leaves to enjoy. However, it is a very popular trail so it can be very busy. Today was one of THE prime fall foliage days so it was absolutely bonkers busy. This is a good, go to easy option so we tend to do it often on days we want something easy.

This is not where I planned to go today. But between getting a late start, a series of poor decisions, weather, and traffic, it just kind of was where we ended up. o.O. My fault, I knew to avoid the main canyons today but, it is what it is. At least we still got some nice color peeping in, which is all I really wanted in the end.

Quick Details:

Length: About 8/10ths of a mile, we did a little extra.
Trail Type: Loop.
Difficulty: DR2. It is mostly boardwalk. The dirt parts are hard packed, like paved. I see strollers all the time.
Elevation Gain: NA
Restroom: Yes, flush toilets at the trailhead, and in the Visitor Center.
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. When you reach Brighton the road splits and becomes a one way loop. Right after that the Visitor Center will be on the right. Overflow parking on the left. Both lots require purchasing the day use fee.

Lots of color on them thar hills (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).

Well, the line to get into the canyon is not as far back as we have seen it before (PSP). This kind of lulled us into a false idea it wouldn’t be so bad… ah haha. Horrible decision #1

Into the canyon, just as the rain started (PSP). Well, poop.

Muted colors at the bottom (PSP).

Annnnd traffic (PSP). Snarled in both directions. I knew better than to come up Big Cottonwood Canyon during the prime fall color weekend, because, well, half of the entire state is up here! Oi.

Holy crap, look at the line of cars coming down (PSP). I told Landis that at this point, we are stuck in it no matter what we do, so we might as well keep going. Horrible decision #2.

Happy little low hanging cloud (PSP). And wow… the line of cars heading down just keeps going. Crap what did we do to ourselves?

Some lovely color (PSP).

More color (PSP). Plus the line of cars going down has finally ended. Landis noted it was up to about mile marker 9. oof.

More color (PSP).

Now our side is backed up again (PSP). But I will concede that slow traffic makes better leaf peeping.

More color (PSP).

Beaver lodge (PSP).

Patches of color through the rain drops (PSP).

Big Cottonwood Canyon (PSP).

More color, more traffic (PSP). Oi.

Neat! The town of Brighton updated their sign (PSP).

Here’s the old one from earlier this year if you are curious.

Pretty color (PSP).

More fun low clouds (PSP).

More color (PSP).

Mill D is an absolute shit show right now (PSP).

But, as the other bottleneck in the canyon, once we go past it we started moving again (PSP). While downhill traffic is definitely not.

More low clouds (PSP).

Behind us looks absolutely amazing too (PSP). I wish I was able to get a better picture, but what are you gonna do with this traffic.

The next option I thought of was Willow Heights (PSP). But we were still not sure where the rain was heading so we kept going, Mistake #3.

Continuing up (PSP).

More color (PSP).

Solitude (PSP).

More color (PSP).

Above the upper Solitude base (PSP).

Absolutely stunning up here (PSP).

I love the little band of gold (PSP).

They smartly closed the left turn lane towards Guardsman Pass, forcing people to go around the Brighton loop and access it from the way down. Whoever thought to do that is a genius and deserves a raise. I think that cut down the traffic quite a bit.

I love Guardsman Pass, but it scares me a bit. With this much traffic, yeah, hell no.

Nearing Brighton with Mount Millicent towering above (PSP).

Well, poop. Between the traffic and the weather, and everything else we decided Silver Lake was our best option now. Mistake #4.

Surprisingly, finding a parking spot in the overflow lot was not so bad, considering. Perhaps the rain scared a few people off.

Scott Hill across the way.

Some color across the quite full parking lot.

The Trail:

Some beautiful color. We usually go right, so today we decided to go left.

I love the golden patches. As I understand it different nutrients generally cause that to happen in aspens.

Another golden patch.

As you can see it is an absolute zoo today. Part of me hoped that now that this is a fee area it wouldn’t be so bad... but yeah, not so much.

Starting to be able to see the lake.

Mount Millicent and some patches of color.

Panoramic.

One of the fishing docks.

The lake.

The inlet, upstream.

Heading into the lake.

Beavers: Wetland Architects.

The lake.

Into the forested area.

The lake.

Scott Hill reflecting nicely.

A Steller’s jay. One of my favorite birds. I just love the little mohawk.

Lovely golden patch.

The trail up to Twin Lakes offers this amazing overlook above the lake. Unfortunately that trail is currently closed, and has been all summer. Hopefully it opens soon, it’s a little tougher but it is pretty!

The lake.

The pretty gold patch again.

The lake again.

Panoramic.

Color.

Summer Pollination Party. This sign shows quite a few of my favorite flowers.

Panoramic.

There used to be a smaller dock down here that they did not rebuild with the boardwalk restoration they completed last year. I am pretty sure this is the old scar from it. They did build a new dock on the other side of the lake that was not there before the restoration so I guess it was a little trade off.

The lake again.

Panoramic.

Color reflection.

More forest.

The lake from another fishing dock.

Mount Millicent.

Another panoramic.

Big colorful patch.

Moose: Wet and Wild!

Beaver lodge across the lake.

Color.

Watershed’s Least Wanted.

We decided to go back along the Lake Solitude trail just a bit.

Super pretty.

Some lovely goldens.

I love this time of year when the falling leaves decorate smaller pine trees.

Looking up.

The closed Twin Lakes Trail. Sigh.

More color.

Leaf lined trail.

Color.

Scott Hill and Guardsman Pass on the other side of the canyon.

More color.

Scott Hill.

More golds.

Colorful hills.

Panoramic.

Fallen tree.

More golds.

Look at that line of cars heading over Guardsman Pass. Oi. I am glad we did not decide to head up there today. I don’t like the pass with regular traffic, I would absolutely hate it with this much traffic.

Weird bark peeling off this aspen.

Scott Hill and Guardsman Pass Road.

Golds and yellows.

Yellows.

Deer.

Color.

Looking up.

Color.

Tall aspens.

Fun rock stairs to the service road.

And the ones on the other side that the construction project messed up.

Colorful patch.

Well, I decided that we would only go up to the service road today, since we were just up to Lake Solitude a few weeks ago. However when we got here I reconsidered continuing up to it.. but decided against it again. Mostly because we didn't bring our hiking poles with us today. Mistake #5. Oi.

More color.

There is just something magical about being in the woods this time of year.

Carpet of leaves.

Color and Scott Hill.

Deer friend again.

Color.

Deer friends.

Color.

Guardsman Pass across the way.

The road up to it.

Some reds up at the pass.

Color.

Low clouds.

Wet leaves.

Color.

Scott Hill.

More color.

Guardsman Pass again.

Across the canyon.

Panoramic.

Tall golden aspens.

Aspen leaves. I wonder what causes them to turn black. Some kind of fungus or disease I guess.

Lovely color.

Lovely golds.

Back to the Silver Lake Loop.

Band of light and a low cloud.

With the lake.

Mount Millicent.

Panoramic.

The lake.

A gold among the yellows.

Last light.

Color.

Lit up peaks.

Closer.

The lakes outlet.

Panoramic.

Beaver lodge down stream.

Moon above the peaks.

One of the old bridge supports.

The lake again.

Aquatic plants.

Mount Millicent.

When they rebuilt the boardwalk they shifted this part over a few feet. Here is the scar of the old boardwalk which is full of water here.

Survivor: Silver Lake. It gets an average of 33 feet of snow each year! Crazy.

Color above the wetlands.

Little Squirrels, Big Sleepers.

“Snow at Silver Lake.

Look up: the blue tape on the top of this post marks the maximum recorded snow depth at Silver Lake. On April 7th, 2023, the snow was 11 feet deep!
Total snowfall during the winter of 2022-2023 at this site was 850” - 70 feet!”

Holy crap! That particular winter, and subsequent run off season caused a lot of damage still visible in places like: Donut Falls, Silver Fork, Killyon Canyon, Allen Park, and more.

Watch Out for Moose!

Welcome to Silver Lake!

Obviously we are back to the front of the trail. There were people in front of these signs when we first arrived.

Heading back to the overflow lot.

Scott Hill again.

I love this little patch of trees by the Brighton sign (PSP).

Brighton Resort (PSP).

Some lovely color as we complete the loop road (PSP).

Scott Hill again (PSP).

The turn off for Guardsman Pass (PSP).

Yellow hills, pink clouds (PSP).

More color (PSP).

Annnnd the first of 2 traffic jams (PSP). There are 2 choke points in the canyon. The pedestrian crossing at Mill D, and of course the light at the mouth of the canyon.

Mill D (PSP). It’s getting a bit too dark for photos. Anyway, after here we were able to reach the speed limit for a little bit.

Then just below mile marker 7 we hit the next jam (PSP). Oi. Its gonna be a minute till we get out of the canyon. On the plus side, it is a little bit better than what we saw on the way up.

Another plus, I got a decent shot of this rock formation that kind of looks like a monkey face (PSP).

Just below storm mountain it was like someone suddenly pulled the drainplug and we were able to reach the speed limit again for almost the entire way down! What the hell was that? My best theory is there was a nervous nelly that finally pulled over and let the rest of us pass. But, I don’t know for sure. I was just happy not to be stuck for another half hour.

Well, like I said, this was not what I was hoping to do today, but I am not totally mad it was where we ended up. It was very pretty and we got to enjoy some prime leaf color. The trail around that lake was about as busy as I have seen it, but the back trail was a lot less busy so it was nice. Well, here is to hoping we get another good weekend or two to enjoy the color! 9 out of 10 squirrels today. Losing 1 for crowds and fee area.