Random Rambler: Silver Lake

Silver Lake is a beautiful alpine lake at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. It features beautiful mixed forest, wildflowers, wildlife, and a beautiful lake surrounded by magnificent peaks. This short, easy, mostly boardwalk trail is suitable for all people and families, and thus is usually pretty crowded.

It is National Trails Day which means national forests were fee waived today. We still have a year pass, but darn it I wanted to enjoy it anyway! But, we have a big weekend, so I chose this trail because it would be easier on us. It's a pretty trail and one we tend to do at least once a year or so, usually combined with one of the back trails.

Quick Details:

Length: About a mile, depending on how much you explore.
Trail Type: Loop, boardwalk, some packed dirt. Connector option.
Difficulty: DR2. It is mostly boardwalk, with some parts of well packed dirt.
Elevation Gain: About 80 feet.
Restroom: Yes, nice flush toilets with running water.
Dogs? No. Big Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info: This is now a fee area. Normally it is a $10.00 day use fee.

To Get Here:

Drive to the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Just after you start on the one way loop road around Brighton, you will see the Solitude Nordic Center on the right. Park. There is overflow parking across the street at the general store.

The trail picks up on either side of the Nordic Center.

The mountains look lovely (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP).

Into Big Cottonwood Canyon (PSP).

I just love this canyon (PSP).

Storm Mountain (PSP).

Warning about rocks on the road (PSP).

Thick forest (PSP).

Entering the town of Brighton (PSP).

Mill D South (PSP).

Pretty forest (PSP).

Nearing the top (PSP).

Mount Tuscarora and Mount Millicent above Brighton (PSP).

The Trail:

The Visitor Center.

Welcome sign, which re-confirmed that there are no fees today.

The start of the trail. As usual, we tend to start on the right and go counter-clockwise. It is also the shortest route to the back trails.

The rebuilt boardwalk.

You can see the scar of the old one to the left. It is starting to fill in though! I wonder how much longer we will be able to see it.

Mount Millicent.

Beaver dam.

Itty bitty yellow flowers.

Boardwalk and flooded old boardwalk scar.

Little pullout with benches.

Survivor: Silver Lake.

The outlet.

Puddles in the old boardwalk scar.

Something bubbling in it.

The bridge/dock over the outlet. I don’t often see this empty.

The outlet.

With a beaver lodge.

The other direction towards the lake.

There is some difference of opinion as to whether this is considered the head waters of Big Cottonwood Creek, or if the Brighton Lakes are. I am of the opinion that the Brighton Lakes are. Lake Mary, Lake Martha, Lake Catherine, Dog Lake, Twin Lakes and of course Silver Lake. But the former 5 all drain directly into Silver Lake so I guess it is technically accurate as well.

Remnants from the old bridge.

More of the bridge.

The lake and the outlet.

Dirt section. I have yet to confirm this, but I suspect they applied some sort of coating to it to help slow down erosion..

Aspens.

More forest.

More aspens.

This is probably the least crowded we have seen this trail in a good minute. I am quite enjoying it.

The lake and Mount Millicent.

Panoramic.

The lake again.

The back trailhead. This leads to Twin Lakes and Lake Solitude. Both are lovely, and we tend to do them both almost every year, but, not today.

Continuing around.

Watershed’s Least Wanted.

Potgut squirrel.

Forest.

Fishing dock.

Again.

Moose: Wet and Wild!

The lake.

With Mount Millicent.

Panoramic.

Back on the trail.

This bridge over the wetland area was enhanced with the boardwalk restoration they completed in 2024. There was a small dock down to the left here, but they decided not to rebuild that. Instead we got a new small dock on the other side that I didn't get a picture of today.

Again.

Beaver lodge.

The lake.

Summer Pollination Party!

Featuring most of my favorite wildflowers.

Forest.

The far side.

The beaver lodge below.

The lake.

The fish are biting.

The lake.

Docks on the other side.

“Restoration in Progress.

Fleabane, Sticky geranium, showy goldeneyeye, firecrackers penstemon, golden rod and blue grama grass, Please keep off!”

Restoration area

Bluebells.

The lake.

The Twin Lakes Trail above. That is one of my favorite viewpoints.

Back into the forest.

Duck butt!

The lake.

Forest.

Continuing along.

Rockwall.

Interesting bird. I want to say it is some kind of sandpiper. Likely a spotted sandpiper.

Forest.

The lake with Scott Hill above.

Forest.

I am not sure if that is a new house being built, or just some construction on an existing one.

Little patch of snow hanging on.

Squirrel!

Exiting the forest.

And entering the pretty meadow again.

Ducky.

Beavers: Wetland Architects.

The 1st and main inlet. This comes down from Lakes Mary, Martha, Catherine, Dog, and Twin.

Duck friend again. She is just chilling on a little mound like her personal little throne.

The inlet again, upstream.

Downstream, heading into the lake.

Scott Hill. It is easy to identify due to the Mickey Mouse shaped mine tailings.

The boardwalk. It does not appear they moved it on this side. They absolutely rebuilt it, but it looks like it is in the same spot.

Short walk out to another fishing dock.

Another fishing dock. This one is new with the rebuild.

Back to the big dock.

Swallows: Migratory Insect Control.

Incredible Insects!

Continuing out to the dock. I normally don’t go out on it cause it is usually very busy. But it was practically empty right now.

Duck swimming down another inlet stream.

The dock again.

The lake.

The beaver lodge across the lake again.

Dead fish below.

Cliffs above.

Ducky friend.

Heading back to the main trail.

With the 2nd inlet.

Heading back.

In a rare turn of events, the remaining couple left the dock, leaving it empty. I don’t think I have ever, ever seen that before! Hooray!

Again.

From further back.

Zoom.

The new dock over the 2nd inlet.

Again.

Scott Hill.

Another pullout with benches.

What are Wetlands Worth?

Scott Hill.

Mount Millicent from the other direction.

New wildflowers coming in.

The meadow.

Another pullout with benches.

Missing: Where are They?

Well that is a fun fact, Dog Lake (the one in this canyon) was named after the tiger salamander, which they called waterdogs. Neat! I always thought it was because it is loosely shaped like a dog haha.

The other Dog Lake got it's name cause dogs can swim in it, at least that is what I think.

The meadow again.

Little split. Left is the main trail and will take you back to the Visitor Center. Right will as well, but with a quick detour through some picnic areas. We needed to use the restrooms, and right is a more direct route to them so we went that way today.

It is just as pretty.

Split for a picnic area.

Picnic area #5.

More split offs to more picnic areas.

#4.

#3. I didn’t plan to document the picnic areas today, but, they were all empty for like the first time ever, so what the heck?

#2.

#1. This one is a larger group one.

The Visitor Center again.

Looking back towards the lake.

Thank you for visiting Silver Lake.

The Brighton Store and Café (PSP).

The Brighton Resort (PSP).

Old signs (PSP).

Neat old cabin (PSP). If there is an info sign, I have yet to notice it. But I feel like this has to be historic right?

The turn off for Guardsman Pass (PSP).

Heading down the canyon (PSP).

Again (PSP).

Mixed forest (PSP).

Cloud cover (PSP).

The Silver Fork Lodge and Restaurant (PSP). I still don’t know what is happening with it.

Continuing down (PSP).

Rock on the road (PSP).

Another (PSP). I guess the sign was right haha. That is a little scary though. That would suck to have one of these hit your car.

The S Curve (PSP).

The mouth of the canyon (PSP).

Yuck! The wind is whipping up lake bed dust (PSP).

You can’t even see the valley (PSP).

Just a ghost of downtown (PSP).

We stopped at Bandits for dinner. It's a little more expensive, but it is good.

Well that was fun! I just wanted to get a little bit of nature in this weekend since we probably wont have much other time for it. And I got what I wanted. Just a pretty trail with a lovely lake and pretty forests. Surprisingly, it was not very busy at all, which made it even more enjoyable. I wish we had seen some more wildlife though. Meh, 9 Squirrels today.