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The Snake Pit Trail is a smaller side trail above the town of Alta. It features a forest, mountains, a stream, and wildflowers! It is a neat side trail that is not as popular as the main Albion Meadows Trail. We did the east end last time, and came to a point that I just couldn’t get past due to my fear of heights, so today after doing the Lower Albion Meadows Trail, we decided to toss this on. I still couldn’t get through the tough spot, but, I think I can say now we have done like… 99% of the trail!
Quick Details:
Length: The entire trail is about 1.4 miles out and back (plus however you connect to it) we did about a mile along the west end.
Trail Type: Out and back, connector, loop options.
Difficulty: DR3.
Elevation Gain: 365 feet.
Restroom: There are restrooms at the Albion Base. Supposedly there are some at the Wildcat Base, but we couldn’t find them.
Dogs? No. Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info:
To Get Here:
Drive to the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon as you enter the Town of Alta there are 2 ski bases, Wildcat and Then Albion. The shortest connection to the tris is from the Albion Base.
The Trail:
Here is where we picked it up from the top of the Lower Albion Meadows Trail. If you don’t add this on, it is about 2/10ths of a mile from the Albion Base, or about 4/10ths of a mile from the Wildcat Base.
The hill above.
Western coneflower.
Forest.
Cute little bird house.
Old microwave tower.
Fireweed.
Grizzly Gulch.
Continuing along.
Paintbrush.
Closer.
Can anybody tell me what these area? I am not a skier so I donno. I assume a different type of ski lift? But, they just seem so randomly placed. I have seen a similar one at Brighton too.
Forest.
A very tall fireweed growing in this tree.
Closer.
Lupine.
There are a couple thin, overgrown spots.
The Albion Base.
Another tiny little bird.
Paintbrush and lupine.
Fireweed.
Daisy like flower.
Continuing along.
Paintbrush and western coneflowers.
There was a particularly loud reception happening at one of the hotels.
More daisy like flowers.
Paintbrush
I’m not sure what this is, but it’s pretty.
Geraniums.
With some kind of tiny bugs crawling all over it.
Paintbrush.
Forest.
Ski lift. Alright, we should be getting close to where we left off last time….
But then we hit the switchbacks.
The deep gulch, that I assume is the snake pit of the Snake Pit Trail.
The ski lift again.
The squirrels were chasing each other around. I'm not sure if they were twitter pated or fighting.
Lupine.
Forest.
Hill of flowers.
More forest.
Short break from the climb.
View down canyon.
Fireweed.
The 2nd switchback.
Paintbrush.
A little birdy.
Pretty mountain.
Daisy like flower.
Fireweed.
A different looking paintbrush.
Lots of it.
Hill above. I think it is Greeley Hill, but I am not 100% sure.
Daisy like flowers.
Fireweed.
Paintbrush.
Another short side trail to see the gully at the 3rd switchback.
The gully. I can’t bring myself to get much closer to the edge. I've mentioned I don't do heights.
The next switchback.
The microwave tower across the way again.
Pretty forest, Grizzly Gulch on the left.
Nice mix of flowers.
Fireweed.
The hill above.
Thinner trail.
View down.
Mixed flowers.
The weird tunnels again.
Another thin overgrown section, on the 4th switchback.
Lots of cars heading up the Summer Road.
Paintbrush.
Continuing up to the 5th switchback.
With another view into the deep gully, with a waterfall! After last time, I suspected there was a waterfall. This looks like it is a bit bigger than I anticipated though.
Some asters.
Paintbrush.
View down.
Quickly switched back again. Lets see, this is #5.
The top of the snake pit. Woo. This would be the 6th switchback.
With a better view of the waterfall. Wow! I was not expecting that!
Again.
The scary part of the trail. When we did it from the other direction last time I made it to about where the trees are on the left before I went, nope!
This is about where I am saying nope again lol. But hey, I am glad we have done it from both ends now. I am stoked we got to see an unexpected epic waterfall too! Wow! So, we have done all of it except for about 100 feet or so.
Deer friend.
Deer don’t give a crap about heights. LOL.
The waterfall again.
The top of the snake pit with a family coming across it. Yep, big nope from me. Maybe if they widened it? But I am not sure how that could be done without causing more issues.
The waterfall again.
I didn’t get a picture, but there is a nice bench to relax and take the view in on.
This is Little Cottonwood Creek tumbling into the gully.
This was about as close to the edge I was willing to get, and I didn’t particularly like it.
One last shot before we decided to head on back.
Daisy like flowers.
Mixed flowers.
The lower viewpoint.
Paintbrush.
Heading back down.
Lovely mix of flowers.
View down.
Sulphur weed.
I think this is the lowest switchback, with a view of the gully.
Fireweed.
Paintbrush.
The hill above.
Heading down.
Forest.
Paintbrush.
Daisy like flower.
The bottom switchback.
Lupine.
Forest.
Paintbrush.
Penstemon.
Larkspur.
Fireweed.
The weird tubes.
The hill above.
Fireweed.
Closer.
Squirrel!
Continuing along.
The little valley below.
Paintbrush.
It took me a minute to work out that this is the top of the transfer tow. At first I thought it was a big bell or something.
Forest.
Twinberry honeysuckle.
Lots of lupine.
Forest.
Western coneflowers.
Down to the bottom. From here you can either continue down the Lower Albion Meadows Trail, or switch over to the Transfer Tow road to whichever trailhead you started at. We opted to continue down the Lower Albion Meadows, but I made that a separate post.
Well that was fun! I am glad we decided to add it on today. The waterfall was a lot more exciting than I thought it was going to be. The wildflowers are popping, the forest is pretty. It also wasn’t very busy, which is always a plus. I am going to take a squirrel just for the scary part I cant get through, 9 out of 10 squirrels.
As for difficulty, it was a pretty mild climb. DR3.
Dogs are not allowed in Little Cottonwood Canyon so be sure to leave Fido home for this one.
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