Random Rambler: Twin Lakes

Twin Lakes is a beautiful and pretty big reservoir near the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. The trail features 2 lakes, a pretty mixed forest, wildflowers, wildlife, and an excellent view. They have been doing construction on this trail all last year so, we didn’t get to visit it last year at all. So, I decided we should do it on our extra day off of work. It was one of the trails we tend to do often.

So, due to the work they were doing last year they “enhanced” the service road (which is most of the trail). I seriously don’t know how this happened, but they managed to make the already quite steep trail even steeper!

Twin Lakes

Silver Lake from above.

Quick Details:

Length: It is about 3 miles out and back (including the 4/10's of a mile (one way) walking along Silver Lake). With some extra exploring we did 3.12.
Trail Type: Out and back. Longer loop option.
Difficulty: Oh. My. God. Super Steep. Bumping up to a DR5.
Elevation Gain: About 750 feet.
Restroom: Yes, a couple options at the trailhead.
Dogs? No. Big Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info: Fee area. $10.00 day use fee.

To Get Here:

Drive to the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon, when you hit the Brighton Loop Road you will see the turn off for the Solitude Nordic Center on the right. Park. There is additional parking across the street. If both lots are full there is additional parking up at the main Brighton Parking Lot. That will add a little extra walking though.

One there you will walk to the far northeast corner to the back country trailhead. Shortest route will be right from the Visitor Center, or counter clockwise.

Heading towards the mountains (PSP).

Heading up Big Cottonwood Canyon (PSP).

More canyon (PSP).

The fancy new Brighton sign (PSP). They only just incorporated back in 2020.

It is so pretty up here (PSP).

Oh snap! I managed to confirm the Solitude clock tower only has 3 faces (PSP). I guess with the way it is situated there isn’t a need for a 4th.

Approaching the main loop (PSP) With Mount Tuscarora and Mount Millicent above.

The Trail:

The welcome sign.

I love this little sign above it.

The opening boardwalk around Silver Lake. I generally prefer to go to the right, counter-clockwise. It also happens to be the shortest route to the backcountry trails.

Lots of little purple flowers of some sort.

The unnamed peak. If you look towards the center, that is a scree-field we we walk across on the way up.

The new boardwalk. You can still make out the scar of the old boardwalk to the left, but it looks like it is filling in.

Closer view of the purple flowers. Google suggests a blue hyssop.

Beaver dam.

More hyssop.

The boardwalk and the old boardwalk scar again.

Fun skies.

Beaver lodge.

The bridge/dock over the outlet.

Little rest area.

The dock/bridge again.

Oh hello there! A moosey friend.

Again.

Looking back at the dock.

The moose again.

Such a handsome boy!

Looking up.

The side of his face.

Silver Lake. I still have the telephoto lens on so its a bit zoomed in.

The back of his head.

Again.

From the side.

Again.

Alright, that was fun, but we had a hike to get to!

Wild rose.

Some asshats put a decoration on the dock here and thought that meant they owned it. I heard a little excuse me while I was taking pictures and realized they were back in the woods taking pictures of it. They are lucky they didn’t push it. I would have given them an ear full. I'm sorry, but you don't get to claim ownership of public space for any reason.

Mount Millicent and the unnamed peak above the lake.

The scree field we will be hiking through soonly.

Panoramic.

Duckies! And the dock/bridge.

Wild iris.

Continuing around.

Geraniums.

The lake again.

More roses. They are popping right now.

At about 4/10ths of a mile we reached the backcountry trailhead.

Trailhead kiosk.

Into the woods.

They dug this out to store equipment during the boardwalk renovation. Now it looks like they just store logs in it. I thought for sure they were going to put a building of some sort in here.

Columbines.

There are some really tall trees back here.

Geraniums.

4 Way split. Right is winter only. Forward leads to Lake Solitude (Also lovely). Left will take us to Twin Lakes.

Old sign.

Now we start the climb.

Yellow flowers.

Lots of them.

Better view.

Closer.

Google thinks they are showy goldeneyes.

Rose.

More goldeneyes.

Different colored rose.

This one looks different.

Some kind of mint.

Forest.

Large fallen tree.

At first I thought these were stumps, but eventually realized they are just slices of the one fallen tree.

Inside the main tree.

Aspens.

I always marvel at this tree. It looks like it was damaged at some point and one of the branches took over as the leader branch.

Continuing up.

You can see Silver Lake through the trees.

Pretty forest.

Pretty purple flowers.

What in the world are these?

Oh! It is a spotted coralroot. A type of wild orchid! Dang, I wish I realized it sooner. It’s pretty.

Super rocky here.

Some kind of mint.

Bluebells.

Pretty yellow flowers.

Bumblebee.

What is going on here?

Ohhh, I guess with the snowmaker project they were doing last year they widened the access road, shoving a bunch of dirt and rocks down. Guess that makes sense that the trail was closed.

A deep purple mint.

Last push to the service road.

Yep, the access road looks wider.

I think I will share a couple before pictures from 2024 for comparison. They will be slightly smaller.

The other direction heading down towards Solitude. Now that I think about it, I noticed the access road was wider last time we did Lake Solitude.

This scree field is an excellent spot to spot a pika, and sometimes even a marmot.

Here is a pika now.

One of the pika haypiles. They do not hibernate so they gather food to store in these haypiles for winter.

Pulled out the telephoto lens to see them better. This one appears to be acting as the “look out” right now.

I love watching them hop around the rocks.

Look how cute she is!

The other one again.

The look out again.

Again.

I just love the little face.

This one has a different coat.

Again.

Being a lookout.

So cute.

Silver Lake below.

Silver Lake again. This is one of my absolute favorite views ever.

Panoramic.

Another.

Again.

Another panoramic.

Scott Hill and the road up to Guardsman Pass, which is on the right there.

Continuing up.

Silver Lake again.

The side has come down after they widened the access road.

Wallflowers.

Carpenter ant.

Continuing up.

Here we get a short break before the intense climb starts. They really made a mess of this.

2024.

Lupine.

The “enhanced” service road. I thought hey, they just redid it, it’s got to be better, right? hahaha no.

Rocks pushed off the road. I will give it that, it is a LOT less rocky.

This trail has always been steep, but holy crap, I swear they somehow made it even more steep.

Run off channel.

Ermahgawd.

This part was probably the worst. There used to be a large boulder here. Instead of blasting it away it appears that they just added more dirt. So I think that explains why it seems more steep than it used to be.

Looking back down.

I noticed a faint path to the left that looked like it might go to the side of the boulder.

Oh. They pushed more boulders onto the old trail. I suppose you might be able to scramble over them.

Here is what it used to looked like from 2024.

We used the drainage channel as a switchback. That worked out pretty well. I am pretty sure we were not the first to do it.

Another short flat spot before the next big climb. Oh boy. Quick break here. Unfortunately, there are no longer any boulders to sit on!

2024.

Lots of paintbrush and mint.

Lots of paintbrush.

Penstemon, mint, and paintbrush.

Lots of paintbrush.

Back to the climb.

2024. There used to be an easier alternate trail to the side, it is mostly gone now.

Looking back down.

Yellow flowers and boulders.

Another short break from the climb.

Forest off to the side.

Boulders on the side. Like I said, the road is a lot less rocky. But, it is more steep, and it is a lot more ugly. Hopefully in a few years the latter improves a bit.

Hill and cliffs.

Another steep part. Oh boy.

Then I noticed the old road, and that looked like the better option now. Spoiler, it was not. I would stay to the right here if I did it again.

This used to be the better route. But.. holy crap what have they done here?

2024.

Over to the old road.

Pretty blue penstemon.

First to bloom.

Closer.

Lupine.

More.

Closer.

Some penstemon and some white things.

The old road is definitely very rocky! But uhm… looking at the new road section here, that looks about as rocky as here.

Sulphur flower.

Uh oh… I may have chosen poorly.

Mount Millicent above.

Well crap. The project they did just obliterated the old road.

We decided to take another break while we figured out our next move. Seriously though, why did they have to tear up such a wide scar?

At least there were a couple nice boulders to sit on here.

These are cute! It took us a minute to realize they must be young Sulphur flowers.

Alright. Now to get over this dirt mound. I can see a little path worked into it, and that seems reasonable so I followed that.

The top Phew! I did not particularly like that bit. But, I think I found a better way when we went down.

Scott Hill on the other side of the canyon.

Mount Millicent.

New water control gate thingy? That came with the new snowmaker infrastructure.

Twin Lakes outlet flowing into it.

Little pond above it.

Mount Millicent.

More Sulphur flowers.

Red and black ant.

Bluebells.

Paintbrush.

Closer.

The last push. Ooph.

2024.

It is rocky.

The dam.

Lots of penstemon.

Closer.

View across the canyon.

Sulphur flower. This confirms the little red ones we saw earlier are this.

The dam again.

We made it! Hooray!

2024. Not related to the construction but the lake was wayyy lower that year. Or maybe it was related to the construction?

The dam with Mount Millicent above.

Twin Lakes.

Again. It is called Twin Lakes because before they built the dam it was a pair of small lakes.

The dam again.

The view across the canyon.

More yellow flowers.

Some sort of utility shed.

The lake again.

These aspen leaves are covered in galls.

Closer.

More. Google says they are a mite.

This scree pile is another good spot for pikas

Speaking of, hello there!

Gathering some grass.

Then the mad dash back to the scree. Man they are fast!

I love watching them gather food.

Into the scree.

Scree field.

I did put the telephoto lens in, but then all the pikas decided to hide haha. So I switched back to the regular lens.

The lake through the trees.

The lake again.

Mount Millicent, Mount Tuscarora, and Mount Wolverine.

Panoramic.

You can see the fish in the water.

Another panoramic.

There is still some snow back there.

Mount Millicent, Mount Tuscarora, and Mount Wolverine.

I’m not sure what this last peak is.

More fish.

One last look before we head back.

The back of the dam.

Neat old stump.

The utility shed again.

The overflow drain.

Penstemon.

Cliffs above.

The front of the dam.

Heading down.

Paintbrush.

The new control valve.

2024. Not the same angle, but you can see the difference.

Mount Millicent.

The outlet.

With the extra pond thingy.

The other side of the road looks like it might be the better option to get down so we went that way.

It was totally the better option haha. Well, now I know if I ever come back.

Continuing down.

Forest.

Cliffs.

View across the canyon.

Again.

Hitting the really steep part.

The 1 switchback. This part could use a couple more.

Little hump.

Then practically straight down.

Heading up is super hard and steals your breath. Down isn’t much better and is rough on the knees. Also, as much as I dislike rocky trails, they do add steps and grip. I felt like I might slip and slide down this dirt hill at any given moment.

Squirrel!

Forest.

Resort area boundary.

Down to the less steep area. Phew!

Pretty hillside.

Some boulders they pushed to the side.

And some dirt.

Water damage. It makes me wonder how long the trail is going to be smooth like it is now.

Continuing down.

Almost down to the scree field.

Silver Lake below.

Pika.

Silver Lake again.

Closer. It is as smooth as glass right now.

Panoramic.

Again.

Closer.

Scree field.

Pika.

Right after the scree field look for the smaller trail to the right. The service road will eventually take you to Solitude, but uh.. I am not sure how long it is.

The thinner trail.

Forest.

Mint.

Forest.

The neat damaged pine again.

Remains of an old structure.

Old pipe.

Fallen tree.

Yellow flowers.

Closer.

Lots of them.

White flower.

Rose.

Lots of the yellow flowers.

Deer friend. She’s a biggun.

Little paintbrush.

Down to the 4 way split. You want to go right.

More forest.

looking up.

Back down to Silver Lake. Usually I would just go ahead and complete the loop around the lake, but, we wanted to see if the moose was still there (he wasn’t). Plus we just did it a few weeks ago.

Silver Lake.

Iris.

The little dock again.

Wow. The lake is a perfect mirror right now.

Panoramic.

The dock again. I don’t think I have caught it without people before.

The bridge/dock over the outlet.

The unnamed peak above Silver Lake.

The scree field we hiked through.

Mount Millicent.

The outlet with a beaver lodge.

Closer view of the beaver lodge.

The end of the dock.

The boardwalk.

Duck with ducklings in this little pond.

Lots of the purple flowers.

Back to the beginning.

More iris's

Again.

Swallows in their nests.

The Visitor Center.

The Brighton Store and Café (PSP).

The Brighton Resort (PSP).

Heading down the canyon (PSP).

Deer (PSP).

Storm Mountain (PSP).

Ooph. It is hazy today (PSP).

Not a bad sunset (PSP).

The trail.

Well, HO. LEE. CRAP!!! That trail is rough! I thought that enhancing the access road for the equipment would make it better, and I guess it is less rocky, but it seems so much more steep! The lake is beautiful though, and I still enjoy my view above Silver Lake, and all the pikas. But yeah, I am going to take 2 for how rough it is. 8 squirrels.