Gloria Falls

 Gloria Falls is a stunning waterfall located in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The trail features a lovely mixed forest, pretty canyon views, wildflowers, a creek, and of course, the waterfall. The waterfall is quite large and has several tiers where it fans out a bit. It's quite pretty. The trailhead features 3 very popular trails, so the parking lot is almost always full. This is one of our favorite trails, so we tend to do it often.

This is now a fee area, $10.00 per car. I am not sure if they enforce it if you have to ark on the side of the road though so… use your own discretion. We have a year pass so, no worries for us.

Quick Details:

Length: About 3 miles out and back.
Trail Type: Out and back.
Difficulty: DR4. It is a long slog, with a steep part at the end.
Elevation Gain: About 700 feet.
Restroom: There are vault toilets at the trailhead.
Dogs? No. Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info: Fee area. $10.00 for a 3 day pass.

To Get Here:

Drive 5.3 miles up Little Cottonwood Canyon from where the North and South roads connect at the mouth of the canyon. The trailhead will be on the right. If you hit Snowbird, you went too far.

The canyon (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).

This waterfall is starting to dry up (PSP).

A modern self pay station. I guess the envelope drop box is slowly being replaced haha. But, according to the sign, they do still exist.

The Trail:

Old trailhead sign. I wonder how old it is.

Trail info.

And the old wooden sign.

Into the woods!

More pretty forest.

Thimbleberries.

Closer.

The bridge over Little Cottonwood Creek.

The lower kiosk, this is about a 10th of a mile down.

More thimbleberries.

Back to the bridge. I wonder how old this is.

Downstream Little Cottonwood Creek.

Upstream.

Oh look at this! They have fixed the extra bridge. See the board on the right there? You used to have to cross using that. This bridge was damaged during the epic 2022/23 winter.

Here is an image from 2024.

The creek again. During run off it swells and flows over this area, which is why the additional bridge was put in.

Now we start the climb.

Ooph. I forgot how rocky this trail is.

Daisy like flowers.

Geraniums.

The first little side stream crossing. It’s barely a trickle right now.

Some monkshood and fireweeds.

Avalanche damage.

This ivy is completely taking over this little bit.

Continuing up.

Chipmunk.

Big patch of fireweeds.

The canyon below.

Fireweeds.

Big patches. They are super happy here.

View across the canyon.

Thimbleberry leaves.

Cute little bumblebee on some mint.

Lots of mint.

2nd little side stream.

This one has an itty bitty little grotto.

Purple monkey flowers.

Closer.

More daisy like flowers.

Mountain ash.

Continuing up.

View across the canyon.

Aspens.

Random little side trail. I suspect it comes up from Tanners Flat? But I am not sure. But, I mean, I don’t know where else it could possibly go.

Lovely mixed forest.

3rd little side stream.

This one they put in a little culvert to go under the trail.

Across the canyon again.

Continuing up.

Fireweed.

Then the trail starts to curve into White Pine Fork.

Into White Pine Fork. With a view of White Baldy above.

The other side of the gulch.

Continuing the climb.

Pretty forest.

I think this is an arnica. But, I suck at identifying many petaled flowers.

White Pine Fork and Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Super short flatter section.

Then back to the climb.

View down into the gulch.

Continuing along.

This looks like an even older road. I am guessing probably the original route to White Pine Lake? I donno. It looks like it was abandoned long ago.

Squirrel!

Hello cutey.

Large tree.

Continuing up.

Up to the Red Pine Lake Junction. left will lead to White Pine Lake, which we have not done yet. Right will lead to Red Pine Lake and Gloria Falls.

Another trailhead kiosk. I have nothing to back this up, But I suspect people used to be able to drive up to this point, long, long long ago. But, I might be way off. It may have always been just a service road.

White Pine Fork.

The trail immediately switchbacks up behind the trail kiosk, and is a little bit more thin now.

Split rock.

The bridge over White Pine Fork.

Again.

Downstream.

Upstream.

Ok.. what the heck is happening here?

“Gloria Falls Trail ↑

Alternate route while trail crews build a new hiking trail. Please use caution around workers and stay out of construction zones.” 

Oh sweet! They are building a new trail! That will be nice. The original trails were both pretty steep. And one was a little too close to the edge of the gorge.

Monkshood.

It’s a little swampy through here, with another little side stream.

More monkshood.

A pair of small bridges through the swampy area.

More closed off area.

Up over some tree roots. This alternate trail is a little further back than I was expecting.

Oh wow. It looks like they are going all out with this project. Well, good. now that this is a fee area I am happy to see those fee dollars being used.

Ah, he we are. The alternate route to Gloria Falls to the left. Forward will take you to Red Pine Lake.

More helpful signs.

More swampy area.

Into the thick woods and up the steep hill.

The wood peckers like this tree.

This trail is quite a bit more thin through here.

They did a pretty good job corralling us on to the desired path.

Pretty forest.

More of the future trail.

Now we are on what I think is the new trail, but they are still working on it.

It looks like they are removing some trees.

I think this will be the final switchback when they are done.

Continuing along.

More tree removal.

Ah, now I see something familiar! This is the trail we used to prefer.

The new trail just cuts across it. This is an improvement, using that old trail it was kind of a guess as the when we needed to cut back over to the gorge.

Forest.

First glimpse!

Heading down into the gorge.

White Pine Fork below.

Almost there.

We made it! phew!

The bottom.

People for scale.

Moss.

The waterfall again.

The bottom.

Moss.

I’m just gonna get on my soapbox for a minute: Don’t be these assholes. We all hiked up here, we all want to take our pictures and enjoy the waterfall too. It is an absolute dick move to just park yourself dead ass center of it. Like, it’s better to just not do it, but if you must, take your selfy, video, whatever. No more than like a minute and a half. If you have the place to yourself, yeah, go nuts. But if there are other people and you linger, you’re just a selfish asshole.

I love when water just shoots out over the rocks.

Little pool below. Look how clear it is!

After what felt like forever the oblivious assholes finally left.

Slightly longer exposure.

There is quite a bit less water in it than previous years. But honestly, with how dry it has been, I am surprised it is flowing this much.

Downstream.

Alright, time to head on back.

Heading up out of the gorge.

Cute baby pines.

Continuing along the gorge.

Near the top of the gorge.

The creek.

With some paintbrush.

Then down the steep hill. The old way we liked to the right. Re-route to the left.

Between a pair of trees.

Lovely forest.

Some large trees.

Continuing down.

Uh oh! Looks like we might get rained on.

Monkshood.

Down to the swampy area.

Down to the main trail.

Little side stream.

Monkshood.

Down to the bridge over White Pine Fork.

Downstream.

Upstream.

Again.

Pretty flowers.

Forest.

Reminder to stay out of the water.

Back down to the junction. Right will take you up to White Pine Lake, left will get us back down to the trailhead.

Continuing down.

What I think was an old road that was since rerouted.

More moody clouds.

Continuing down.

A little stream below.

Thimbleberries.

View across the canyon.

Hollow tree.

Across the canyon again.

Continuing down.

Daisy like flowers.

The gulch.

Where the trail starts to go around the ridge from White Pine Gulch and back into Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Aspens.

Across the canyon.

Oh we can see Little Cottonwood Canyon Road below.

Continuing to curve into Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Pretty forest.

Thimbleberries.

Across the canyon.

There were some people playing with their remote controlled cars. At least they were being observant and did a variation of the Waynes World thing, calling out Hiker! so they knew to get out of the way when we, and other hikers approached. LOL.

I know this dates me, but listen you young whippersnappers, Waynes World is a god damn classic!

The 3rd little side stream.

Forest.

Mountain ash.

More forest.

Across the canyon again.

This fern is getting an early jump on autumn.

Fireweed.

The 2nd little side stream.

With the cute little grotto.

Purple monkey flowers.

Closer.

Across the canyon again.

Panoramic.

Up canyon.

Thimbleberries.

Cute little valley below.

Fireweed.

With a a view down.

View down.

Another panoramic.

Aspens.

Random pipe.

The big ivy patch.

Avalanche damage.

Down to the first side stream.

Fireweed.

Continuing down.

Daisy like flowers.

There used to be an interpretive sign here.

Hello there friend!

I am not sure if this is a simple trail counter, or a game camera. I am leaning towards the latter. I wasn’t able to get close enough to read the tags.

More forest.

The newly re-built bridge extension.

I found the the Tri Canyon Trails Plan (outside link) they planned to replace this bridge, possibly even move it. I am not sure if this satisfied that project, or is a temporary fix for the moment.

The old bridge you had to balance across LOL.

With the original bridge.

The bridges again.

Downstream.

The last little bit is back uphill to the parking lot. It’s really not so bad, but if you are not used to hiking it might suck a little bit.

Thimbleberries.

Aspens.

Final trail split. Both ways will get you back. Right leads back to the parking lot and restrooms, left leads closer to the road. So it depends on where you parked and/or what you need at the moment.

Back to the parking lot.

The super old trailhead kiosk again.

The parking lot is still pretty full for how late it is getting. It looks later than it really is due to the dark clouds though.

You can’t turn left out of the parking lot, so we are heading up canyon a little bit to turn around at the first Snowbird gate (PSP).

Heading back down (PSP).

One of my favorite views (PSP).

With moody clouds (PSP).

Nearing the mouth of the canyon (PSP).

Little bit of a sunset (PSP).

More moody clouds (PSP).

Todays map.

That was fun! I really enjoy the waterfall, and I am glad to see my fee dollars at work improving the trail. It was kind of busy, but not too busy. The wildflowers are still going too. 9 out of 10 squirrels today.

As for difficulty, it is just a long constant climb, with a tougher slog at the end (currently). DR4.

Dogs are not allowed in Little Cottonwood Canyon, so be sure to leave Fido home for this one.