Lisa Falls

 Lisa Falls is a neat Waterfall located in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The trail features some nice views, a creek, and of course the neat waterfall flowing down a granite cliff. It is a very short trail, and I generally treat it as an add on trail. Today, however I am recovering from some kind of flu like thing so I didn’t want to push it. However between the Oktoberfest Traffic and a car fire in the canyon this ended up being more of a pain in the butt than it was worth today. 

Quick Details:

Length: it is only about .11 miles one way. With a little bit of exploring we topped out at .27 out and back. Super short.
Trail Type: Out and back.
Difficulty: DR3. Its a bit of a climb, but it is super short.
Elevation Gain: About 80 feet.
Restroom: No. Closest one I can think of is at the Red Pine Lake Trailhead, or down canyon at the Grit Mill Trail, or mouth of the canyon parking.
Dogs? No. Little Cottonwood Canyon is watershed.
Other Info:

To Get Here:

From the mouth of the canyon (where the 2 roads combine) head about 2.8 miles up the canyon. The trailhead is on the left. You can park on the right, but that will require a scramble across the busy canyon road.

Entering the canyon (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).

They have decided to suspend the construction projects during holidays and weekends (PSP). Now we’ll just see if they start it up again before we are done for the day like Big Cottonwood did last week.

This little waterfall is starting to dry up (PSP).

We got stuck in a stoppage (PSP). I thought it might be another construction project but it ended up being a car fire.

The roadside sunflowers are starting to go nuts (PSP)!

I still haven’t figured out what waterfall this is (PSP).

Avalanche damage (PSP).

My original plan was to drive around Tanners Flat Campground and see the avalanche damage, but apparently you have to pay a day use fee, even if you don’t plan on stopping. There was even a big sign say ANY use is day use. I still think we should have been able to just drive around, but Landis was not convinced. I am guessing there were some incidents that created this rule, cause too many humans have main character syndrome. So we turned back towards our main destination.

It appears they got the burned car off the road (PSP). Traffic was slow going, but at least it was moving.

It did allow me to enjoy one of my favorite views more (PSP).

Loads of roadside sunflowers (PSP).

The Trail:

View across the canyon from the parking lot.

The trailhead. This is one of those trails that doesn’t have any signs or kiosks, but it is pretty easy to find.

It is a little steeper in the beginning than I remembered.

Daisy-like flowers.

This creek bed is dry. Don’t let that deter you, avalanches have redirected the outflow. Although we have seen it flowing once.

This looks like fresh avalanche damage, as in from last winter.

More debris.

More debris. The trail is popular enough that, even though it is faint in some spots, you can still make it out.

Final push.

First view of the falls.

It’s a cool waterfall seeing as its just flowing down a steep granite cliff.

Coming out of a narrow canyon.

View down.

View across the canyon.

The falls again.

With the canyon again.

Longer exposure.

View across the canyon again.

Crazy rock climbers near the top. That’s a big nope from me.

General courtesy tip; Don't set up camp in front of the pretty natural feature. It's totally awesome to get in next to it to get a picture, but try not to dawdle there either (looking at you Instagrammers). Other people want to see it, get a picture with it. Of course if you find yourself alone with it, do whatever you want, but just pay attention to see if other people arrive.

As you can see I managed to get a few shots creatively working around this family but they spent the entire 20 minutes we were up there (and who knows how much longer) RIGHT HERE. I think that is rude. 

I also want to mention this particular family several times gave me dirty looks like "what are you looking at" and I am just like, The pretty waterfall you jerks are blocking! Grumble grumble grumble.

Anyway, time to head on back.

Heading back down.

Avalanche damage.

View across the canyon again.

The narrow gully.

Dry creek bed.

Lizard! Man they move fast.

The view across the canyon again.

The dry creek bed again.

View up canyon from the trailhead.

Sunflower.

A bunch of them as we head back down (PSP).

Hooray they did not turn the traffic signal on yet (PSP).

Nearing the mouth of the canyon (PSP).

Well, that was an alright adventure. Like I said, I normally do this as an add on. However, I am glad I didn't do much more as this short little adventure took it out of me today. This is a great short and easy trail to see a neat waterfall, but I have learned that the short easy trails to waterfalls you experience a lot of people with main character syndrome or who have no concern other people might want to view the falls without them being in the shot. Sigh. 8 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, it is a bit of a climb, but it is short. DR3.

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

Comet NEOWISE From Antelope Island

Comet NEOWISE is a particularly showy and bright comet. I tried to view it in my neighborhood, but there are just too many trees. So I started looking at nearby parks to see if we could see it from there when I suddenly remembered Antelope Island is Internationally Dark Skies Certified! I figured if there was anywhere I could see it, it would be there. So, middle of the night I just booked us a campsite for us to get a glimpse of it. It was a little dicey at first, but ultimately I did get to view it so, not a total waste.

We have come out to the island for star parties a couple times once or twice and I have gotten some cool pictures of the milky way from here so, yeah. It’s dark.

If you are here for the comet and don't care for sunset pics, you can skip ahead here.



On the way across the causeway we were greeted with the beginning of a nice sunset (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)). But, is that smoke? Uh oh. That doesn’t look good.



Eek. Not good at all (PSP).



Weird shores on the Great Salt Lake (PSP).





More sunset (PSP).



With the marina (PSP).



Saw some deer on the way in (PSP).



When we reached our campsite we decided to enjoy the sunset.



Looking towards Freemont Island.



With a sunflower.



Great sunset. This appears to be a great spot to enjoy the sunset as we got to experience another amazing one doing the Lakeside Trail from here. BTW, you can no longer start that trail from here, unless you are camping here.



I was really starting to worry the smoke was in the way of what we came out here for.



Then, poof! There it was.Well, not really. I made some adjustments to my camera and was able to finally catch it.



Once I found it with a long exposure image, we were able to locate it with binoculars. And as it got darker and darker, eventually we could just barely make it out with our naked eyes.



I like the way this one came out.



Did you know this comet has ties to Utah? The telescope that discovered it was built here in Utah back in 2006 and was called W.I.S.E. which stands for Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. In 2013 it was repurposed and renamed N.E.O.W.I.S.E. for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Basically it was repurposed to identify any objects that might impact Earth. On March 27, 2020 N.E.O.W.I.S.E. discovered comet NEOWISE (I didn’t realize it was that recent). Neat!



This is definitely cooler than Comet PAN-STARRS.



This appears to be the shot of the night. It appears to be the only one that I caught the secondary tail.



Here is a better shot of it over the Great Salt Lake.

We uh.. had some equipment issues so we didn’t end up staying the night. But, I got what I came for. I just wanted to see the comet! and I am thrilled I got a couple pretty good pictures of it. Definitely worth the trip out!