Red Lake Hike

Elisa and I went on an afternoon hike last week. I went online and quickly found a hike that was short enough to complete so that I could get home in time to cook dinner and we were off. The hike I picked was the Red Lake Trail. To get there, you enter Nebo Loop from 600 East in Payson in Utah County. Go in Nebo Loop about 6.5 miles, pass Maple Dell, keep going and look for the sign (in the pic below) on the right, then turn right at the next road.

Go up the road and pass the campground by choosing the road to the right in the photo below.

The one website I looked at before leaving didn't mention that there was a day use fee of $7. Luckily, I had money with me. Stop when you see this and fill out the form, putting the money in the envelope and hanging the hang tag in your car, or you could get a $175 fine.

Just past this, the road splits again. This time choose the left road that has the post for 183 seen below. I'm giving step-by-step directions because so many times I've looked online for directions and then haven't been able to find the trail, so hopefully this helps someone.

Go forward a short distance and there are parking spaces near restrooms and the road ends. There is a trail to the left of the restrooms and another to the right. There is the trailhead marker below at the path on the left, and the website said to go the left of the restrooms, so we went there.

Well, as soon as we walked just a few steps onto this trail, it split again and we weren't sure which way to go.

Since the path going straight looked more used, we chose that one, but weren't sure it was the right one to get to Red Lake. I liked the parts of the trail that were covered by trees. Cool and green. Some of the path is a little narrow and on the edge, so it scared Elisa, especially the parts that went downhill. She went very, very slowly on those parts. They aren't bad really because there are lots of trees that would stop a fall or roll down. The trail has some downhill parts, but most of it is uphill. Not too steep or strenuous.

The trail is 1.75 miles to the lake from the trailhead, but it felt longer to us and we weren't sure if we were ever going to see a lake or if we chose the wrong path at the beginning. The trail goes down to this stream that you cross across this flat log so you don't even get your feet wet.

 

 

 

There is this clearing with several tree stumps. Then we came upon this rusty, crumpled up part of a pickup truck off to the side of the trail. If you see that, you know you're on your way and not too much longer. I forgot to time how long it took us though.

Finally, we saw water. Really, it looks more like a swamp than a lake to me, but we were glad we made it. I'm not sure why it's called Red Lake.

 

 

After walking around the lake for a while and snapping some pics, we headed back. When we were close to the end of the trail, we saw little glimpses of water off to the left. I noticed it on the way up, but thought the trail would loop around to it and it didn't. So we followed a little trail down to see what was hiding there. We found Maple Lake, a clear, pretty, but smallish lake. If you want to go straight to Maple Lake, take the very short trail on the right side of the restrooms. There are several picnic tables and benches around that lake.

 

 

 

 

Whether you want to enjoy an easy picnic at Maple Lake or a bit of a hike to sit Red Lake, it's worth a visit. 

Bell Canyon Waterfall

Since Alex went to Lagoon (Utah's amusement park) last week with marching band and once with the junior high, Robin took the girls there on Saturday. I wanted to find something fun and free to do with Alex while they were gone for the day so I found a hike online and we drove up to Sandy to the trailhead near Little Cottonwood Canyon. I didn't do a lot of research on the hike before we left that morning. It said it was a 4 mile hike and I thought, "How hard could it be since it's that short?" I had no idea! It started out with these easy steps and we soon crossed a little bridge over this stream. Just fine so far.

About half a mile in, we arrived at this resevoir. That wasn't bad at all.

You can see downtown Salt Lake from up there. Can you see it?

We need to get some hiking clothes! We were so hot. Alex is also begging for us to buy CamelBaks for our next hike. We definitely didn't take enough water.

This was the trail for a little while, shaded and easy. Sooooooo deceptive. You can't even tell what lies ahead.

The trail was up, up, up and up on these big rocks for more than an hour.

That's actually the trail that Alex is on in the picture below. Besides the elevation change, the big rocks made it a workout. The review that I did read before we started off for the day said it was a strenuous hike. Strenuous? It was so difficult even with resting on the rocks here and there.

Alex told me about half way up that he couldn't make it and he wanted to go back. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to make him go if he really couldn't or didn't want to, but I wanted to make it to the first waterfall. I asked if he'd try a little longer and he said he would. Shortly after, he got a second wind and said he felt great. That's when I started feeling it. I could hear my heart beating in my ears. Alex kept saying, "Let's just go back, Mom. You don't have to kill yourself." On the way up in the car, we listened to the CD "I Can Do Hard Things" by John Hilton III (an LDS youth speaker), so I kept telling Alex, "I'm not giving up. I can do hard things." The trail to the waterfall is not marked so I stopped a few people who were coming down for tips on how to find it. Then a few others who passed us volunteered similar clues. I would have been so sad to go that far up and pass right by it. Finally we got there!

After climbing up and up, when you can see the waterfall, you have to climb down to actually get to it. That climb was a little more precarious than it looks. The beautiful waterfall with the sprays of water and cool breeze made the whole journey up worth it! We didn't want to leave.

I was sweaty and tired, but happy to be there.

Here is Alex, very happy to feel the cool spray. Then he turned around and slipped on the wet, slippery rock and scratched up his arm and leg. Luckily it wasn't bad and he was able to climb back up to the trail and down to the parking lot.

Here's the view from up there.

Of course, our trip down was so much easier, although my feet hurt from maneuvering on the rocks and I lost my footing and skidded down several times. Once we got to the car, we headed off for dinner. We worked up an appetite! Not surprisingly (if you know him), Alex chose Japanese food.

Alex ordered the cheesecake for dessert. He didn't know it, but it had green apple-flavored syrup on it. He said it was okay, but he would have prefered it plain. It's pretty though! I didn't get a dessert. I didn't want to pack back on all the calories I had just burned.