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This is the first hike Alene and I have done as a married couple. We've been really busy with school and work and took some time to do this nice little day hike up to Lake Blanche. I'm terribly out of hiking shape, having not been much of a hiker before, so I had to adapt.
This hike starts at the Mill B trailhead up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Mill B is right at the tight S-curve in the canyon. Being that it was spring time the water was running pretty fast and it was nice to get away from the warmer weather in the valley with the cool water nearby.
The trail is about 6.5 miles round trip and gains 2700' of elevation and can be considered somewhat strenuous, especially to people out of shape like me, or also in our situation, the last 1/3rd of the trail is covered in snow.
We made decent time up to the top, but didn't expect so much snow. We were able to find some dry areas to sit and relax and have some lunch, then we hung around a bit checking out the broken dam and a bit below it at Lake Florence and Lake Lillian, then we headed back down the trail and back home.
Me, on the way up with my weapon(s) of choice
About 2/3 of the way up we started seeing a lot of snow and a lot of run-off
Sign is getting un-burried
Lake Blanche still had a lot of ice on it. Sundial Peak in the background
I stood on the broken dam
The other two smaller lakes below, Lake Florence and Lake Lillian
Looking back at Big Cottonwood Canyon
The glacier marked red rocks up here looked cool
Alene and I
Water was cascading off rocks all over the place
My hot wife. She's so beautiful
You can see parts of the Salt Lake Valley from the trail
On our way down we stopped and checked out this fast flowing creek
Looking back at what we came from
One side note about this trip. Alene took a nice fall on her way down and really bloodied up her knee. For a second there I was thinking I'd have to carry her down the mountain, but she walked through the pain. When we got home we checked it out and figured it would heal up. The next day it was still bleeding so Alene ended up going to the Dr, who said she needed stitches. Her first real battle wound from the trail.
This hike was so beautiful. It's so awesome to know it's literally a 15 minute drive up the canyon from the busy salt lake valley. We didn't see a single person on this hike.
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