28 August 2005:
Lake Blanche, 8926 feet/2720 meters above the sea levelBig Cottonwood Canyon, Utah (18 mi./29 km. from home)
The fact that this isn't our first hike up to Lake Blanche, the hike today was much different than the hike in May 2004. The difference is that of the weather and the fact that the snowcap has melt away since a month. In May, one was to encounter hiking on a snowcap and risk traversing regions riddled with snow bridges and slippery areas. The hike today was much different. The weather today was quite sunny and warm. There were no way to escape the hot weather except to walk under the covers of the trees alongside the trail.
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The trailhead starts south of the parking lot, just beyond the restroom facilities. One is to follow uphill against the stream for about 0.4 km before finding a trailhead sign with information on the region and the trail. The start of the trailhead is quite rocky, and goes up this steep incline until one comes to a bridge over the stream. There is a bench at the western edge, where one can rest. However, we continued across the bridge up a small serie of switchbacks before when the trail starts to straighten uphill. The incline is steep but not too bad like the beginning of the trail. On the both sides of the trail, there are a lot of wild plants such as wild mint, western coneflowers, penstemons, ferns, etc... At this time of the year, we were well past the peaktime for the wildflowers, as a lot of the flowers were drying up or dying.
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Since the weather was quite hot, and the incline climbed quite steady, it was necessary for us to stop a few times along the trail to gather our breaths and to drink our supply of ice-cold water. We sat under the aspen groves which the trail goes through, and it was easy to admire the strength of the aspen trees. Seeing that there were quite a bit of graffiti on the trunks of the aspen trees, we could notice that the trees have lived there way before the 1950s when these graffitis were scribbled. It was a nice reminder of how long these trees live.
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One could begin to see the destination from the midway of the trail, the Sundial Peak which towers right over Lake Blanche. As we continued up the trail, we were trailing along with two young men. They also stopped a few times to recollect their energies. At one point, Kim and I stopped and we saw this eldery couple coming down the trail. They had to be in their 70s, but they certainly seemed quite healthy and moving with ease. The guy joked with us, saying that if an old couple like them can make it then we can definitely make it. Heh heh! They were quite nice and friendly.
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At this point, the trail started steeping up again, along with some large boulders on the trail. We had to go up this serie of switchbacks, which eventually approached this large talus field. We were almost not sure where to go, however Kim found the trail. We continued on the trail and it wasn't long before when we arrived at the area of large rocky hills sculptured by glaciers and such.
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As we walked across the rocky hills, we could not help but to admire the rock formations there. We arrived upon the lake at last, and it was quite scenic at the lake. The two guys who passed us on the trail already arrived and were resting on one rock on the side of the lake. It was so easy to admire the peaks surrounding Lake Blanche, most particularly the peaks of Sundial Peak and also these of Mount Superior and Monte Cristo in the background. I was curious about the two other lakes in the area, Lake Florence and Lillian, so I decided to continue following the trail to the northwest along the edge of the lake.
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The trail continued winding through some awesome rock formations towards the two lakes to the west of Lake Blanche. The two lakes are surrounded by the majestic peaks of Dromendary Peak and Twin Peaks. One could notice that the water from Lake Blanche was falling down in a steady waterfall towards Lake Florence, which also eventually fell in this raging stream towards Lake Lillian. Par consequence, the water from this area flows down the incline towards Big Cottonwood Canyon Road via Mill B Creek. It was overall a very scenic and pleasant hike, and we made our way back down without any problem.
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