doughnut run

We got sort of a late start Sunday morning: sleeping in a little, walking the dog, squinting at the ucky inversion haze out the western-facing windows.  But when we checked the cameras off to the east, we decided to head for the canyons for a bit of a walk. 

First, however, we stopped for a late breakfast at the Cottonwood Heights Cafe, just around the corner from our apartment.  It was busy but we only had to wait a few minutes before a table opened up.  I had my regular diner breakfast - two eggs over medium, bacon and sourdough toast - and H had the "Athenian" omelet which was basically a Denver omelet with bacon.  Now, far be it from me to object to adding bacon to anything, but I'm not sure how that adds any Greek to the dish.

We headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon, intending to park at the Spruces campground and hike (or snowshoe) on whatever trails we found there.  But since we'd gotten such a late start the Spruces parking lot was full, so we went back down the canyon just a bit to the Mill D/Dog Lake trailhead and Jordan Pines campground parking lot.  There had been a ton of foot traffic so we left the snowshoes in the car and headed up the Doughnut (Donut) Falls trail.  This is a short (1.75 mi. one way) and mostly easy hike, wandering up through the evergreen forest and only getting steep right at the falls.  The falls - well, I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't that: the stream comes down the mountain and then plunges underground, splashing down inside a good-sized cave before continuing its way down the drainage.The entrance to the cave was rimmed with icicles and the cave roof was glazed with frost from spray from the waterfall.  Very pretty and I bet it's wicked impressive come springtime.

Since the hike to the falls was so short, we took a short side trip, following a connector trail between the Jordan Pines and Spruces campgrounds.  Again, not a strenuous walk, but pretty with the bright blue sky and bright sunshine peeking down through the trees (no inversion in the canyons!).   There's plenty of snow in the woods for snowshoeing and Nordic skiing - about two feet - it's just up on the ski slopes that it's scarce.  Luckily for us we have plenty of other outdoor options while we wait for the next big storm.